A tale of a sandwich.

My son came home last night telling me of a story of the restaurant that he had eaten dinner in after practice.  The way that the place makes sandwiches is a longer process than some of your typical fast food restaurants and a customer had apparently never been there before and was wanting his food and complaining loudly.

The staff had apologized and given him some free fries for his trouble.  They even upgraded his sandwich to a larger size and he screamed at them because of that, they could do nothing right for this man.  He yelled loudly making a scene and started taking the Lord's name in vain and the manager just so happened to be a Christian.  He asked the man to not talk like that and the customer started insulting his beliefs.  My son witnessed all of this.  He watched as a Christian stood up against adversity and did not cower to a bully, but instead fought back for his Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.  I wanted to tell the manager thank you, and thus...our story...

Years ago I had been given some cash as a thank you gift.  I didn't feel deserving of it so I have been asking the Lord to show me someone  to bless with this money and several times I have thought I knew what I was supposed to do with it but it just never felt right.  My son had told me this story about this manager last night and I woke up two hours early with great clarity that he was who I was supposed to give this money to.

They opened at 11 and so off I went, the only description I had of this man was "Big scary dude".  Wasn't sure what exactly I was in for but I figured it might be clear once I got there.  The weather was so weird today like a slushy rain snow that landed but it didn't it was just weird and not exactly something I wanted to be out in but I wanted to accomplish my task.  I went in, all ladies, I asked for the man that had been the manager on the evening shift they told me that they could not legally tell me when he would be in but that he would be in today.  So I left.

I came back at 3pm.  I had enough time to accomplish my task before I had to pick up my daughter and this time when I went in there was a different woman and she asked if everything was ok.  I said Yes, thank you.  She said he will be here after 4pm.  I left.

I wasn't going to go back.  The weather was deteriorating I just wanted to be home, but the Holy Spirit urged me by saying don't be lazy.  Nothing worth it is ever easy so off I went.  It felt weird this time so I called my friend Cindy so that at least someone would know where I was and what I was doing.  She said she would pray for me.

I walked in, there were several workers behind the counter with not so friendly and inviting looks on their faces and then the woman from my second visit met me at the door and said "this is the third time you have been here why don't you tell me what it is that you need".  She was not happy with me.  I explained that I needed to speak to the manager from the night before, this woman was not having it. I could tell she needed a better explanation.

I said You had a customer in here last night that was not very nice.  She said Yes.  I said you also had my son as a customer that witnessed the whole thing and I wanted to thank the man for standing up for his beliefs and showing my son that even in adversity we should stand up for Christ.   She kind of looked dumbfounded.  The angry people behind the counter didn't look so angry anymore.  They all kind of looked at me like...What now?

They had all thought that I was the angry customer from the night before's wife, and that I was coming in to make trouble.  The man I was looking for had been told to wait in his car.  The lady manager was so kind and apologized that my son had to witness any of that.  We were all talking about hateful people and how we always think of come backs way after the argument is over.  We were laughing it was a relief, you could tell.

In walked the man I had been trying to talk to all day.  I thanked him. I told him that as a parent I can tell my child all day long right from wrong but for my son to see faith fought for in the real world in the midst of adversity?  That was priceless.  I handed him the envelope with Matthew 10:33 written on it.  I hugged him.  I left.

Go out...Be kind.

Vasovagal response.

This post is more for me.  I am shook to my core and I need to write to calm my nerves.  Plus I want to remember the details while they are fresh on my mind.

My daughter is prone to passing out at the sight of blood.  She also abhors needles.  Today she needed to have her blood drawn for her yearly check up.  We have had difficulties in the past so after her blood draw we were taking it slow.  After the nurse was finished she stayed in a prone position, she then slowly sat up , sat there, stood up, saw black spots and sat back down.  She then laid back down and said that she didn't feel well.  She then got extremely agitated and was saying over and over that she wanted to go home and then she was gone.  She was already laying down so she didn't fall but her eyes and mouth were slightly open and she was sheet white almost green.  I tried to say her name and pat her back to me but I got no response after a few moments I got nervous and yelled for help.  They couldn't hear me.  I didn't want to leave her to open the door because I didn't want her to roll off the bed, but they weren't coming with me yelling.  I opened the door and yelled " I need help!"  and they came running 2 nurses, the doctor, and his wife.  The nurses were rubbing her chest but couldn't get her back either.  I would say the whole ordeal was just over a minute.  You think a minute isn't that long, but I want you to get a timer and set it then think to yourself my child is dead and see how long it is to think that for a minute.  Then all of a sudden she did a gasp of a breath and then started talking as if nothing had happened.  The nurses then started taking her blood pressure and listening to her with a stethoscope they pricked her finger to take her blood sugar.  Everything looked fine.  The doctor said it was a vasovagal response.  As soon as I knew she was ok I lost it.  I don't cry so that scared her and she started crying.  I know I should have held it together but that was intense!

I don't know how on earth anyone has the wherewithal to check to see if someone has a pulse because I couldn't hear anything but my own heart beating out of my chest!  Typically when she passes out it is only a few seconds.  Not this time!  After it was all said and done she laid there crying and upset.  I feel completely guilty about that ,had I held it together she would have come back and just been a little freaked out to have so many people over top of her.

She wanted to walk to the car, she was very quiet , she got in the car and still very stoic.  I got her some ice cream and she ate a little and then fell asleep.  She got home and laid on the couch for a bit. She was then up and ready for me to take her to play practice.  She says she feels fine.  Me?  I 'm a wreck.  Parenting is hard!