Terry the Turtle

We made it through June and entered July with another whirlwind.  Mike was in town indefinitely until the baby came.  And I was READY for baby to come any day.  I'd been having significant contractions since the beginning of week 37.  The real deal.  I was dilated, effaced, and baby had totally dropped.  My kids had all come between 37 and 38 weeks, so I felt like it was any day.

We were sitting on the front porch, and I vented to him.  A lot.  I just wanted to hit the fast forward button and not have to go through another month of crazy stress.  It was hot and humid.  I was terribly uncomfortable and ready to have a baby at any time.  I felt overwhelmed with the logistics of moving, enrolling the kids in a new school, trying to build a house from a different state, and trying to imagine doing it all with a newborn.  

For a brief moment, I paused and looked out on the street.  Crossing our street was a large turtle who’d just crawled out of the storm drain. 

Now, in Nebraska, the storms are big.  And the storm drains are huge to handle the flow of water.  No storm covers; the drains are long and wide.  I used to worry my daughter would fall in if she tripped!  This turtle must have been swept into the sewers during one of the recent storms.

We’d never seen an actual turtle just crawling along our street, and the events that followed – from gathering him into a bucket, to giving him a name (Terry the Turtle), to listening to my kids try to negotiate him into a family pet, to driving him to a nearby pond and letting him go, launched one of the best afternoons and evenings we had that summer.

Some may call it a coincidence, but I testify to you that the Lord was with me that day.  All of my concerns were valid, but they were beyond my control.  While the Lord knew the path ahead, it was not time for me to know or understand it.  It was my time to deepen my trust the Lord.  To practice faith and enjoy the journey a bit more.  I am so grateful he opened the door for us to create such a beautiful and simple family memory.