Why I am blessed

So I just got back from Disney World. It was wonderful and magical and I am going to write a blog about it. I am going to write a blog that is full of happy things and fun. This is not that blog.

This blog is about the very end of my trip. This blog is about stress and sad things. But it will be ok. Read on.

On what was to be our last day in the Disney parks, Trey woke up feeling sick and with a high fever. After texting the people we were supposed to be staying the last two nights of our trip with, to cancel, I found out that she (who is a nurse) had some advice and also some tamiflu. Really, Trey probably should have gone to the doctor. I mean, this was looking like swine flu. SWINE FLU! In DISNEY WORLD. Boo. Did I mention that Trey had left his insurance card at home? Trey left his insurance card at home. I called a walk in clinic (this was Sunday by the way) and found out it was going to cost almost $300 for him to just see the doctor, and that wasn't including medicine.

So I did the only thing I really could do: I called the front desk and booked another night at the hotel and set off to drive an hour and a half away to get medicine from our friends. By myself. In a car that has been acting up. Did I mention that my car has been acting up? My car has been acting up. The clutch is going out and the steering wheel was shaking like it was having seizures.

Ok. So I drive out to my friends house to meet her and get the medicine. After a tour of her (very cute) house, and a chat, I set out to bring healing medicine to my husband, feeling very Balto. And I'm driving and I'm driving and I'm thinking, "almost home! And then this mess will be over!" And suddenly, my car jerks and makes this weird noise like I blew a tire. ( I know what this is like because I have blown a tire before. Not fun.) I was like 20 miles from my exit so I pull over to check all my tires. After deciding that everything looked peachy-keen-jelly-bean, I got back in my car and headed off again. A few more miles down the road my steering wheel really started freaking out. It felt like it was going to shake right off the dashboard. If felt like it was going to shake my arms right off. It felt like I was trying to steer a charging bull. And then my car made this terrifying sound and I knew something was really wrong. So I pulled back over and discovered I had a very flat, very busted front right tire. Bummer. No, bummer doesn't do it. Bigger than bummer. Lucky me, at that point I was only a mile from my exit. So I called my father-in-law to let him know. And then I started to try and change my tire.

Now it's not like I don't know how to change a tire. My dad made me change the tires on my mom's car in the driveway until I could do it myself. And it's a darn good thing he did because I have had to do it 3 times now. By myself. Ya. The first time my parents were in Canada and I was 18 years old on my way to pick up my brother from school. That time, my mom called my ex boyfriend to come and help me and there was NO WAY I was about to let that happen so I fixed that tire myself and had it done by the time he got there. Take that! The second time I had just moved to Alabama and no one would come and help me because everyone was too busy. So I changed that sucker myself in a dark high school parking lot. A cop did show up eventually. His contribution? He shined his search light on the tire to "help me see." For some reason helping the tiny 19 year old girl change her tire in creepy parking lot never occured to him as a way to help. Odd. And the last time was this time. And ya know? I could have done it, probably, if I could have just got those dern lug nuts off. Those lug nuts are killer I tell you.

So while I was jacking up the car I got bit by an ant on my hand. Now this wouldn't seem like such a big deal right? I mean, it was even a tiny baby ant! No biggie! Except that I am apparently allergic to ants and my hand swelled up right away. When it rains it pours, internets.

And not one person stopped to ask if I was ok or help me or anything. What the heck, Florida? I guess southern hospitality doesn't reach down into the panhandle.

Soon after all that nonsense my father in law, thankfully, showed up. After that it was simple to change out the tire and head back to the hotel. The next day brought a dip into the emergency fund for new tires and a long drive back to Atlanta with my sick husband. We even decided to stay an extra day in Atlanta for both of us to try and recover (Trey, physically and me, emotionally.)

Now I'm sure that it seems like my title doesn't fit this post at all. "Why I am blessed"? But didn't you see it?

First of all, hello! I didn't get sick! Even after being with Trey constantly over the past few weeks I somehow didn't get sick. In fact, no one else got sick which is especially good for his pregnant sister. Then, if my friends hadn't had that medicine we would have had to spend who knows how much to take Trey to the doctor and get him medicine, all without insurance.

And the tire? Well, it could have blown much farther away from help than it did. If Trey hadn't gotten sick and I hadn't had to have gone to get medicine we might never have known that the tire was bad until we were halfway back to Atlanta with no place to stay and no one to help. If we had been in Disney World by ourselves no one would have been able to come help me because Trey would have been stuck, sick, back at the hotel. If we hadn't saved up an emergency fund we might have had no money for that extra night in the hotel or new tires for the car. Oh and by the way? After that tire blew my steering wheel stopped shaking. Apparently that tire had been wanting to blow for a couple of weeks.

I can't even fathom how much worse it could have been. God took such, SUCH good care of us. I am so in awe of how much He cares about us and of how He works everything out. So am I blessed? Heck ya I am! And all that extra driving gave me some time to think and get my head in the right place.

So now I'm back to the daily grind. And I'm not going to lie and say that it is easy or that I want to be here or that I'm happy about it. I got my head in the right place. I didn't get a lobotomy. But what I will say is this: God is totally going to take care of me. I know He will and He already has. And that is more freeing than I can describe.