Saturday, February 5, 2011

we're covered

We went to bed last night and everything was normal. And then Kevin woke me up at 1 a.m. because he was in so much pain and couldn't move. He was ready to vomit at any minute. Everything that he described sounded like an appendicitis, so I called my dad within minutes to ask him since he had one nearly twenty years ago. But Kevin's pain wasn't localized to only the right side but everywhere. My dad said he would start praying that the pain would subside or that we would have the wisdom to know if we needed to go to the emergency room.

I didn't have a clue what to do, so I knew I had to call someone. Hmmm...who to wake up at 1 in the morning?! I decided that I would call person A, and if they didn't answer that I would call person B, who I imagined would answer. I called person A and didn't get an answer, so I was dialing the number for person B when person A called back. I apologized for calling them in the middle of the night but that I didn't know what to do, etc.

Her response? "Don't worry, I was up already."
Me "You're just saying that so that I don't feel bad. I'm so sorry!"
Her "No really, we're doing an all night prayer vigil. I'll come over and we'll all start praying for Kevin right now."

Within minutes someone else called to see if I needed them to come stay at the house to watch the kids while they slept if we had to go to the hospital. And a few minutes later, three people showed up at our house, including a Hungarian in case we needed some help with doctors, hospitals, and translating. And one was a nurse back in the day.

Kevin's pain subsided a bit, but it kept coming in waves of intense pain. After talking through all the possibilities of what we thought it could be and with Kevin having a few minutes of his pain easing, we decided that we would wait it out a few hours and see what happened. We did talk to the emergency operator to figure out what to do should he need to go to the hospital, and that was helpful (sort of). (Things are run here differently!)

Anyway, Kevin remembered something like this happening one other time in middle school maybe and going to the doctor for it, so I called his mom to see if she happened to remember. I felt peace in waiting it out, although I felt so bad for Kevin being in so much pain. He told me to go to bed, and so it was close to 4 a.m. when I got back to sleep. He fell asleep for about an hour and woke up at 7 feeling some relief.

There was basketball practice this morning at 8:30, and of course I told him to cancel but he said he'd make it through. He came home around 11 and said that he felt great, completely pain free! So whatever it was, he is better. Praise the Lord!

I had to laugh last night because the Lord knows that one huge part of being here that is a stress for me is health care. With the kids being sick for months on end this past year and Seth's hospital visit last year...I just can't handle that part of life here. So what does God allow to happen? Kevin to be in excruciating pain in the middle of the night where we have to figure out a system that doesn't make sense to us. (Note: I am not saying it's wrong. It's different. I think the health care systems in both the US and Hungary need work.)

And it ended up being a beautiful testament of God's love for me, for us. He took away Kevin's pain, either through ordinary measures of the human body or through miraculous ones that we don't know about. We had lots of people come to help us in the middle of the night, and we have had countless people calling and checking in on us today (including a mother and a mother in-law who did not sleep much at all!).

I was told recently that I am a private person. And I feel that I am more so that way here than before...for various reasons, none of which I am going to get into right now. But she told me that I need to ask for help. I'm not afraid of asking for help, but I am worried that I am going to inconvenience or bother someone by asking. So I just don't ask... Not because it's bad, just because of my fears of what it will do to the person I am asking for help from. Anyway, I thought about that at 1 a.m. and knew I had to have help. And the person I called "just happened" to be at a prayer vigil and actually awake at that time, surrounded by a body of believers who immediately focused their prayers to Kevin.

So even though I was scared last night and didn't know what to do, I felt the Lord showing me once again just how much he loves me...by bringing the exact thing that I stress and DREAD so much here into my life in the middle of the night where I had to call for help...and showing me that even though I didn't know what to do or who to call, he did. And he had people up and praying already.

He's got us covered, even when I doubt him.

4 comments:

Kacie said...

Glad he's feeling better! What a scary situation, but how awesome to see how the Lord took care of you!

Doug said...

He has us all covered, even more than we probably will ever know!

Kandy said...

Thats an awesome story of Gods provision!!!

Michelle and Justin said...

Wow! Kristen, I had no idea! So glad he is better, but I will still cover him in prayer! Praise the Lord that He knows exactly our needs!