Oh what a day, quite different from what we had envisioned! This was a day we had anticipated for quite some time as the launch date of the church plant we are part of, Iglesia Biblica La Cosecha (Harvest Bible Chapel Mexico). But sadly we missed out on this momentous occasion due to a series of unforeseen events. Loren left for church early since he was playing bass on the worship team. I later followed with the girls in the van. Only I didn’t make it very far because as we were going down the hill near our home, I was distracted by two mosquitoes that were flying around the inside of the van. As one ventured over to my side of the van, I thought, “I’m going to kill that nasty thing.” Apparently I was pretty engrossed in the process because as I went to smack it against the window, we smashed into a pole in the middle of the road. Um, so yeah, I feel pretty stupid. Thankfully none of us were seriously injured. Lili and Violet were both crying hysterically, but I think mostly because of the shock. When I went to the back to check on the girls, Lili cried, “My shoe fell off!” I was somewhat relieved that that was her biggest complaint at the moment. I asked her where she hurt, and she stuck out her tongue, which she had bitten. I also noticed she had some scrapes from her seat belt. I called Loren and waited for him to come get us. I noticed that my cheek was bleeding and that I had a big knot on my head. I guess I hit my head on the steering wheel, but I don’t remember that. My airbag didn’t deploy, but the one on the passenger side (where no one was sitting) did. Helpful. Unfortunately, that wasn’t the end of our injuries. We called a tow truck and had them take the van to our house. Loren was in the driver’s seat while they were unloading it, but then as he tried to get out, the driver pushed the van back and it rolled backwards, smashing Loren into the wall. The driver had to pull the van off of Loren to unpin him. We were worried that he might have fractured his pelvis, so he went to the emergency room. Later some friends picked the girls and me up and dropped me off at the hospital. I wasn’t planning on getting examined, but our friends and Loren both encouraged me to do so, so we both got x-rays taken and waited for our friend Oscar, who is a doctor at the hospital, to give us the results. We felt pretty silly sitting in the waiting room in hospital gowns, and even more silly being pushed around the hospital in wheelchairs. It turns out that Loren didn’t have any fractures (Praise God!) and I have a rectified cervical spine (or something like that). Still not entirely sure what that means, but I think the whiplash caused my spine in my neck to lose the natural curve it normally has. Oscar said to wear a soft neck brace for 2 weeks, and I should be fine. He prescribed some pain meds for both of us and we went out to dinner with him and some other friends from the church. As we were sitting there eating together, I was thinking how nice it was to be with friends in the middle of a somewhat miserable situation. We were able to laugh and have a good time. Pastor Antonio had announced in church that we were in an accident. We had SO many calls from people checking on us. It’s so nice to feel loved and cared for. I am so sad that we missed the launch service of our church, and I have no idea why all this had to happen. Becky had mentioned in the staff meeting last week that she thought we (as a church, as church leaders) would be attacked by the enemy, especially on the day of our first service, as we have already seen his attacks. We know he doesn’t like what we’re doing. I’m not too upset about it all. I am more just grateful the girls are OK and I’m trusting God to provide as He always has. Even though I might think this all happened because of my own stupidity, I still cling to Romans 8:28-29: “And we know that all things work together for good to those who love God, to those who are the called according to His purpose. For whom He foreknew, He also predestined to be conformed to the image of His Son, that He might be the firstborn among many brethren.” Kind of hard to get around the word “all” in that passage. The words “through it all” kept running through my head, and I was trying to remember what song had those words in it. Then I remembered it’s “More Than I Can Bear” by Kirk Franklin. Just got through listening to that song a couple of times. The chorus says, “He’ll never put more on me than I can bear.” So true!
On a happy note, we came home to a nice little surprise. So let me back up. Yesterday we went to the Xochimilco market and bought 3 chickens. You probably have no idea how exciting this is for me, but I have been wanting chickens for a long time. Part of moving to the house we are in now is that it has a yard where we could put our chickens and goats some day. Well, I was actually hoping within a few months of moving in. But here we are almost a year after moving into our house and we have chickens!! For those of you who don’t know, I am so into the whole urban farm thing. There is an urban farm in a southern California suburb that is my inspiration. I look at that blog and think, “someday.” Yes, I am the woman with a garden on the roof (Loren just made me 2 square-foot garden beds!) and 2 composts. I love the idea of eating “the fruit of our labor,” home-grown food, free of chemicals. In Chicago, I used to try to buy free-range eggs, but here they’re more difficult to find, so I decided the only solution was to get some chickens, so that’s been my dream for the past couple of years. So a week ago, Loren built a coop (can I just say that I have a very talented husband?) and fenced off a small part of our front yard (which is actually supposed to be a parking space) and yesterday we brought home 3 chickens. I was literally jumping around, and Loren told me that I wasn’t that happy when we got married (which isn’t true, of course. He’s crazy). I just love hearing them softly cluck and watching them scavenge around for bugs. It’s so soothing to me, makes me feel like I’m “back on the farm.” Oh wait a minute, I didn’t grow up on a farm – that was Loren. Guess I’m just a farm girl at heart. =) Yesterday, I thought it was hysterical when one of the chickens got so excited about a big fat centipede she had found and how she protectively guarded it from the others as she savored her delectable treat. I thought, “You go, girl! I’m scared to death of those things!” So two of them have another month or so before they’re old enough to lay eggs, but the other one is already laying we were told. The two small red ones we named “Rosie” (I picked that name) and “Chickie” (Loren picked that name). The large white one we named “Cici” (Lili picked that name). I honestly didn’t have great expectations when I went out to check the nesting box this morning. Somehow I just figured it wouldn’t be that easy. I figured the chickens might require some coaching. So I wasn’t too surprised to find the nesting box empty. But tonight, when Pastor Antonio and Becky dropped us off at home, Loren went to put Cici in the coop, as she was the only one who hadn’t gone in there. And to my delight, he pulled out a beautiful brown egg! Our first egg. I’m so proud.
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