Looking in the Rearview Mirror

We had a rough weekend.  It began Thursday night when Mason's breathing became raspy sounding.  We knew he had croup.  That night and into early Friday morning we were up with him almost every hour giving him steam "treatments" in the bathroom and then bundling him up to bring him into the cold night air to hopefully open up his airways so he could breathe easier.  At about four a.m., when the steam and cold air therapy didn't seem to work we called the on call nurse and put the phone to Mister M so she could listen to his breathing.  It was at that moment that the nurse told us what every parent dreads to hear, "You need to call 911 immediately."  And so our long weekend began.

They evaluated Mister M in the ER and gave him a nebulizer treatment and soon made the decision to transfer him to another hospital thirty minutes away which had a pediatric intensive care unit.  Fast forward through all the breathing treatments, steroid shots and worry to Sunday afternoon when we were told he could go home.

I was on my way back up to the hospital to pick up Patrick and Mason.  It was a dreary rainy day.  At one point, ahead of me the sky was dark and stormy, the rain pelting the windshield.  When I looked in my rearview mirror I could see a sky filled with beautiful fluffy clouds tinged with orange and rays of sunshine streaming through.  The thought occurred to me that, that is what life is like.  When you're in the thick of it and you are driving through the dark and stormy trials with the rain pelting you, if you could look back and see it in the rearview mirror, you'd see the orange tinged clouds and the sun streaming through your situation.  You'd see the beauty that comes after a storm.

You will make it through the trial and the sun will shine again.  You just need to persevere.  Do not give up hope and seek the Lord for strength.  It won't be easy.  Lets be real, it will be arduous at times.  But I would encourage you to trying looking through the rearview mirror.