What a day!

My friend, Allison, and I left this morning at about 8:30 to head to Children's Hospital in Dallas to visit Sharie and Drayk. Randall and Cooper did great and played well the whole trip.

We got to Children's Hospital around 10:45. Drayk looks great and has had no negative side effects to the chemo yet. I know that might come later, but Sharie is thankful for how well he's doing so far. He was excited to see Randall and Cooper and they were excited to see his toys. :-) We gave Sharie a gift basket we put together with a few things she needed and a few extras just for fun. She likes Tinkerbell and Allison found a Tinkerbell blanket and pillowcase to help make her couch-bed more cozy.

We enjoyed sitting around and talking and then walking around and chasing Drayk with his IV cart. He's a fast little bugger. Sharie's gotten good at navigating around chairs and people and such to follow Drayk, who has no fear and doesn't realize he's hooked up to anything that could get pulled out of his port if he's not careful. We had a good time.

We intended to leave around 12:30, but the lunch we ordered around noon didn't even get to us until around 12:45, so we both had to call people to pick up our kindergarteners. We didn't get away until about 2:00.

As we were switching lanes and cruising along with traffic, I noticed that the van kept drifting to the right. I asked Allison if it seemed extra windy outside and we watched the trees and decided it might be a little windy. It was really weird, feeling like I couldn't drive straight.

Then we heard a whirring sound, like loud wind noise. I checked the windows and they were all up and we couldn't figure out what the sound was. Then it got louder and Allison said it sounded like a flat tire, but neither of us had heard or felt a tire go flat, so we didn't think it could be that. But, I adjusted my side mirror so I could see the tires on my side and, lo and behold, the back left tire WAS flat! Yikes!

We had to drive a little way to get to the next exit, but there was a gas station right on the corner, so we headed for that. Then the tire started to smoke and the smell of burnt rubber filled the van. About 20 feet from where we were planning to park, the tire blew off the rim! It just shot out behind us!

We pulled into the gas station parking lot and just stood there looking at the shreds of tire remaining and shaking our heads at our bad luck. Allison said that this happens often when she's travelling and I asked her why she hadn't warned me ahead of time! :-)

Praise the Lord, a very kind and quiet man and his son (I think) came over, and asked if we had a spare tire. I'm not sure how he knew that it would be best to just take over or that we didn't know what to do, except maybe for the way we were just standing there looking at the remains of the tire and shaking our heads. I suppose that made us look inept... which we were. I know we could have figured it out, but we might have gotten dirty... or *gasp* broken a fingernail or two. I'm, like, so glad we didn't have to go through that.

Okay, all joking aside, I do praise the Lord for this man. He stepped right in, quietly and confidently, and changed the tire to the spare in less than 30 minutes. He also figured out how to get the spare tire out, which I'm sure I would have figured out at some point, but it might have taken me a while to even think to check out the owner's manual! He also had a good father/son bonding time as he walked his son (who might have been 11?) through the steps of changing a tire and helping out two damsels in distress. Then, they waved goodbye and rode off into the sunset, er, I mean, walked to the bathroom to wash their dirty hands. We thanked them over and over and they just nodded and went on with their business. I am so thankful for the kindness of strangers.
We headed for a nearby Wal-Mart and were back on the road about 40 minutes later.

I'm thankful:
* that no one was hurt and that the tire didn't blow while we were driving 70 miles an hour down the interstate.
* that a kind and safe person was nearby and was willing to take the time to help us.
* that it was on the way home, so we weren't stressed when we visited with Sharie.
* that we had both already made arrangements for people to pick up our kiddos so we didn't feel that extra stress.
* that Slade was kind and calm on the phone as he gave us advice and that he was able to take off work early to go get Russ.
* that the kids were calm, pleasant and fine with staying buckled the whole time the tire was getting changed.
* that Wal-Mart was, for once, quick at replacing the tire.
* that there was *one* container of my favorite chocolate donuts in the bakery and we bought it for the trip home. I think our stress warranted some chocolate, don't you?

Then, when we were about 7 minutes from our street, we almost rear-ended the car in front of us! Two lanes (in a 4 lane area) stopped to let someone cross over and pull into McDonald's. I saw that they had slowed down, but I assumed it was for the red light and once I saw that it was green, I slowly got off my brakes. Then I had to slam on my brakes to stop, literally inches from the bumper in front of me. Yikes!

However, we made it home in one piece and can still say that it was a good visit.

Please continue to pray for Drayk and that his body will continue to respond well to the chemo and fight off infections. Also, that the doctors will have wisdom with his treatment. And, last, for Sharie--for peace, rest, hope, joy and a sense of God's presence during this long and difficult time.