Doctors, Hospitals, Manure and Ponies

Rand had surgery April 9 after about 6 weeks of all sorts of other treatments. We spent many hours in waiting rooms and hospitals, watching bad TV and drinking stale coffee. In the midst of that, we did find blessings in the oddest places.

I'm reminded of a story (and I told this in church recently when we had a Holy Humor Sunday.)
Little Johnnie was annoyingly cheerful and optimistic. If the family had plans for a picnic, but it stormed, he was cheerful. If he received an ugly sweater for a Christmas present, he gushed over it. If he was served lima beans for supper, he gobbled them up with a relish and asked for seconds. His family had enough of Johnnie's cheerfulness. His birthday was coming soon and so the family decided that they'd fix him once and for all. They had the back yard filled to the brim with manure. Nasty, smelly, yucky. There was no way he could be happy about that birthday present they figured.Yet, on Johnnie's birthday, when they took him out to show him this "present", he was soooo very excited. His eyes just danced and he jumped right into the middle of the manure and started digging around. His family was confused and finally asked how he could be so happy about a yard full of manure.Johnnie replied, "With all this manure, I just know there's got to be a pony around here somewhere close!"

And so, I've been looking for ponies. I've had enough manure in the last two months to hold me for a lifetime...... and it keeps coming. My manure includes Rand's illness and surgery, his mother's illness, his mother's move to Council Bluffs (that's still in the planning phases,) my son's alcoholism and all the havoc that reeks in his marriage and spills over to us. But in the midst of all this, I'm finding ponies here and there. Cards, calls, emails, visits, facebook posts, prayers, prayers, prayers, understanding coworkers who cover for me when I can't seem to go on, meals with compassionate friends, church family that holds and embraces me and points me the way to God and to hope. God's blessings are sometimes hidden, but they are always there. This is my hope and my prayer.