October 12 – “An ostensible trip”

Kel posted a quick memo about Christina yesterday:

 

Christina Vaughan seems to be improving today. All the right numbers went in the right direction. She’s still in ICU. Please keep praying for the pneumonia to clear ASAP.

She has asked us to pray for 2 other families in the floor who are not doing well. Please pray for those families and the staff as they are caring for them.

 

Awesome that she would be concerned about other families when she is pretty sick as well.  That’s our girl. 

 

We made a trip up into Texas, ostensibly to take Jachin to his baseball game.  When we arrived he wasn’t home as yet from a presentation he was making in one of his dual credit college classes.  Kel wasn’t home, either.  He had gone to pick up Micah and Josiah from their homeschool co-op classes.  Don’t worry.  He and the Littles didn’t have to leave the car, so they didn’t break quarantine.  They are still firmly entrenched until their getaway day, which is Wednesday.  And Kel is already planning to head straight to the hospital to see Christina on Thursday.  And that’s as it should be. 

 

Since no one was on site as of yet, we went over to the local WalMart to walk around and look at Christmas decorations.  Of course, as soon as we walked into the door, I got a text from Kel saying they were back at the house.  Oh, and I failed to mention the other text he sent.  The baseball game Jachin was supposed to play in Houston had been canceled due to wet fields after the huge thunderstorm we had the night before.  They were trying to reschedule for a field in Pasadena. 

 

So we swung into a Sonic to get slushes for everyone.  Not a particularly nice experience, though.  I suppose you could consider it memorable.  It took no less than four times for the clerk to repeat our order before she finally got it right.  And when we finally got to the window to pay, they had our time of order down as two minutes past the four o’clock deadline for half-price drinks.  Chris argued with them mightily, but sadly to no avail.  We paid the full price.  Ordinarily she probably would have driven away, but she made it known that the drinks were for our grandkids who were in quarantine because of Covid.  Sure would have made me feel bad enough to comp the drinks.  But not this manager.  She held her ground.  Fine.  Kel later told us there is a different Sonic not too far away, so we’ll go there next time.  Oh, and as it turned out, two of the drinks weren’t made as slushes at all.  They were just plain drinks.  Bad form, Sonic.  Bad form. 

 

But back to the “ostensibly.”  Great word, isn’t it?  Means “supposedly.”  We returned to the house and delivered the drinks.  We chatted outside for a few minutes before heading home to await a call about the rescheduled game.  Sadly for Jachin, the call that came was … no games at all.  Fields everywhere were too wet.  Even in Chicago.  The Astros game was postponed as well. 

 

Proverbs 3:5-6 says, “Trust in the Lord with all your heart, and lean not on your own understanding; in all your ways submit to him, and he will make your paths straight.”

 

Father, we join with Christina in praying for the other families on the Covid floor near her.  Grant the peace as they walk through some upcoming very difficult times in their lives.  Amen.