There are seldom dull moments in our house. I don’t know if it’s because we attract challenges, or if these are “testings” Paul talks about. Either way, I think it’s developing patience in us—at least I hope so. I’d hate to think that we go through these for nothing!
About the time we were getting ready to move Mom in with us, Bruce injured his knee while refereeing a basketball game. In case I haven’t mentioned it, my husband is driven. He reffed a few more games before he decided the pain was not going away. In fact, it was much worse. An MRI last week revealed a torn meniscus cartilage in his knee. Oh, no! Didn’t I do the same thing to my knee about seven months ago? Even the same knee! And that was while I was recovering from back surgery. Nevertheless, Bruce had to experience this for himself. My word was not good enough. So, his surgery was scheduled for about a week out which left me time to plan ahead and get a caregiver for Mom.
On Monday, the nurse called to give him all the pertinent information about the surgery on Tuesday—the following day! Bruce reminded her that they told him surgery was for Thursday, to which she politely said, “Dr. Daniels does not do surgery on Thursdays.” Okay, we’re all human, so even a scheduler can make a mistake. We went into high gear to get things ready for the next day. We had already established a contract with Agape Home Health to provide caregivers for Mother, so I quickly placed a call to request they send someone the next day instead of Thursday. A few hours later, they called to express regret that they were not able to get a caregiver on such short notice. Mentally, I went down the list of people that I might call to help. My sister, who would normally help, had an important doctor’s appointment the same morning. I called my good friend, Deborah, who assured me she would stay with Mom. And, Tuesday morning, true to her word, Deborah showed up on our doorstep along with her husband, Doug, who drove Bruce and I to the surgery center in his pickup. He said Bruce could maneuver the transfer easier from his pickup, and his strong arms could assist Bruce. I readily agreed.
Remember my article a few months back on Kaleidoscopes which explained about Life, or Small Groups, and their purpose? Well, Doug and Deborah are in our Spoudazos Life Group, and they model “doing life together” extremely well. Friends helping friends. Neighbors helping neighbors—except they live 25 miles from us, kind of a long distance neighbor. They didn’t give a second thought to how it might impact their schedule, or inconvenience them. By the way, Spoudazo is a Greek word which means to do quickly, or to make every effort. Our group is very appropriately named. In Matthew 22:39, Jesus tells us to love our neighbors as we love ourselves. Doug and Deb exemplified that verse when they put their faith into action. It produced peace in our hearts to know that we have friends who take God’s words to heart, and that Mom would be well taken care of.
Bruce is home and recovering quite well, thanks to God and the good surgeon who scoped his knee. Next step is rehab—not so fun to think about, but needed for the full use of his knee, especially since he wants to continue refereeing. But, all in all, everything is “right as rain” in the Edenfield household, but definitely not boring!
