Torn between two towns

I am torn between two towns. My sweet husband has been holding down the fort in North Carolina along with help from an amazing group of friends and family, while I have been living at the Ronald McDonald house and visiting Tyler and generally bugging the nurses for the last two weeks.

The nurses are amazing, patient and kind. The other parents have been such a blessing to me. They all have babies that came early, or need a little something extra, and each one of the parents I have come in contact with has blessed me. The same with the nurses and Doctors. I may not always like what they are telling me (like, Tyler has to stay longer) but they are taking care of his best interest…and I appreciate that.

While I have been gone, Christmas has come and gone, the New Year came in…and David and I have now been married 23 years. Sunday is Ron’s birthday. He will be 8. Can you believe that? I was having a hard time coming to grips with missing that. I missed the actual day that Walker turned 13 this year, and so missing another birthday was hard, but part of what mom’s sometimes have to do….

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Then, Thursday after my sweet sister and youngest niece left me to head home, one of the wise nurses at the hospital told me to go home to see my other kids for a while. (She was thinking a couple of weeks, I think) I cried and said okay. So I am now almost home…and will spend several days with everyone and then head back to our sweet little boy.

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Years ago, my friend Donna and I talked about how God stretches us. Like a rubber band sometimes at its breaking point, but that God is with us the whole time. And in control….this is stretching me. To that point.

I am not one to be away from my kids. I am not one to be away from David. I really don’t even like leaving my house because it is wonderful….and yet, I am reminded again and again of the picture of the Good Shepherd, who leaves his sheep safely at home to go out to find the one that got lost. It was dangerous, and sometimes does not make sense, but it is what the Good Shepherd does. And he does it with the knowledge that the ones safe at home will be okay, but for the lost sheep, it is life or death.

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between what the world sees and what the Good Shepherd sees.

And growing in my understanding that the Good Shepherd is watching over me as I travel back and forth to all my kids. I am learning that He is watching over them in ways that I cannot, and loves them in ways that I can not even fathom.

So, as I sit here in the airport between two towns, and take the time to write down some of my thoughts….I want to leave you with the picture of the Good Shepherd. He is taking care of you. He will go to the ends of the earth for you. So, going to another town for one of his kids….that is not really such a stretch after all.