~Life~

Well it has definitely been a week that I could have lived without. But God said we would have struggles. First thing Thursday morning I was able to get the rental vehicle and also get Ripley in to see about his leg. The surgeon thinks it is going to be okay. He got his stitches out and he even got his bandage off.

I actually felt worse Thursday and Friday than I did Wednesday, so I probably will go to the doctor to make sure everything is okay. I also went to where they had towed my car and got all my belongings out of my car Thursday. It was odd, it didn't even look like my car. And, I had a message when I came home Friday evening that my car was "a total loss" and asked me to call them Monday. I'm not looking forward to this. I've been looking and I don't have a clue what kind of car I want to get.

Jan and Gerald leave for M.D. Anderson Tuesday morning. She has a MRI Tuesday evening. Lab Wednesday morning and she sees her onocologist also Wednesday morning. Her doctor had not planned on doing an MRI this month, but she's been having headaches for the last couple of weeks. This is the month her doctor said they should see "big tumor reduction." Please pray that this is the case. Please pray that there has been no increase in her tumor size. Please pray for PEACE for Jan and Gerald, as well as our family. This is very hard road to travel.

Life goes on, with bumps in the road that vary from pebbles to rocks to impassible boulders. It seems there have been impassible boulders lately. We all have our share of every kind because somehow in His wisdom that’s what He has decided, and it’s not going to be any different until Heaven.

Life is a funny creature, it comes at you from all directions- throwing things at you. Sometimes you see them coming from far away and have time to prepare for them, other times they sneak up on you and tap you on the shoulder. Either way, you make a choice. You choose to face what ever it throws at you head on, dealing with it now. Or you chose to bury your head in the sand and ignore the issue.

It's a choice. It's all in how you face it.

I choose to face it with Christ by my side, holding my hand all the way.

He is the only way I can face LIFE.

We now have this light shining in our hearts, but we ourselves are like fragile clay jars containing this great treasure. This makes it clear that our great power is from God, not from ourselves.-

2 Corinthians 4:7 (NLT)

~Blessed~

Yesterday after getting home with Ripley from having his bandage changed I noticed that it seemed rather loose. Later in the evening it had slipped down and some of his stitches were exposed. I took some gauze and tape and put it around the top of his leg to cover the area that was exposed.

This morning when I went and checked on the fella, low and behold he had managed to get the bandage all the way off. It was somewhat frustrating as the surgeon's office is at least 30 minutes from my house and I had quite a bit of work to get done today.

So..as I also needed to run to the office this morning I packed Ripley up. We were going to run by the office and then head up to see the nurse to get his leg re-wrapped.

I was once told (I haven't checked for sure yet) that most accidents happen less than 2 miles from your home. Do you know where I'm going with this?

We were sitting at a stop light waiting to turn left. Ripley actually was laying in the front passenger seat asleep because I had given him part of a sedative because I do not want to go down this road again with him. He was being very calm and good. He normally wants to see what all is going on while we are driving.

My light turned green. I sat there for a moment before starting to initiate my turn. I had just starting making my turn.....when the next thing I know my airbags have been deployed..Ripley is in the front passenger floorboard..and I just sat there for a moment while my windshield is cracking and the airbags are going down and there is smoke from the airbags. I then panicked a bit as I tried to get Ripley out of the floor to see if he is okay.

When I pulled the airbag up, he was trying to peaking his little face out from the airbag. We were probably seeing the same look on each other's face. My first thought to myself was "WHAT NEXT?"

There were a lot of people who stopped to help and to call the necessary people. It seemed like they arrived instantly. Ripley sat in my lap shaking for a very long time. This poor dog has been through so much in the last couple of months.

This all still seems so unreal! An elderly lady who I guess never realized her light was RED came through the light. That is very apparent by the impact. There were numerous witnesses to the accident who stopped, provided help where it was needed and also provided their statements.

Other than being really shaken up, I think Ripley is okay. He is being checked Thursday. As for me, the only thing that is evident at this time is some cuts and burns on my right arm, I guess from the air bag.

My car most likely is totaled. There wasn't much left to the front of it. I could be wrong. Doesn't it always happen just about the time you have it paid off? It was towed to a place just right by my house. I couldn't really think today, so there are things I need to get out of it.

For the biggest part of the day I kept thinking "what else can happen." I wasn't planning on getting a new car when I paid mine off. It is still in good condition so I thought it would be good to keep it for a while.

My sweet niece, Jenny called me this evening after Donna my sister told her about the accident. Jenny has recently bought a new car and is selling her old car herself. She offered to let me drive her car if I needed it. She was asking about the accident and I told her "at first I kept thinking, what else can happen. Okay, I've reached my limit." But...then I took a moment and thought...if I had started driving right when the light turned green or if I had been up just a bit, it could have turned out totally different.

So, I'm feeling BLESSED today. Even though I didn't want to be involved in an accident. Hassle with all of the things that go along with the accident, leasing a car, possibly finding a new car...AT LEAST IT ONLY APPEARS AT THIS TIME THAT I HAVE SOME MINOR BURNS AND CUTS FROM THE AIR BAG AND RIPLEY IS OKAY.