Thursday, July 9, 2009

God of Wonders!

We live 5 minutes for the airport, 2 minutes from the train tracks and on the corner of a major-side street in Des Plaines. That means, that our son is within minutes of all his favorites. He constantly hears the planes, trains and buses…and we constantly get to hear that he hears them. Quite often we go out for a walk to the end of the block so we can see the choo-choo train tracks, and we always go out of the way to make sure we are driving over the tracks.

Jacob is so excited every time he sees or hears any of those 3 items. He has recently started to become enamored with fire trucks and “cop cars.” Jonathan and I actually have no idea where he learned the term cop cars. We have always told him police cars. Maybe he watches too much NYPD Blue. (I’m joking….we don’t let him watch that kind of stuff!!!)

We must hear at least 20 planes a day and 10 trains and he is still ecstatic every time he hears them. I actually told Jonathan the other day we’re going to have to make him more pessimistic because people are going to make fun of him soon.

What a sad thought that he would get made fun of because he gets excited about the little things in life. If only, as adults we could be more like that. Maybe then traffic wouldn’t be such a problem….or getting stopped by a train…Jacob LOVES it when we get stopped by the trains.

I found my optimistic ecstatic thing the other day. We were driving in a car and I saw a rainbow. I SCREAMED out “GUYS LOOK AT THE RAINBOW!!!!!” So they looked.

There are some things in your life that no matter how much you want to or how hard you try you just can’t help but remember things. Jonathan grew up at camp. His dad was the director while Jonathan was a kid. Quite often, Jonathan will smell something and it will bring him right back to his childhood at camp.

The 24 hours we spent in the hospital having Emma are the clearest 24 hours in my life. I honestly think if I tried I couldn’t shake some of the thoughts and feelings, not that I want to, but I don’t think I could if I did. Those 24 hours are precious and heart wrenching to me all at the same time. But what we saw in the next 24 hours is what, in my opinion actually made that experience somewhat tolerable.

Jonathan and I were lying in our hospital beds (yes they gave Jonathan his own hospital bed for the week that we were there, and food tray and toiletries and everything either of us could possibly need), and almost simultaneously said “Wow look at that. Where did that come from?” You see, a rainbow appeared right outside our hospital window. It was the brightest, biggest, most beautiful rainbow I have ever seen. I don’t know a lot of about science, but it hadn’t even rained. I really thought it had to rain for a rainbow to come so I’m not sure where the rainbow came from. It was AMAZING!!!! So that is where our journey began. A journey that was so incomprehensible yet filled with God’s goodness and blessings.

That rainbow reminded us of God’s promises to us. His promise to guide us and provide for us. His promise that we WOULD go through tough times but his promise that we definitely wouldn’t go through them alone. It's not to say that we didn't have many cries and rough times but it was a journey that was filled with an indescribable peace that only God could give us and that as Christians we know why we have it, but other than saying its from God, there is really no other way to explain it…and quite frankly why would we want to explain it any other way?

But now, the rainbow is my ecstatic thing. The thing that brings me back to my most peaceful time. A time in my life I felt closer to God than ever. A time of uncertainty, filled with a lot of questions but a lot of peace. A time where one night we laid in bed crying thinking that neither of us really knew how we were going to get through this but the very next day, God reassured us that we weren’t going to go through it alone. A time in my life where I felt the hand of God holding us and carrying us through. So the rainbow will always be my thing. My thing where if anyone else was in the car with us, they would have probably made fun of me….and you know what?!?!?! I don’t care.

So today, I’m thankful for my son who is optimistic and excitable about silly little every day things that he sees and hears all day long. I wish I could have a fraction of his attitude about that. But more than that, I’m thankful for rainbows and God’s promises. I’m thankful for a loving, caring God who knows us inside and out. A God who we can know personally and actually feel him in our life. Our God isn’t just a god, he’s our God. Today, I’m thankful for that!