…NOTHING, unless you were in our van on the way home from Oklahoma. We are back in Cheyenne and had a good trip. Great time with family and a very good celebration of the life of Sabrina’s Grandmother. Thank you for those who were praying for us.
On Tuesday our nephew, Kobe, got VERY sick. Throw up (and the other end too) kind of sick. We didn’t think anything of it until we walked into a gas station at Russell, Kansas. Sabrina was holding our two year old Jaydah, when from her she heard a little burping sound, then a very loud splattering sound as vomit covered the gas station floor. Jaydah had lost her lunch. LITERALLY. It was disgusting. The gas station attendant was OVERLY friendly and cleaned it all up. Sab got Jaydah and herself cleaned up and then we loaded in the van and hit I-70 toward Denver.
About 2 mintues onto the highway I looked at Sab and asked “Do you have a plan for us if that happens again but she’s stuck in her car seat?” “Ummm, no” Not 5 minutes later…burping sound, Sabrina SCREAMS, Sabrina grabs trash can, shoves it in front of Jaydah, but it was too late. She was covered, her car seat was covered, it splattered on Jonahs head and around Jaydah. YUCK! We pulled over and cleaned up as best we could. IT WAS EVERYWHERE! Her car seat straps, buckles, coat, clothes, face, everywhere. We were borrowing a friends van, thankfully most all of it collected into Jaydah’s car seat and not their floor or upholstery.
We hit the road again and multiple times Sab was trying to get the trash can in front of her face. It was HORRIBLE. It ripped my heart out as a dad. Eventually there was nothing we could do. She literally had to sit in her throw up until we got home. She could keep NOTHING down. As soon as it would hit her stomach, up it would come. Sometimes the trash can made it, most often it didn’t. We talked about stopping at a hotel but knew one of the other kids most likely would have it the next day, and we still be traveling with sick kids. We decided to push through.
Poor Jaydah didn’t know what was going on. Sometimes for 10-15-20 minutes she would cry out my name “Daddy. Daddy. DADDYYY!” I wanted so badly to unbuckle her from that seat, vomit and all, and hold her tightly and let her know it was ok. That’s when driving down the highway, God spoke to my heart. “That’s exactly what I’ve done for you Jeff. Remember those times you’ve been covered in puke, your own mess and sickness. EVERYTIME you called my name, I was ready to scoop you up, mess and all. How many times have I held you when you were covered in your own puke?” WOW!
Then I began thinking. How many times have I, we, the church, not wanted someone around “our ministry” because they were covered in spiritual vomit. They might get us dirty. They might pass it on to us. They might mess up the place. Hmm. I’m glad our Father doesn’t treat us that way. In the same way I wanted to scoop up my baby girl, vomit and all, our Heavenly Father HAS done and STILL does for us. Vomit and all.
Thankful for my Father,
Jeff
