A Time for Healing

Exactly three weeks ago a friend and neighbor came up missing. Last Thursday he was found along the bank of French Creek. It has been a very hard and confusing three weeks for everyone involved. I have found myself feeling deep sadness one moment, and anger another. I want to deny the whole thing happened and change the outcome for his wife and four small children. But I can't.

But peace can be found in the Lord and in all the blessings that He is sending her way. The community has helped so much. Friends that she did not even know she has have shown their concern in unbelievable ways. One man wants to finish all the renovations on her home and help her complete all the things that she and her husband had dreamed of doing.

Yesterday was the viewing, and today was the funeral. I could not go because there was nobody to watch Chloe so I sit here feeling very tired and depressed. I am thinking about my dear friend and feeling hopeful for spring. Today, the hardest part will be over for her, or is it really just beginning? I am not sure, only time will tell, but with this tragedy, there will be new beginnings. New friendships and a new way of life. I plan to be right there for her good days and bad.

Yesterday, I watched her children while she and her family went to the viewing. I had eight children all together--her four, my two, and the two that I watch every day after school. It really wasn't so bad. In fact I rather enjoyed it--until the end of the day that is. It was like something out of the movies!

Chloe is potty training and so is her daughter. Ironically, they both had to go poop at the same time. I put Chloe on the downstairs toilet, and her daughter upstairs. I guess I never thought about the fact that if you leave a two-year-old alone on the toilet to go poop, bad things can happen. Well, just as Chloe was finishing up I hear Nick out in the livingroom say, "Wow! You are dirty!" We just had pizza and Nick is colorblind. He did not realize what he was looking at. I had already cleaned the pizza sauce off of her after dinner and somehow his comment registered in my mind. I put two and two together and my worst fear was realized. She was covered in poop from head to toe. The streaks on her shirt told me she tried to use it as a towel to clean off her hands...and the bathroom...well, the bathroom. EWW!!!

So I tried flushing the toilet without a plunger handy--again, what was I thinking--and the water began to rise. I yelled for Danielle to get Nick and the plunger as I am scooping the toilet water out of the bowl to avoid a flood, but to no avail. Water everywhere! Nick went downstairs to help Chloe finish and she had poop all over that toilet. He came out of that bathroom to find water pouring out of the ceiling right on to our bed. (Of course, my little gal got poop all over the extra sheets, which I didn't realize until later). Didn't he then turn around to find a pile of puke on the floor from one of the other children. My! My! My! When it rains it really pours--toilet water sometimes!

Amazingly, through the midst of all the sadness, glimmers of hope and cheer can be found. Evidence that life does go on and a time for healing has come.