An emotional butt-kicker

My wife Monique coined this description for her experience of a week ago, "this has been an emotional butt-kicker". She was referring to a car accident our girls were in with our niece Amy.

The picture to the left shows, Marti (Amy's mom) Monique, Ellie and Amy sitting in one of the E.R. rooms at UC Irvine Medical Center. They all mustered up smiles for th

e camera, but inside they were pretty torn up and wasted.

Carly couldn't conjure up a smile for the camera, as her eye was very sore, swollen shut, and needing stitches. We spent 12 hours in the ER last Saturday nig

ht waiting for Carly to be treated. Ugh! That particular night, 17 trauma cases were came via ambulance to the E.R. Wow! Unfortunately this 

meant Carly was put on the back burner and we waited a long long time for the ophthalmologist to finally stitch up her eyelid. It was quite an ordeal for all of us.

God was with us throughout this experience. He brought an ambulance to the crash scene which 

just happened to be driving by on the freeway. They stopped without ever having to be called. God's hand! God calmed Ellie's heart and prompted her to pray for her niece and sister in the midst of a somewhat chaotic scene. Carly was bleeding pretty profusely from her eye. My nephew Brian, who is currently a police academy cadet, arrived at the scene before any emergency vehicles and responded with care and wisdom. He ended up getting the girls released to him and driving them to the E.R. without need for an ambulance.  

Once admitted to the E.R., we were cared for by nurse Joy, who assessed the injuries quickly and gave attention to all our needs. She was in the midst of a wild evening with all those trauma victims coming to the hospital. Yet, she kept checking in on us and did the little things to comfort us.  

Thanks to her help and presence of mind (God's guidance again) we endured the evening/next morning. Her persistence moved Carly into an operating room setting and anesthesia, when at one point it looked like her eyelid was going to be stitched up with just local numbing anesthetics to her eye. Wow! I would have been the primary assistant had this idea continued. Scary thought! 

So...what is all this doing on the Rocket Men blog? I'm posting this here for a couple of reasons. Monique and I had just come from our Laugh Your Way to a Better Marriage conference in Whittier. It went very well, many couples pressed the "Restart Button" in their marriage, asking forgiveness of each other, stepping into humility and grace. 

Laugh Your Way does a beautiful job of presenting the differences between males and females. These differences were very evident in the E.R. Monique and I needed each other and specifically how God has made us to be complete in that moment with our girls. By understanding who Monique is as woman and also according to her life passions, I was able to compliment her in a very stressful time. She was able to help me provide the proper care and comfort for the girls. It was a beautiful dance between husband and wife. 

As I write, our girls are healing and will be back to school after spring break. We are recovering from this "emotional butt-kicker" as parents. God is showing us again that life is precious and fragile. We are not in control, but thankfully He is and we can trust Him. As you turn and gaze at the Cross of Christ this week, I hope you will see beyond to the next day and LIFE! He offers you a LIFE of freedom in His grace, love, acceptance and forgiveness.