Crisis Averted

Kevin left this morning at 4am to go crabbing. People occasionally ask me if I worry about his safety when he's out on the ocean. My answer is that I did a lot for the first few years of our marriage, anxiously awaiting a phone call from him if I hadn't heard from him in awhile and regularly checking the ocean forecast reports. Eventually, I realized it's just plain not worth wasting my time worrying. Kevin is smart, capable and not a risk-taker when it comes to safety and he makes sure he works for those who feel the same way, and worrying won't help anything. BUT I do still find myself worrying when he has to leave so early in the morning when the roads are icy and snowy. The Black Hills, especially, can be pretty treacherous to drive through. And so, this morning when he left, I prayed for his safety and worried a bit until I fell back asleep again.

Around 8am I was surprised to hear him come back into the house. One of his deckhands was sick all night long, but didn't get a hold of him until 6am when Kevin had just arrived in Westport. So, the trip was canceled and Kevin turned around and came back home. Very frustrating. What a waste of time, gas, and sleep. But it ended up being a blessing in disguise for me...

Later that morning I had my 39th week doctor's appointment and I was happy that Kevin was back home to clean the snow off my car and watch the kids so I didn't have to drive them over to my mom's in the still-slippery conditions. But then, on the way, my car died at an intersection. It wouldn't restart, so I quickly called Kevin. Obviously, he couldn't leave the kids (I had the car seats in my car, of course), so I called my mom to beg her to race right over to the house so Kevin could come rescue me. My pregnancy hormones were starting to take effect and I was getting a bit freaked about being stuck at an intersection for who knows how long.

But then my car finally started up again and I continued onto the doctor's since I didn't know what else to do. Just before the turn into the driveway, my car quit again and I barely managed to coast into the parking lot and find an out of the way spot. I grabbed my cell phone again, only to hear "beep, beep." Yep, the battery was just about to die. Just perfect. After getting in a quick call to Kevin to update him, I alerted the hospital security desk as to why my car was not in a parking spot and went up to my appointment.

As you can imagine, my blood pressure was high and the nurse was a bit concerned until I told her how stressed out I was about the car situation. I tried to calm myself down but it was tough. I prayed, but I couldn't stop worrying about my car - wondering if it was a major issue that would cost us lots of money, wondering if I'd be able to drive it again soon, wondering if I'd caused major damage by continuing to drive it after it died the first time, and thinking, 'Why in the world did this have to happen when I am 39 weeks pregnant!?!' :o)

But, thank the Lord, my handy and hard-working husband was home when he was not supposed to be! He looked up in the car manual what could be wrong and correctly diagnosed the problem from what I was able to tell him. He grabbed his tools, stopped by the auto parts store on the way to buy a couple belts, and worked for about an hour or so in the cold (the poor guy even had to crawl underneath the car in the snow!). Thankfully, it was a fairly simple, inexpensive fix. Soon, my car was running again and we went back home.

Crisis averted. And worrying and high blood pressure unnecessary. :o)

Matthew 6:27 - "Can any one of you by worrying add a single hour to your life?"