Always a time to praise Him

You know, there are SO many ups and downs to life. It's dizzying really. Life being what it is just has this habit of constantly throwing you for a loop.

Monday was, well, a Monday. You know what I'm talking about. One of those days you'd just rather stay in bed for. The first half of it went just fine. We did some work around the house (we being the kids and I), then later drove out to a place we're looking at for my Dad to possibly buy. Yep, it's a decent place, excellent price, nothing doing. THEN, Mama decides to go to Goodwill. Oddly enough, looking back on it now, I debated back and forth, almost to the point of driving 3/4's of the way home, about whether to go. In the end, the lure of cute little dresses for Ari and storage ideas for small toe- stubbing toes won out. First off, I should probably have taken my cue to head home when Ari said "Momma, I have to go potty." In my head I'm processing this, thinking, "Hmm.. don't think they have a bathroom, we just got in here, don't really want to leave right now.. WHY RIGHT NOW??" So I opened my mouth to say, "Well, can you wait honey?" And that's when I noticed her stance... You know it, if you're a mother, you know it. Legs wide apart, almost bow-legged, arms slightly out and raised, head tilted down staring in horror. "Ari, NO, please, no, not... AWW, man!!" Oh but doesn't yellow stand out so nicely on the white tile floor. I look around frantically, find a baby blanket that will shortly be making its way home with me, plus some toddler urine and clean the mess up. And so, Ari has now earned herself a place in the back of the cart. Again, why I didn't leave RIGHT THEN, I don't know. So, we wandered around the store and even made it 90% of the way through the store before "the event". Disaster struck in the form of 3 small children and a very poorly made shopping cart. You see, Caleb was up in the front section of the cart, enjoying the ride. Arianna was sitting moistley.. err, nicely in the back, also enjoying the ride, and Quenton was walking along with me.
I stopped to look through some pants for my hubby and Quenton, wanting to look at something a bit further away, pushed the cart along with him. All fine and good except when what he was looking for wasn't there, he put his feet up on the bars of the cart (like any child would if they were going to ride on the side while Mom was pushing) and accidentally overbalanced the cart, bringing it crashing down on himself/the floor. PLEASE Lord, let me never again hear that chorus of three little voices all crying out in pain at the same time. :( Caleb and Quenton both took really hard hits to their heads. Ari seemed to take the least of it, I suppose from being inside the basket part. Quenton recovered quickly and was up and jumping around like always after about 3 minutes. Caleb, however, did not seem ok at all. Though he was already a couple of hours past due for a nap, he started acting overly tired, in a way that he doesn't normally act at all. He was nearly falling asleep sitting up. In fact, when I put him in his carseat hoping to be able to head home I could see he would fall asleep in about 15 seconds, so I got him right back out of it and lightly bounced and talked and tickled him, wanting him to stay awake for fear of a concussion. I eventually had to call my hubby and ask him to come help because I knew I couldn't get home without Caleb falling asleep and I just didn't see that as being a good idea. We got him home awake (barely) and after really examining him and checking his eye movement and such, we decided I'd nurse him and let him go to sleep.

That was NOT a good 1.5 hours for me. But even in the midst of a very nerve-wracking situation, I could still feel the presence of the Lord and His hand on me. I knew/know that He was there tending to us.

As it turns out, Caleb woke up completely fine. Barely even worse for the wear. I did go ahead and take him to our chiropractor, as he did seem to be having some neck pain which was giving him some fits while nursing. But since then he's been right as rain. He's enjoying life and crawling like a champ.

So, even in the midst of trouble, YET will I praise Him. Over and over through all that I kept thinking of the verse "You have redeemed my life from the pit." I just felt so strongly that the Lord redeemed the life of my son, and brought me up from the pit of despair. He gave me back the gift of my precious boy. I'm so thankful for His mercy.