Too Blessed to be Stressed

Last Thanksgiving, I bought a coffee mug at a Christian Book Store that says "Too Blessed to be Stressed." I joked to my husband that they had it backwards. We're too stressed to be blessed. We never get a break and it seems like we always take two baby steps forward and three bigfoot steps back.

If you're a special needs parent I'm betting you know just what I mean. I call it Nianya's Law. My own personal version of Murphy's Law:

Everything that can possibly go wrong, will go wrong, at the worst possible time.

For instance, I started reaching out to other special needs parents after what I call my rock bottom week. My then 18-month-old son was hospitalized with croup/asthma less than two days after I had oral surgery, the hospital had no idea how to deal with our son's GFCF diet and we felt like we we're alone with no one to turn to for help.

Since that time, more than four years ago, I have hit rock bottom several times. Nianya's Law never fails me. It's the one thing I can count on.

Just this past Sunday, I mentioned the hospital croup story to the Elders at our new church.

JINX.

I should know better.

Sure enough, less than 12 hours later we were headed back to the ER with another round of croup, the spare tire that my husband put on the car the night before went flat as we drove out of our driveway at 3:30 AM, the only hospital open was packed with flu victims, the hospital told us our insurance was expired, we barely got out of there four hours later in time to get our older daughter to school and, to top it all off, the whole time we were there, I kept thinking. . .

NOT NOW PLEASE. . . we've been invited to the Today Show taping at the Georgia Aquarium tomorrow morning.

I should also know better than to put my pride above my child's health, but we we're all so excited about the today show. We had special signs and T-shirts made up for the kids and it was such a great opportunity for our autistic 12-year-old.

So I prayed.

• I was afraid my son would end up in the hospital again. He didn't!


• My daughter and I made it to the Today Show taping, despite a broken-down tractor-trailer on the Interstate and everyone knows that, if there's a tractor-trailer incident on an Atlanta freeway, you might as well give it up. Not this time!


• My husband and I succumbed to the flu this week, but Not at the same time!


• My daughter did not get sick. KNOCK ON WOOD!

Things could have been worse. We have two cars, so we made it to the hospital, despite two flat tires. We were able to take turns playing Dr. Mom to our son and each other. We have wonderful friends, who helped us out, when we needed rides to and from school. We have really good insurance. I guess it was a computer glich. And most important, we have our faith.

This week was truly an example of the power of prayer at work and we are truly:

TOO BLESSED TO BE STRESSED

Nianya