Friday, December 28, 2012

The Reason I Bought My 8 Year Old Granddaughter A Razor

All my friends were horrified..you bought your 8 year old gdaughter a razor for Christmas!!!!  Let me explain and then you decide for yourself....it all started about 2 months ago.
#4: Nonna, can I shave my legs?
Me:  Aren't you a little young for that?
#4:  Hallie is shaving her legs.
Me:  What I don't know won't hurt me.
#4: Okay.
Me: Remember, if you Mama finds out you are on your own.
#4:  Okay.
Of course she can't hold water and she told her Mama.  And that conversation went something like this.
Daughter:  Did you tell #4 she could shave her legs?
Me:  No, not really, I didn't tell her she could shave her legs, I told her she was on her own.
Daughter:  But you let her shave them.
Me:  No not really....I told her she was kinda young to be shaving her legs.
Daughter:  I told her not to do it anymore...and if her Daddy finds out...and don't let her blah blah blah....
Me:  What I don't know won't hurt me..besides have you looked at her legs?  They are pretty hairy for an 8 year old..and little girls don't wear tights anymore.
To myself:  She was beyond excited about it..."feel my legs Nonna they are as soft as a baby's butt."  I went way way up on my Nonna points.  (The more Nonna points you have the longer you stay out of the Nursing Home.)
Later...
Me: What do you want me to get you for Christmas?
#4:  A razor and shaving cream.
Me: Okay, but you are on your own if you get in trouble.
Christmas Eve....
#4 opens up a gift to find a colorful zippered bag that holds a pink wet/dry shaver/shaving cream/lotion.  She is delighted.

Daughter glares at me....guest says you got #4 a razor!!!
Me to everybody within earshot:  Well let me explain, it's called pay back....pay back for the time daughter knocked the front end of my car out of line...the time when she was 16 and she asked could she have the check book to go and buy her an Easter outfit...and dumb me thought she would buy something sweet for Easter..imagine my surprise/horror when she comes prancing out of her Sunday School room into the church wearing tight black crop pants and high heels....Easter outfit indeed...I could have killed her.  And I won't even tell you about the time the College Dean called David at work........
Now then...you see what i mean about payback?

Sunday, December 16, 2012

Second Chances

I"m so thankful that there are always second chances in life.
I have no birth children.  But because of God's restoration, I have two children I got in my second marriage.
I first married when I was twenty eight. My husband had a four year old daughter.  She was with us on every weekend.  I was immature and jealous of her.  I felt like I was her mother's weekend babysitter.  Her mother didn't work, but I did and I resented spending my every other weekend off "baby sitting."  My husband and I never had a weekend off together to do things.  I tried to talk him into us having her some during the week and every other weekend, but that was a no-go.
So many other things made her and I resent each other.   We didn't really bond until she was about seven years old.
That said, I took her everywhere.  Everywhere but God's house.
A few months after we were married  my husband informed me "if you get pregnant, it  will be your baby, I won't help you."  He didn't want any more children.  That was the beginning of many selfish things he put me through.
I had to have a hysterectomy at age thirty eight and a few weeks later we were separated and then a few months later we were divorced.
I was devastated. No husband. No children and no hope of ever having any.
I prayer for God to restore me.
Then I prayed for God to restore me and find me a good husband.
Then I prayed for God to restore me, find me a good husband that had children.
God put David and me together.  He was raising two teenagers..alone.
Me + David + two children  = 7 seven grandchildren!!!
I did it in reverse, I got the teenagers first and the babies second.
What a blessing.
Second chances.
I'm trying not to mess this one up.
I take them to God's house.
Thank you Heavenly Father for second chances.
Six of seven of my wild monkeys..  :->

Tuesday, December 11, 2012

Costa Rica...And My Breaking

As you may remember my prayer for the people of Costa Rica was that God would break me for them...The first morning of clinic we got up very very early, launched from the motel, and headed to a remote village. Once again the drive was  interesting. 
 
 


We stopped in the middle of the road and let cattle go by us on either side, we crossed over a large fast flowing stream with a bridge made out of logs covered with dirt.  I aptly named it the mud bridge.  It had rained the night before and the roads were very muddy and rutty.  We saw iguanas sunning themselves...we saw workers in the pineapple fields, the further we went we saw fewer houses, yet when we drove up, there were around 200 people there waiting on us.
David said, where did all these people come from?  As I mentioned we were in a remote area with few houses and even fewer cars.  The preacher told us that the villagers had gotten up before dawn and walked for hours to get there.
The building that we used was their multi-purpose building...for church, for meetings for school assemblies. The principal had let school out that day so the children could have check-ups.  The building was made out of cinder blocks, had a tin roof and was open for about 3 feet between the cinder blocks and the roof.  This allowed the breeze to circulate, and for some reason  we were unable to use the large fans that were there.  The floor was beautiful ceramic tile.
We sat our clinic up in the shape of a stop sign.  We sat on the inside of the stop sign and had the patent's move around the outside.

The first station was registration, where we obtained their demographic information, took their vital signs and got a brief history and their chief complaint. 
From there they saw the physician, then were either seen by the nurse to have their ears washed out, collect a urine specimen, see the physical therapist or be fitted for a pair of reading glasses.
My station was the last one.  I dispensed their medicine. I gave all the children their first dose of antibiotic and had them to stay for about 30 minutes to make sure that they wouldn't have a reaction.
We dispensed thousands of pills.  Thousands.  David and Ronald became very good at reading the physician's hand writing and pulling the medicine for me.  I would double check the prescription and then dispense it.  We mixed so much Amoxicillin if we had been allergic to Penicillin we would be dead!!  I  marked the medicine cup with a sharpie so they the parents would give the correct amount.  Plus I made sure that they knew what signs and symptoms of an adverse reaction to look for.
Now all this said, you can see where our interpreters were very important.
Now for the breaking part. The only time we stopped was to eat lunch.  Around noon it began to get very hot.  I was guzzling water like there was no tomorrow, I poured water on my head and on my arms, I rubbed alcohol gel in my hair and on my arms to help cool myself off.  I poured water down the front and back of my shirt and on the legs of my pants. 
I went through 5 interpreters.  I noticed that they kept changing out, but I really didn't think a whole lot about it until James (10 years old) said "the interpreters said you are working like a machine."  I didn't realize what he meant at first, but it occurred to me that this old fat nurse was working those young kids in the ground!  God just kept strengthening me I guess.
 
Dr. Rushing's last prescription of the day.
That day we saw 500 patients.  500.

At the end of the day that beautiful tile floor was solid mud, we had dispensed thousands of pills, given out hundreds of toys, clothes, and Bibles, we had drank enough water to float a small boat, and we had shown the people of Costa that because Jesus loves us, we loved them.
Around two o'clock it came a huge thunder storm that blew out a transformer and ended our electricity, but we were able to finish with all the patients.
By this time I had nothing else to give.  Nothing physically, nothing mentally, nothing emotionally, nothing spiritually.  I was broken.  I had given everything that I had.  I had nothing left. I was completely empty.
I realized that despite drinking water all day long, I had not been to the bathroom one single time.
I went into the bathroom, and remember the open air between the cinder blocks and the roof?  I sat down and I could hear the rain on the tin roof, I could see the rain falling, I could feel the gentle mist of the rain on my face and the wind was blowing too....as I sat there this old timey gospel song came to me and I began to sing ..."oh land of rest for the I sigh, when will the moment come? When I shall lay my armor by and dwell in peace at home.  We'll work, till Jesus comes, we'll work till Jesus comes and we'll be gathered home."
A beautiful feeling of peace and refreshment came over me.  I felt the Holy Spirit surround me and strengthen me.  He knew I needed it.  There was still a way to go. 
I came out of the bathroom refreshed, we had church services in the dark with flash lights, we sang and prayed and listened to a sermon.  And then we traveled back to the motel...safe....over the mud bridge.