How our son's wedding weekend ended up in the ICU.

Glory to God, He is faithful!! I am so thankful my husband is alive! That was my Mother's Day gift!! 

What a wonderful time to celebrate our son and his bride as they made a covenant before the Lord to remain faithful to one another until the Lord takes them home.  (I included some pics below!!) How much joy and yet what a whirlwind we ended up having as life started spinning out of control!! 

As usual, the weeks leading up to a wedding get a little crazy!! I felt like Queen Esther from the Bible, with all the preparations I was doing just to get myself ready for the big day!! Along with that, the rehearsal dinner prep, decorations, center pieces, meal plan and making of the deserts was also on my list of things to do.  Making sure my guys had the right size tuxes, girls had their dresses, shoes, and grooming supplies, etc., etc.!! Those that have been a part of the planning process of a wedding with a big family know what I am talking about!! 

Anyway, on Wednesday of  the week leading up to the wedding, Ray came in not feeling well that night! He had been stung by some bees on Wednesday morning, so he thought he might just be having a reaction.  He medicated himself and went to bed early that night.  I wasn't too worried about it and honestly I was more concerned with packing the car and making sure we were ready to go to Texas the next day without forgetting anything we needed!

On Thursday we began to make our trek down to the Ranch for wedding weekend.   I left with the first car full of supplies and kids, so I could get down there and unload and be ready to start setting up Friday morning for the dinner.  Ray came in the second wave, waiting on our college daughter, Ruth, to get out of her last day of classes for the semester.  They came in late that night, and didn't get to the Ranch until 2:30am!  That whole day Thursday, unbeknownst to me, Ray had been treating himself for fever and was taking an antibiotic incase this was some type of infection he had picked up from the bees.

Friday morning we woke up ready to get to work making the flower arrangements and center pieces for the tables.  It was raining, so I assured Ray he could rest, since there was nothing for him to do until the rain stopped and we went down to do final setup late that afternoon.  I thought he was just tired from the late night of travel.  He told me later he was still treating himself for fever and if he didn't snap out of this, he would change to another antibiotic the next morning.  

 Me, Mom, and sisters decorating.

Jeanan, Baylor Friend, came to help too.

The dinner was wonderful and we had a sweet time of fellowship and celebration of Jesse and Hannah.  Ray did an amazing job of leading the dinner and sharing from his heart.  
I thought Ray was all better, but that night when we finally went to bed, his fever came back up and he fought it throughout night, really not resting much.

Also, after the dinner that night, we were driving back to one of the houses on the ranch to pick something up and Ray missed the turn, so he slammed on the brakes on my car.  The brakes seemed to lock up, or at least added a drag to the car from that point on, and wouldn't un-stick.  Oh well, we had to drive to the venue the next morning (which was over 2 hours away), and needed both cars, so we didn't have time to mess with it at the moment!! Ray said it might ruin my car, but honestly, what could I do?  I didn't' feel like I had a choice, my son only gets married once! So Ray said he would stop on the way to the venue to get stuff to fix the car the next day while we were all getting ready!

In the middle of the night, while we were supposed to be sleeping (Ray wasn't because of fever) we got a phone call at 2:30 in the morning, informing us that one of our dogs got out and had been hit back up in Stillwater.  He was alive but not doing that great! Since we were 4 hours away, there wasn't much we could do, so we instructed our friends to put him at the house, and if he was alive the next morning, to take him to the vet.  We would deal with this on Sunday when we got home!!

Saturday morning came, and we were all in a bustle trying to get all our stuff together and head to the venue in Van Alstyne!! Ray was miserable, and had already called in more medicine.  I was a little stressed because we were all supposed to be at the venue by 11 for a walk through rehearsal.  Ray said he had to pick up the meds AND the parts for the car first, and then he would be there.  

All the rest of us headed out, and he was going to be following behind us.  We all made it, but Ray called and said he was feeling so bad, he was going straight to the hotel instead, to lay down. 

 Rehearsal, Esther standing in for Jesse!

 Wedding time!!

After the walk through, we headed to the hotel to start doing hair, makeup, and dresses.  
Ray was resting when we arrived, but I left, and when I got back from my hair appointment, Ray was gone.  The girls said he was stepping out for a minute.  I went out and looked for him, thinking he might have felt like working on the car after his nap, but he was no where to be found.  We all finished getting dressed and it was time to go, but no Ray!  I texted him, but no response.  About that time, in he walks, or rather, drags into our room, shaking and miserable.  I asked where he had been, and he said he had been laying on the parking lot trying to get warm, the asphalt felt good to him!! What?! Well, it was time for us to leave to be there early to welcome guests and be there before the wedding started,  but Ray said for us to just go on without him.  No, I couldn't just leave Ray and I felt like he needed my help, hopefully to get dressed and go, at least to the ceremony, of our son's wedding!  I sent the girls on with my mom, and I helped Ray shower, dress, and he took 1000 ml of Motrin to try and bring the fever down.  

I got him in the car, and drove like a bat out of hell to get to the wedding before it started!! We came barreling in to the parking lot 10 minutes before start time!  On the drive there, his fever seemed to break a little, which gave him some relief.  God, I know, gave him the strength to sit through and enjoy the wedding ceremony, and the first hour and an half of the reception.  

We even had a dance, but then he began to crash.  

My brother-in-law volunteered to take him back to the hotel so I could stay and visit with all our guests.  But when we all got back to the room that night, Ray was shaking, wearing all his clothes, wrapped in blankets and moaning.  That was our night all night Saturday night and early into Sunday morning.  As we tried to get out of bed that morning, Ray finally said, he needed to go to the hospital.  The antibiotics had not helped, and he was obviously getting worse.  We gathered all our crew up and loaded up.  Ray just crawled in the passenger seat and closed his eyes.  Ruth drove Ray in his truck and I drove the family car with the locked up brakes.  I figured if something bad was going to happen in the car, I would rather be driving than her.  We caravanned back to Stillwater, and my car, was dragging the whole time.  Ruth said my brakes lights kept coming on and off the entire time we were driving.  Seemed like I was using twice as much gas, but I didn't care!! Cars are replaceable, Ray is not!! I began calling and asking our family and friends to pray.  Pray for Ray, and for whoever was going to be on the receiving end at the hospital.  We needed the Lord to show the Dr. where this infection was coming from, and not get distracted by alot of rabbit trails.  

2 miles from the Stillwater exit, the "check engine soon" light started FLASHING at me.  Ray always told me that if the light comes on it isn't an emergency, it is just good to get it checked out soon.  If the light starts flashing, pull over immediately!!!  Well, I HAD to get my husband to the hospital, so I just cried out to the Lord, literally,  to keep my car going, and carry it to the hospital.  I scared the kids to death, who were resting from the weekend!! All of a sudden, the light went off, and I kept the cruise control on, heading straight for the hospital.  I kept praying out-loud until we made it, for the Lord to carry our car there and not let it explode!!

When we pulled into the hospital, Dr. Mark Mueller was the Dr. in the ER that day.  He is a friend of Ray's, a Godly man, a fellow Kanakuk Kamp Dr., and his wife was my Bible Study leader last year.  Mark began the process of figuring out what was going on, and after blood work, some tests, ultra-sounds, and observation, he said he was still baffled.  Ray and I kept praying for wisdom, and Mark came back in the room and asked if Ray had been bitten by a tick.  Ray said no, but I said Yes!! reminding him that he had me pull one off of him about a week and a half ago.  Ray had forgotten since we get tick bites all the time in our family and think nothing of it!!  The dots started connecting and Mark said he thought Ray had a tick born illness but it would take days to find out from the tick panel.  Because of the severity of Ray's condition, they put Ray in the ICU until they felt like they had a handle on his situation.  His blood counts for white and platelets were extremely low, and his liver enzymes were rising by the minute, and with a temp of 103.6 and rising with medication onboard, they were very concerned.  

We were a little in shock that he was that sick, but so thankful God had shown Dr. Mueller to ask that specific question.  We have since read that people die from this (Ehrlichiosis) because it is not diagnosed early enough.  Praise God for His wisdom that he gave Dr. Mueller!

That first night in ICU was miserable, as they were not able to give Ray relief from the fever, so he was uncomfortable all night, as well as they wake you up to check on you every hour in the ICU anyway.  I stayed with Ray in the chair next to the bed, trying to doze off every once in awhile.  I guess, because of all the stress from the wedding planning, travel, and Ray's sickness, I got a migraine.  I asked one of Ray's Dr. friends and partners to bring some strong migraine medicine to me that night, and I took it, but it didn't seem to touch it.  By 5 am the next morning, I started throwing up, a result of the migraine.  One of Ray's partners came in to check on him, and I'm right there in the room, ICU toilets are in the room, not separate, throwing up violently.  He got me some nausea medicine, but after 2 doses, it didn't even touch it.  By the time the Dr. came around to check on Ray, I was so weak, dehydrated, and exhausted from throwing up for 6 hours, I could hardly even look up and listen to what he was discussing about Ray's condition.  Ray started trying to lean over out of his bed, with wires connected all over him, to try and take care of me!! Ridiculous!!  Finally, I gave up, and Ray's brother took me across the street to get a shot to help with the migraine and throwing up.  I returned 4 hours later a new woman!!  

In the mean time, while Ray was still in the ICU, we got a phone call from our vet concerning our dog that had been hit over the wedding weekend, since we had not taken car of the dog on Sunday when we got back into town.  Obviously, that had moved down on the priority list, since Ray was about to die and had to go into the ICU.  Once Ray answered and explained we were in the hospital, he assured us he would keep him comfortable until we could tend to him!! Thank goodness.

They moved Ray to a regular room, and after 2 more days in the hospital, the tick panel came back, and it was confirmed, Ehrlichiosis.  They let us go home, but with a pic line connected to Ray, so they could continue to give him IV antibiotics.  We were sent home to rest for the rest of the week.
Below is a picture of Ray resting the evening we got home from the hospital....

While we were in the hospital, some of our friends, who were also our Klife directors in Stillwater, stayed with our kids and tried to keep things going while we were unable to.  They dropped off our car at the shop, thinking I had probably completely burned up the brakes on that 4 hour trek home from Texas.  Can you believe, they looked the entire car over and said they could not find one thing wrong with it!!?? I promise you there was!!! Ray thinks God may have healed my car when I cried out those last 10 miles to the hospital!!!

The dog was not so lucky, as when we finally got over to see about him later on in the week, we had to put him down.  He is now buried in our back yard.  The whole family was sad, but in light of what their Daddy had just endured, and the fact that HE was alive, it kinda gave us better perspective on losing our dog.  He will be missed though.  

Wow, what a wedding weekend!! After it was all over, and we felt like Ray was at least out of the woods, and on his way to healing, and after the dog was buried in the back yard, the flood gates opened up and I cried.  It all came out, and I realized my son had gotten married!! What?!  I barely remembered because of all that had happened since.  Thank goodness people took pictures! Thank the Lord He is faithful, my son is married, my husband is alive, and we are home. Glory be to God.

We are 2 weeks out from the wedding and the ICU weekend at the time I am writing this.  Ray is healing, it is slow but steady.  His energy levels are lower than normal, and he poops our real quick.  He is finished with the antibiotics and is just mending now.  One of our friends from Kamp who had this same thing, said it took 6 months before he felt like himself again.  So we will see, sounds like a marathon and not a sprint, kinda like life in general.  We are grateful for today. Those that have prayed, thank you. 

Gratefully yours,
JJ

Laughing again.......and a 700 lb Spider on Rollerskates

I CANNOT believe it has been one year since I posted on this blog.  Life has been busy of course, but really?  
The good news is, we are still in Stillwater, OK.  The bad news is, we MOVED again! 
I guess it's not really bad news, but moving is hard! 
Anyway, we were going to move this summer, to a little bit bigger home, since we have 5 kids, 4 of which are still home, but the contract fell through.  So we were good with that, stay where we were, in a smaller home, with all our stuff being stored in 7 different places! Yes, that is correct, 7 different places. But still, trusting, God's timing, not ours.  Well, we started the school year and all that it brings.  We had Jesse's football schedule, Ruth's cross country schedule, Esther's volleyball schedule, and Anna's cross country schedule to work around.  Joshua asked if he could sign up for flag football, and my answer was "Heck No!!"  (His time is coming!) So, packing up the trailer and heading out every weekend to somewhere in Kansas for football, plus throwing a xc meet or VB game in there, sometimes we would be in 3 different cities, 2 different states in a matter of 24 hours!! 

Right in the middle of this, the people who owned the house we had put a contract on over the summer, came back to us and offered us a deal we couldn't refuse, so after praying and signing the paperwork, we had to close in 2 weeks.  All of a sudden, in the midst of an already crazy schedule, we were moving across town!! 

This was exciting and exhausting all at the same time, because you know, the Ray Ford Family does not pay movers!! We do it ourselves. Ha! So we spent the next few weeks, slowly but surely trickling things over to the new home.  But as we got to the end of the month, Ray said he was not paying another month in storage, so we HAD to get the storage stuff over to the new home by Friday.  Well, that was fine, except, we had a XC meet in Arkansas, and a football game in KS, along with 2 volleyball games that week, both an hour drive away!  The boxes were not the difficult part, and we were able to get that over in about 5 trips, but the RV, oh baby, that was a different story!  You see, we have a large separate garage/workshop/RV storage at our new home.  I call it the barn. Anyway, it is great, but the people before us didn't have an RV/5th wheel, so they built a loft type structure, to use as storage.  It was right in the spot were the back half of the 5th wheel needed to go in the barn, so we had to take that out.  Well, Ray wasn't about to waste that great storage, so instead of dismantling it, he wanted to MOVE it.  Now this thing probably weighed 700+ lbs.  It was attached to the side of the wall, but had 4 large beams that supported it, like legs.  Ray decided that we could just cut it away from the wall and move it over on wheels.  After we propped it up on skate boards, furniture dollies and the like, and tried to move it a few feet, we rethought! So the next day, while the kids were at school, Ray and I attempted to move this thing.  He attached casters to the 4 legs and we began to push.  It was sooooo exciting, the thing was moving, we were so proud of ourselves, we were gonna have this thing moved and secured to the other side of the barn in a matter of 30 minutes.  

Well, pride cometh before the fall.......... we ran into a little finagling around the garage door and while Ray was trying to figure out how to manuver it, the thing started to fall!! We could hear wood cracking, and I was supporting one leg, Ray ran over to support the other, and we were huffin' and puffin' like to old fat people, sweat beads pouring from our faces.  We couldn't move, yet, we had to get something under this thing or it was coming down!! About that time we look up and here comes 2 Jehovah Witnesses!! They asked if they could have a few minutes of our time!!! What?! Can you not see we are in dyer need of some assistance?! Ray said "No! We are a little busy at the moment, but you can help us if you want!" They declined, but then asked if they could leave some reading material for us?! You have got to be kidding! No! 

After they left, Ray said, "Ok, I am gonna step away and grab the ladder, and try to prop it up underneath, if it starts to fall on you, just run away!!" Oh my gosh, how do I get myself into these situations with this guy??  Well, he was able to get the ladder under the structure before it fell on top of me, and we stepped away for a moment.  He decided we would use the tractor, and lift the weight up off the legs, while we moved it, then secure it into place before we moved the tractor.  Long story short, 10 hours later, after we started this project, we had the stucture moved and secured into place.  A friend stopped by while we were in the process and gave alot of support and encouragement, but like she said, it looked like a 700 lb spider on roller skates!!

Needless to say, we were exhausted after working ALL DAY on this short quick little job, and we were supposed to get on the road that night and head to Fayetteville, AR for Ruth's XC meet the next day.  Well, I thought we were going in to clean up, when I heard the chain saw roar to life! What now?  The 5th wheel was still at the storage facility, but we had to renew the lease the next day if we didn't get it out of there by the weekend.  We were taking the 5th wheel to AR and then to KS, but when we came back home on Sunday, Ray wanted to be able to put it into the barn, soooo, we had lots of tree limbs that hung across the driveway.  Ray had to clear those so he could bring the 5th wheel in once we returned on Sunday.  So all of us went out and as Ray cut a limb, we dragged it into the front yard.  I wanted to take them all to the back behind the barn, but the sun was going down, we were supposed to get on the road, and we just didn't have time.  I was embarrassed because our neighbors all have very well kept yards, and here we come, just moving in, and trashing the place!!  Well, as we worked into the night, Ray cut, and we dragged!  Finally, after he had cut his last limb, the idea of getting on the road was out of the question!! To say we were tired was an understatement! We decided to crash, and just get up early the next morning and head out.  

The next morning, Ray headed over to get the 5th wheel, then come to pick us up and head out.  He called and said to come outside and load up, but as we walked outside, with overnight bag in hand, we see Ray unloading stuff out of the 5th wheel onto the front lawn.  We had several kayaks in the back of the 5th wheel, and to have room for the kids to sleep in the back, we had to unload them.  At this point, we are cutting it close to make it to Ruth's race, so we just start chunking kayaks and all the gear into the front yard, along with piles of tree limbs! About that time, our new neighbors cautiously walked over and asked if we need any help.  What was your first clue?! Yes we need help, but I think it goes deeper than just unloading our crud out of the trailer!!  We graciously declined, and assured them we were not the Clampets, and we would have this all cleaned up eventually!! Ray hollered for everyone to load up, and we flew out of there, dust and leaves off the tree limbs flying behind us!

Well, several hours later, we were cruising toward Fayetteville, when we realized we had missed our exit! That was fight number one on this trip! We only had to go 30 miles out of the way, because we were on a toll road, and there are no exits!!

After getting back in the right direction, and apologizes and forgiveness were given, we were cruising again.  We made it to the meet, and only had to park 2 miles from the course!! Ha!  Thank goodness they had a bus that shuttled back and forth.  We ran up to the start, saw Ruth run with 600+ other high school girls, it was crazy 22 minute race, then loaded back up to head up through Missouri, and over into central Kansas for Jesse's game.  Whew!

7 miles out from the meet, Ray asks where his phone is!! I don't know!! We have find my friends on our phones, so I can see his phone is on the side of the road, back where we pulled onto the highway from the meet.  Ray wheels the big rig around, and we head back to get it! As we are approaching were it showed it was, it begins to MOVE!! What? Someone has picked it up.  We started calling it, multiple times, but no answer! So, what do we do......... We follow it!! 2 miles down the road, it stops in a Lowe's parking lot.  Ray instructs the kids to stay in the car, while we walk around in the parking lot, my phone in hand, tracking where his phone is.  We look like a couple of creepers, and it's a miracle someone didn't call the police.  We had narrowed it down to 2 cars, so as we were looking through the windows of the cars, and getting lots of stares, a shady looking guy comes out towards Ray and asked if we were looking for an iPhone.  Not sure if he had good intentions initially, since he hadn't answered when we had called, but needless to say, we got the phone back!! Miracle!!

Well, that put us 30 minutes later on the road than we had planned, so we headed out again, 5 hours away from where Jesse was playing.  2.5 hours down the road, Ray and I could NOT keep our eyes open, we were so worn out, not only from the last 24 hours, but the last few weeks of moving and kids' athletic schedules.  We pulled the truck over, gave our phones to Joshua and Anna, and all crawled into the trailer.  We set the timer for 20 minutes, told them to play games, and not wake us up until the alarm went off, and we crawled up in the bed and CRASHED, dead to the world, as soon as our heads hit the pillow.  20 minutes later, we were off and running again!

We arrived at Jesse's game, at the end of the 2nd quarter, after dark, in an unfamiliar stadium.  Fight number 2 happened after I tried to coach Ray on where to park!! Ha! Eventually, we made it into the game, reconciled and exhausted, but thankful we had made it, finally.  

After the game, we camped in the trailer and slept in a little the next morning, before we headed back to Stillwater.  When we pulled in, it was bitter sweet.  We were so thankful to be home, yet looking at the piles of stuff in our driveway and yard, it was a little hard not to get overwhelmed.  Ray announced that no one was released until we got this trailer into the barn.  So we all worked together, cutting the limbs up into small enough pieces, so that we could drag them out of the way.  We cleared all boxes out of the way in the barn, and made sure the path was clear for Ray to back that baby in.  It was the moment of truth, and excitement as we had all worked so hard, the weekend was so exhausting, but this would be balm for the soul, and make it all worth it.  You know what I am about to say..........  The trailer AC unit was TOO TALL!! by about 6 inches!!

That was it, we were done, Ray put that baby in park, and we left it there, all week, half in half out!
Our poor neighbors.

We either had to laugh or cry, so we laughed.  We had already cried a little that weekend.  It's all good, right? This is a first world problem, it's not eternal!

Well, I am happy to say, 3 weeks later, Ray Ford, who is a risk taker, and not afraid to attempt something I would NEVER do, took a chain saw, and cut a notch above the garage door, and got that sucker in there!!   No, it's not that pretty at the moment, but even our neighbors were impressed.  I think it is what makes Ray a good surgeon, he is not afraid to cut something open, fix it, and make it work.

And I am happy to say, we have moved all piles and items out of our front yard and around to the back.  Also, things are calming down, thus, the ability to do this blog entry.  Ruth qualified and ran in the State Championship XC meet this past weekend.  Esther finished up a good season of VB a few weeks ago.  Anna had her last meet 2 weeks ago, and we only have 2 more Sterling Football games.  We finally were back in town for church on Sunday after 6 weeks of missing in action from being on the road for football games.  I think things are calming down!! Now to unpacking boxes! 

Have a wonderful week,
JJ

Unexpected Adventure/Vacation

It has been awhile since I have blogged, but I had to share this story from our summer.
In July we had another Ford Family Adventure (aka vacation).  After going over the schedule of all our kids, and Ray's work, we found we only had 1 week this summer that all of us could pull away for a family vacation.  We were pulled in opposite directions on where to go, wanting to head Northeast, towards Ray's sister's house, whom we had never been up to visit since they moved there, and also wanting to go West to my parent's cabin in Red River, New Mexico.  Feeling like this would be the LAST time we would have this opportunity with all five kids, we decided to do both!!

 Sure, why not?! 3000 miles, 45 hours of driving time (not including bathroom stops), with 7 people in one car....... sounds like a BLAST!! Ha!

Well,  we headed out just as soon as Ray got his last baby delivered Monday morning, after being up 4 nights in a row, delivering 7 babies over the weekend!! So he was a little exhausted, but hey, that is our life, we've gotten used to it, so we headed out. Everyone was ready to go, and our first goal for that night was to reach St. Louis, Mo, where we were going to stay with some friends from Baylor.

Usually when we start any trip, I pray for safety on the road, safe travels, and good memories and a safe return home.  After reading a book this year called the Papa Prayer, I was encouraged to ask for whatever God wanted to bring into our lives this trip to draw us closer to Him, good or bad, that was not the point, but to just draw us closer to Him, and feel His presence more in our lives.

We had tried to plug in fun activities and stops along the way so to break up the monotony of riding in the car.  We stopped at Lamberts in Springfield  MO "Home of the Throwed Rolls!" So fun, but we were stuffed by the time we rolled out of their parking lot!

 Well, after several stops, and miles under our belt, we made it to the Kerckoff's house, just in time for Ray, Jesse, and Esther to go Frog Gigging!!! Even though I married a Louisiana boy, he had never gotten to experience this first hand, so, they headed out to the pond behind the mulit-million dollar school where Andy taught, and went hunting for frogs.  Ray said it was just like when Jace and Willie (Duck Dynasty) did the same thing at the fancy country club in Monroe.  They had a blast, but they were filthy when they got home!! What a great experience!!

The next morning we headed out towards Cincinatti, Oh, where Ray's sister lives with her husband and kids.  That was a special visit, and the cousins enjoyed getting caught up with one another, as well as the adults.

After our visit there, we headed out towards Red River, but our first stop was going to be Kansas City.  We had decided we would stay there for the night, then take the kids to Schlitterbaun the next day, before we piled back in the car for another 5-6 hours that evening.  We were trying to break up the driving a little bit, and do some fun things along the way.  We also had a white water rafting trip planned 2 days later, to give us another break from driving, and put a little adventure in the mix.
Well, we sure had everything planned out, but God changed it up!
The kids were getting a little irritable with each other, being our 3rd day in a row driving, but overall they were ok, just a few fights here and there! We stopped to get gas, and headed out again, only about 5 miles out of Columbia, MO, when our Excursion started making a funny sound, Ray looked down and noticed the temp gauge quickly rising, and before we knew it, we were burning up! We immediately pulled off the highway, with cars flying past us at 80+ miles an hour, and were on a shoulder about the size of my foot!
Right behind us, a white 15 passenger van pulled off.  Ray ordered us to stay in the car until he could figure out what was going on and see what this van needed as well.
Unbelievably, the man that pulled off behind us saw we were in trouble and pulled off to help us.
Our Excursion had some line cut, and we had sprayed some fluid all over the road (sorry, not a car person) anyway, this man had noticed us because the fluid had sprayed all over his windshield! He pulled off to see if we needed help.
He was alone, in a 15 passenger van.  If anyone else had pulled off with any passengers at all, we would not have all been able to fit, really an angel sent by the Lord we believe.  After Ray realized what exactly had happened, he ordered us all into the van with the stranger, who did finally give us his name after we were a few miles down the road.  He made sure we had a connection to our insurance and tow company, and then took us to a rental place, where he was returning the van from a business trip.  We had the car towed to the local Ford Dealership, and then went about trying to rent a car.  Since it was 4th of July weekend coming up, of course they were out of any size car that would fit our family, let alone all our luggage.  We were thinking we would have to rent 2 cars, and a uhaul just to get around!  The same guy that picked us up then suggested that we take his van he was returning!! Amazing, it was the only car left that could fit us AND our luggage and it was available.

We decided that we would go ahead and try to make it to Kansas City where our hotel reservations were for that night, and use our tickets we had already purchased to Schlitterbahn the next day while we waited to get word on repairs for the car.
So grateful, we all piled in the van, with plenty of room to stretch out.  The kids thought it was great. Almost everybody had their own row!!

We were overwhelmed with thankful hearts as we expressed to Him how He had provided in the middle of a crisis and kept us safe, and provided a way on to Kansas City.  We felt He painted this beautiful sunset as we drove this last stretch into KC to remind us of His love and tender mercies toward us.

Well, because we had been delayed for awhile, it put us getting into Kansas City very late.  It was dark and KC is much bigger than we realized.  As I am trying to read off directions from my iphone, the kids start arguing in the back.  I kindly remind them to have 
grateful hearts, "remember all that God has done for us today, children!!" While I was trying to deal with them, Ray almost missed the exit, I corrected him in the nick of time, then more arguing comes from the back, WAY back in the back of the 15 passenger van.  I begin to feel myself changing, from the loving grateful mother/navigator for my husband, to something that would star in a horror film.  I quickly handed my iphone to Jesse who was sitting in the first row, and said "tell your dad where to go!", I then became soooo flexible, it reminded me of cheerleading days in high school.  Somehow, in a matter of a few seconds, I had hurdled over 3 rows of bench seats in the van to the back row, where Joshua and Anna were going at it!! I began to vomit out all kinds of stuff about how they were going to ruin the trip, etc. and by the time I was done, I felt like a louse, they were both crying, and Ray, Jesse and Ruth were in the front trying to quietly get us to the hotel so I didn't repeat the same tongue lashing on them!!
Low moment of the trip! Needless to say, about 20 minutes later the Holy Spirit had done His work on me, and I asked for forgiveness from the entire family.  That was worse than breaking down on the side of the road!!!
Anyway, we made it to the hotel, and by the grace of God, had a blast at Schlitterbahn the next day.  

We got word that the car would not be fixed for a few days, so we backed up and punted.  We decided that The Lord was redirecting our vacation, and we would calm down and stay in KC for a few days, have fun there, then go pick up our car on Saturday and just drive home.  We had to cancel the rest of our planned out vacation, white water rafting and time in Red River with my family, but again, we were believing that God had other plans, better than what we had planned and decided to go with it.
We ended up getting to spend the 4th at Worlds of Fun, and yes it was FUN.  Such a neat new experience.......we had no idea there was so much to do in KC.

When we arrived back in Columbia to pick up the car on Saturday, the dealership told us they had repaired the car, and it should get us home, but we were looking at thousands of dollars in repairs once we arrived back in Ponca.  Not what we wanted to hear.  But then they said that they actually had another Excursion, exactly like ours on the lot, with less miles, and it would be an EVEN trade if we wanted it!

Well, after praying and asking for quick wisdom, as we were standing in the dealership parking lot with luggage everywhere, and kids playing football in between cars, we felt this was the Lord's provision and we unloaded everything from one car to another, signed the papers, and headed home!! Wow, is all we could say.

So we left with one car and thought we knew what we were doing for our vacation, and we came home in a different car doing and experiencing new things that we had not planned at all!!
Usually I am such a detailed planner, that when anything goes wrong, out of the scheduled plan, I am not ok with it.  This was the Lord chipping away at me once again, and showing me His plan is best.  He truly did answer my prayer, asking for His presence to be felt in a deeper way and to draw us closer to Him on this trip.  He did keep us safe, and we did feel His loving arms around us, our trip just turned out completely different than what I had planned. 
Isn't it crazy how we think we are in such control and can plan everything out, then God reminds us He is really the One in charge.  It is His show and I am thankful He loves us enough to not go with our flow, but to flood us with His grace.
God is good,
JJ

Unexpected Trip

Just a quick note about a trip Ray and took last week.  

We HAD to, we really did, Have to go on a CME, (continuing medical education) trip for Ray's work, in ARUBA. 
 Yes, that is right, Aruba.  It was bad timing with work, kids, etc. , but since Ray had a quick approaching cut off date to get in all his CME's we really did have to go. It was amazing, God knew best that this would be a good thing for us! But the funny thing we realized  when we arrived, is that our personalities changed somewhat.  
When we arrived in Aruba, I, who am usually the cautious one, didn't care if anyone knew I was a tourist or not, I was just sooooo excited to be in another country, and to finally have my passport stamped.  Ray on the other hand, the adventurous one, who usually is the risk taker, became like Jason Boerne on Boerne Identity!!  I am not kidding!  He was analizing every person we passed, every street we walked down, every alley we went by.  I didn't care, I was just so happy, but he was totally in CIA mode.  It really was funny to me.  
Ray's name means "protector", and boy was he doing that.  

We did have a great time, went snuba diving, kite surfing, and walks on the beach, and Ray got all his CME credits in!!
Just had to share how my man was totally into "Operation Treadstone" mode while we were there, and I was "Sabrina," clueless to any danger, if there was any.
Thankful for my protector,
JJ