August 9, 2014 - This day will forever be burned in my memory. The knock on my door came around 8:30 am. Charley was injured about 6:30 am, just a few minutes into his ride. My first call was to my dad. I knew he would come to meet me at the hospital. Other than a few other calls, we went straight there.
The devil immediately began working on me. He told me that no one would be there, that I'd be all alone. To be honest with you, I believed him. You see, I grew up in a church in my community, had been there all my life. Three years ago, we made a gut wrenching decision to move to another church. We weren't mad, didn't leave in a huff. We just made a decision that was best for our family. However, the church we now call home is huge. It's membership is over 30,000. I thought that no one in that huge church is going to know what is going on with me. I'm going to be all alone. Plus, all of my former church family, those that I spent my entire life with, how will they know? Will they even care? In the short ride from Smoke Rise to UAB, those thoughts were going through my mind.
I had never been to the emergency room at UAB, but I was ready to bust through the door once we arrived. I certainly didn't want to wait on the security guard to go through my purse. I vaguely remember throwing it in the "bowl" and running through the metal detector. I think one of the boys brought it to me. I checked in at the desk and rounded the corner to the ER. What I saw next still blows my mind. The room was full of people - people from that huge church that wouldn't know who I was. People who didn't know me came to me and prayed with me. I was so comforted to know they were there. One of the pastors from our church was there, Pastor Steve. He was a huge comfort in the days to come. I can never thank my home church for their prayers, support, and guidance during that time. I learned that a big church can become small when someone is in need.
Even more amazing in the days followimg was that a friend from my former church organized facebook posts and eventually a CaringBridge site so that people would know how to pray for Charley. Another friend from this church showed up with an envelope full of money that the women's ministry collected. My coworkers at school collected money for us. People came with gift cards, snacks, blankets (it was SO cold in the NICU). I could go on and on. We were blessed beyond measure, so much that in the 40 days Charley was in the hospital, neither I nor the boys had to pay for parking once or a meal. All of these blessings came from The Church, not just one church but from many.
Isn't that how it's supposed to be? When one is hurting, shouldn't the church rise up and help? So often people are wounded or hurt in the place that should embrace them, love them. I am witness that in my time of need, the church came to my rescue. It came in the form of a nurse who came by even when he wasn't on Charley's floor, to give me comfort and answer questions. It came in the form of many, many people who just stopped by on their lunch break. It came in the form of those who would be sitting in the waiting room, praying for us, day after day. It came in the form of the more than 70 men at my home church who were dedicated to praying for Charley's complete healing. It came in the form of each sweet person who brought my family a hot lunch every single day so we didn't have to eat out every meal. It came in the form of the NICU nurses who sat with me when I cried and who told me to go home and rest because Charley was going to need me more when he woke up. They were truly angels.
When you're blessed like that, you want to be a blessing back. If you read my first blog, you read that the night before Charley's accident, we had bought a large tray of cookies at Costco for his class reunion. We brought those cookies to the nurses at the NICU. We couldn't use all of the gift cards we were given, so we gave them to families we met in the waiting room. I can't tell you how much chocolate we had, and nurses love chocolate! Need I say more? I think one of the best gifts we gave the nurses was bringing Charley back to the NICU upon his release from the hospital. Being in the NICU for twenty days, I learned that there aren't a lot of happy endings there. They delighted in seeing Charley as he left the hospital to go home. I don't say any of this to pat ourselves on the back. Our cup was running over with blessings. I think it was just a natural thing to want to pay it forward to someone else.
What can you do to be the church? What blessing can you pay forward? One thing I've learned through this experience is that there are a lot of good people in this world. Look for opportunities this week. To all of my teacher friends out there, our mission field is waiting for us! Be the church and love on some kids!
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