Mother in the Hospital, Boys in the Bathtub

I awoke this morning with a deep sense of doom, brought on by the extremely vivid dream I had just had about watching an airplane crash. In my dream, the crash happened where route 33 and Switchboard Road intersect; and the van I was traveling in with quite a few other people was heading east on 33, watching this enormous plane crash just to our left. It was headed to the country of Jordan; and oddly, all the passengers in my van (including myself) were driving to the airport to get on a flight to Russia, I believe. We don't normally have many international flights around here, but anything's possible in a dream. As we watched, this huge plane appeared to be stopped in the air; and as I wondered, "Can it DO that and stay up?", the answer was revealed as it crashed towards earth, tail first. There's nothing quite like watching someone die, if only in a dream, to set the mood for a new morning.

I wasn't a bit surprised to look out the window and see my parents' car gone. Usually at that time of day, Mom and Dad are sitting around their table, eating their breakfast of Cheerios, before Dad walks over to his office for another day of treating patients. But today, I thought with no sense of shock, "Well, Mom must be at the hospital."

Yesterday morning, she woke up with "intestinal disturbances," brought on by some sort of passing virus, we thought. Nothing serious. I wasn't worried about her.

Today, as I've found out later through phone calls from my dad, she woke up with severe upper abdominal pain so Dad decided the hospital was the best place for her; and he was planning to take her there himself until her blood pressure dropped, and he realized an ambulance ride was just what she needed. (Didn't I just mention how grateful I am for the rescue personnel in this town?) So off they went, Mom in the rescue squad, Dad in the car.

Despite my sense of doom that lingers, I'm still not really worried about her. She's having some blood tests done, and will have a CT scan in a little while. Dad thought it might be a gallbladder problem at first; but last I talked to him, he mentioned pancreatitis. In any case, they (nurses, doctors, Dad) are taking good care of her, and God's protecting arms stretch all the way into the corridors and rooms of RMH!

I'm sure Dad's cell phone will start ringing as my aunts read this blog and call to check in. For once, I became the "herald" of news--my dad's usual role!

To lighten the mood, I'm going to post a series of silly pictures. Jeff snapped these a week or two ago when I was gone one evening and he had all the boys in the bathtub. I'm not sure why Josiah had his hand up by his eye the whole time, but the part that makes me laugh every time I look at it is the way Tobin notices those funny things on David's face, then reaches out to grab the goggles. You've got to be careful when you're in range of Tobin's arms. You just might find your glasses yanked off your face, or your necklace bathing in the saliva of his mouth, or your teeth examined as his fingers pry your mouth open, or even your nose picked! :)

A merry heart doeth good like a medicine... - Proverbs 17:22