Soaring Through a Rough Week on Eagle's Wings

I've had the most amazing week this week and I wanted to blog about it while it was still fresh. First of all, it was the week of my play. I don't know exactly now to describe how busy and demanding this is. The best way might be to compare it to Tax Season for an accountant. It's just incredibly busy in terms of time and all-consuming emotionally and mentally.

On Monday, our first dress rehearsal was extremely rough. They always are--and the play always ends up turning out well. But still, this one was unusually rough and I was pretty discouraged--and worried. I can't express how stressful this is. In theatre, you're only as good as your last production. 

Meredith and I do a lot of praying the week of a play and sometimes I wonder if I direct as much as I sort of pray things into being. But the second dress rehearsal went much better on Tuesday. 
I called home on after rehearsal to see how Mere's day had been. She told me she wasn't feeling good. She had the chills and body aches and was also running a fever. I had a bunch of things I had to do at school but when I got home it was clear she was pretty sick. She said she was just tired, but it was obvious she had the flu. 

The next day she wasn't any better, in fact, she was worse. I felt bad to leave her, but there was no way I could miss work that day. 

We had another pretty good rehearsal--it wasn't quite at performance level, but it was close enough that I felt like the play would be in acceptable parameters the next night. I got home late, pretty tired. I did a little laundry and got the little boys to bed so Mere could rest. 

At 1:00, our 4 year old started crying. I staggered out to his bed. He was clutching his chest and saying that breathing hurt and that his heart hurt. After a few minutes it didn't go way, so I got dressed and woke my 17 year old up to go with us to the ER. Mere wanted to go with us, but I didn't think she should go to the ER with the flu. 

We drove about 30 minutes to the nearest ER. I was going 80 mph on these twisty, turning country roads, with Jeffy crying and clutching his chest the whole time. 

Mercifully, the ER was empty--no one but us, so they got us in quickly. It turned out that he had pneumonia. We got back home at 4:00 in the morning.

That day was the first performance. It went well--but by the time I got home, I was so sore and tired I could barely move. I was afraid I was coming down with Meredith's flu. But, I woke up the next morning and felt fine.

Last night, after the last successful performance, I was driving home and I realized that in objective terms, it had been a really difficult week. The sickness, the lack of sleep, the stress of the play--all of those were reasons that I should have been distressed and depressed. But neither Mere nor I were. 

I had the feeling all week of being carried a long, above the storms. The Bible talks about how God will carry us as if on eagle's wings. That was a very real feeling this past week. Since it's Sunday, I wanted to take a moment and acknowledge it. I am keenly aware of how much the Lord blesses me, day in and day out. I'm so grateful that I can lean on His strength when I have none left.