sent

Today was one of the hardest days of, well, a really long time!  I woke up sick, feeling like I had food poisoning, but convinced myself that we were GOING to the airport to get Aunt Lisa!  Junior went with me (Lord, thank you for putting this on my dad's heart to insist that Junior went, too!)   Her flight was a few hours late, and by the time we had Lisa, I was really struggling physically.

Junior doesn't have a driver's license, and my sister can't drive stick, so I had to keep on!  On our way home, approaching a major point in town, I saw literally thousands of people rioting.   (Would have been good to know that today is a major national holiday...prone to political rioting).

It came up so quickly that I wasn't sure what to do, but mobs of angry people filled the street ahead.  I was blocked in on all sides by other cars and rioting in front.  At the wheel trying to quickly decide what to do, feeling terrible, with the three most precious girls in my life in the car with me...I was so tempted to fear.  But He met me in that temptation and was strong.

I praise the Lord because He gave me the wisdom to pray and ask for guidance, and while Junior said to push through the crowd and assured me that they'd let me through, I did not feel like that was the right thing.  There were SO MANY cars and motorcycles and people around me, that I'm not sure how I did it, but I did a u-turn right there and booked out of there, though now totally unsure of how to get out of this part of town and back home.

In the whole massive throng, I know it was the Lord that directed me to one man...just some 20-something man hanging off the back of a tap-tap.  A MILLION faces, and as I scanned the crowd and asked the Lord for help, this man and I locked gazes, and he motioned for me to follow him.

"Don't follow him," Junior said, "it might be a trick."

I stopped my swirling head and prayed again, and I said, "Junior, I really think the Lord sent me that man."

So I followed him.  In and out of tiny back streets, back and forth, places I've never been and places that didn't have a great spirit.  But the Lord helped me truly not to fear, and all of the sudden, we were on the road home, all the trouble behind us.  I don't know how we even got there, but that man kept motioning this way and that to me, even blocking crowds at time to allow me through, I followed everything he told me to do, and suddenly, we were on our road.

We made it home, praising the Lord, and BAM, I was SO SICK.  Since the moment we got home I have been unable to even scrape myself off the floor, vomiting every sip of water I try to take.

While I HATE that my poor sister has had to entirely take care of my girls all day, fix their meals, answer the door, etc...I do NOT KNOW what I would have done if she weren't here!  For the first time since Lily was born, I have been physically incapable of taking care of my girls at all, and here is my sister.

Needless to say, it has been a God day.  I am so thankful to be His child, for His good gifts, and for His voice...and for sending that man, and Lisa, right when I needed them.

An awesome new toy Aunt Lisa brought a very Aunt Smitten Lily...

...and an Aunt-Smitten-Sofie.