Our plans are often not God's plans

"getting out while staying in"

"my daddy and me"

"look everyone i'm mowing the lawn"

"glindy snuggles"

"my uncle braden and me"

"i got my keys and my cell phone.  i'm ready to go"

"introduction to basketball"

"kisses from callie"

We had many plans for our vacation to Maryland.  We were in great need of a break - a retreat - from every day life in Raleigh.  We love Raleigh, but sometimes we just get an itch that is only relieved by getting out for a while.  So, we booked a long weekend at the "Poe Bed & Breakfast". Some of our "getting out" ideas included a trip to the Washington Zoo, the aquarium at the Inner Harbor in Baltimore, seeing the musical "Guys & Dolls" put on by the Howard County Summer Theatre, walking and strolling at Centennial park, and possibly going out to dinner one night.  We knew we couldn't possibly do all of these things, but we were excited to at least do one or two things while vacationing.

Wednesday was laundry and packing day.  Nathan went to bed on time while we finished the last of the packing.  Just as wee're closing our eyes to get a good night's sleep before the big drive in the morning, we hear Nathan screaming in his bed.  Hmmm.  This was a different cry.  Not the one where he makes a little peep and then goes back to sleep.  We go in to check him and he has a fever of 102F.  We give him Tylenol and Brian rocks him back to sleep.  We decide to not worry about it and just see how he is in the morning.

Thursday morning comes and Nathan still has a pretty strong fever, but he seemed fine.  So we decide to go ahead with our plans.  Nathan did really well in the car ride there and he was fine the rest of the day.

Friday he was a mess.  Fussy, crying, not eating, not drinking.  Poor baby!  His fever was pretty low-grade, so we didn't think it was anything until it got to about 5pm and he was still pretty fussy.  We call a Nighttime Care Clinic and get him an appointment.  This place was soooo fast. They saw us at the exact time of our appointment and we only had to wait a total of 5 minutes for the nurse and the doctor.  The doctor quickly determined that Nathan had Hand, Foot & Mouth.  There are no antibiotics for this because it's a virus that just has to run it's course.  It was really helpful to have an answer though for all his symptoms. 

Saturday morning Nathan wakes up and he's back to normal!  Very low fever, but VERY happy! 

So, in the end, our vacation was mainly spent caring for a fussy but very sweet baby boy.  Our activities were much more low-key.  Instead of accomplishing our "getting out" ideas, we had more "staying in" opportunities.  We played with some new toys with Nathan.  Brian taught Nathan how to play basketball.  Nathan mowed the lawn with his new bubble lawn mower.  He took a ride in Braden's old wagon.  Nathan played and talked to Callie, the dog.  Nathan learned how to crawl up the steps on his own.  He actually escaped on his own to crawl up 1 1/2 flights of stairs.  We didn't know where he was until Glindy found him teetering on the very top step. Ahh!!!  We ordered take-out at Uno's...yum!  And we watched the movie "Enchanted".  

Our ideas and plans proved not to be what God had purposed for our trip.  He had different plans in mind.  We needed to be taught that God's plans are the only perfect and wise plans. His ways are always best even if it appears not to be.  He also does not have to tell us why He is doing what He is doing.  This is where we trust.  More anger and anxiety was rooted out of my heart and replaced with a peace that only comes in communing with Jesus.  We may not have done one thing on our "getting out" list, but I experienced Jesus this weekend.  That was satisfying and more than enough.