January 17 – “The Safety Thing”

The call came in last night, actually.  "April has been discharged.  They are supposed to do a blood test on Cailyn in the morning and we can come home.  Can you come help us?"  There it was.  Our granddaughter was coming home.  Now that meant she was coming to the same house where we are staying.  Not exactly the same thing as home, but "with us" is the operative point.  We made our way back to St. Luke's one more time.  It still took awhile for the final papers to come through, the doctor to give his final blessing, and the nurse to go over all the fine print.  Finally, though, it was time to head out.  Nathan and April were excited, scared, tired, overwhelmed, and overjoyed all at the same time.  Nana and DadDad were busting at the seams proud of our gorgeous little one.    We loaded up the cars and started to buckle Cailyn into her car seat.  Suddenly Nathan jumped up and hollered, "Ma'am, wait!" at the aide who pushed the wheelchair full of April downstairs.  She came back and I heard Nathan say, "She still has on her security tag."  See, when they did their first check of the baby, they put a tiny little leg band on her.  Attached to the band was a security device designed to cause all sorts of ruckus when it passes through the scanners back up on the 25th floor.  It's supposed to prevent the wrong person from walking away with a baby.  In our case?  No ruckus.  No loud noises.  No WalMart quality warnings ("You are a criminal.  Stop and let us look in your bag.").  If Nathan and April hadn't noticed it in the car, they would have had an interesting souvenir, to say the least.   The aide ran in and called the charge nurse, who immediately came down and cut the tag off.  As soon as she left, the nurse who had been caring for Cailyn and April came drawn with her scissors drawn, too.  Both offered profuse apologies.  I asked why the scanner never went off.  She said that she had turned the scanner itself off back up on the floor and just forgot to cut off Cailyn's tag.  Not the best way in the world to inspire peace and confidence in the system.   The "safety thing" didn't go off.  When you think you are safe, you might not be.  What are you putting your trust in?  Is it the things of the world, like money or power or position or popularity?    Proverbs 3:5-6 says, "Trust in the Lord with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding; in all your ways acknowledge him, and he will make your paths straight."   Father, thank you for protecting Cailyn today.  We trust her to your care, not the "safety thing."  Amen