Happy New Year?

If yesterday is a sign of how 2008 is going to be in our family, I am no longer looking forward to it AT ALL.

This past week has been really hard with MIL in the hospital, DH thought I was being jealous...perhaps I was, but when he saw what I have seen all along, I think he forgave me pretty well.

He called to see when she was getting out of the hospital yesterday morning, no answer. She called him back at lunch time to say that they were keeping her, oh well. He had already told her LAST week, that he would NOT be able to let the dog out, or take her home Today because today is my appointment with the neurosurgeon. He gave the heads up from the get go, so she knew.
Well, after a very long week of him going back and forth getting things for her (things like fiber supplements, don't hospitals provide that stuff if its necessary?) for three days and letting her dog out she called him on New Years Eve to tell him she would need her keys back because they were going to be discharging her New Years morning.
They got into it when he pointed out that they likely would not discharge her til the afternoon (she has insurance, and you know, hospitals LOVE to get their money's worth out of them) She yelled at him and told him to just go let the dog out then bring her her keys, because now she was mad that he wasn't going to take her home on the 2nd.

He went, let the dog out, filled the gas tank, called me to tell me he was on his way home. An Hour later, He walks in the door as mad as can be. As soon as he walked in, they decided to discharge her. He says because they could not give him a straight answer (any of the previous 4 times they had talked during the day) that he was not taking her home at that point.

He has never been one to take well to sudden changes in plan unless they are a true emergency, so when the doctor tried getting in his face and not letting him leave, yelling and cursing at him, he was kicked out of the hospital.

I think the harsh reality is while this was all happening, his mom said NOTHING. Not a thing. If someone was screaming at my child five years old or fifty years old, I would NOT sit there and say Nothing.
I asked him what he would have done if it was Lauren who had come in to pick him up, he admitted he would have stood up for her as well. As a parent, as a Wife, as a sister, as a friend, no matter who you are, no normal person would stand there and not react while YOUR doctor screams at your visitor.

My mom is a very mellow, don't yell at anyone type of person, she always has been, but when I was a very young teen, probably 9th grade or so maybe younger, I was sick, nothing abnormal, ( I was ALWAYS sick) but we went to the doctor, she told my mom that I was probably faking to get out of going to school, my mom made her apologize to me, and she did not even say it to my face. If my mom will stick up for me at 14 or younger, when she was still the one in charge and most kids are not considered important, why then did his mom not say a word to stick up for her 32 year old son who has jumped at her every whim the past week?

I am very protective of my husband, he does not see the problem til its really deeply affected his being, and I guess its my job, because I do NOT feel bad about holding him and telling him that I love him no matter what.
I am so grateful that I took the time to pray over our house when I seriously wondered what God was going to allow us to go through next. Yes, God puts us through the fire, he can't refine us without the fire. He can't mold us without mushing the clay down again and again making it soft and supple.
Do I blame God for all of these challenges, not in the least. When I pray, I hear those simple words, DO YOU TRUST ME?
Yes, Lord, I trust you. Even when it hurts, I can see that its only going to make us better in the long run.