Stopped Dead In Its Tracks

Do you ever have those days when you realize "I'm not in control as much as I thought I was?!"
Had one of those days on Friday...I was driving the kids home from school, everyone feeling pretty good about it being a long weekend, and suddenly, the relaxed feeling evaporated. My car stopped. Dead in its tracks. This can't be good, I thought. Guess what I spent the weekend doing? Car shopping. So the good news is that car dealers want to make really good deals right now. Bad news is we were not planning on replacing our car just yet. (By the way, we think it was the timing belt that went, which in Volvos can mean sudden death). Here we are, having to face yet another challenge that gets tossed into our path.

While I was allowing myself to wallow in the misery, I got an email from a family friend down in Maryland. Her daughter is in the hospital getting a bone marrow transplant. The procedure went smoothly and now they watch and wait. It was a reality check that stopped me dead in my tracks. We can make just about anything out to be "life or death" in its rating of importance, but when we see what truly is about "life and death", it brings us a much needed jolt of awareness.

So we'll keep shopping around for a good car deal. But more importantly, I'll hug my kids extra hard tonight and keep Amanda in my thoughts and prayers.