The Unexpected

Many days, as I pray over my day and write in my prayer journal, I ask God for grace and strength to face the unexpected. I lay my to-do list out, the people on my mind, any health issues, concerns about my kids, burdens for Brian, struggles, my schedule. Then I add in the unexpected.

The unexpected has taken many forms.

For me personally, every few years, I manage to end up in the hospital for some reason or another. That's always unexpected.

It has been someone calling with a need that completely changes the course of my day, or week.

Last week, it was finding out someone I love lost her dad in a tragic way. Unexpected.

Hearing a recent pancreatic cancer diagnosis for a family friend. Unexpected.

It has often been one of the boys getting injured, and sidetracking me with bandaging, comforting, wrapping, icing, and minor surgery in the bathroom. (I really am good at getting splinters out.)

It was being in a car wreck on our way to a family day at the rodeo.

It was chunks of burned coffee cake churning out black smoke and beginning to ignite in the bottom of the oven when I was pre-heating it for dinner. Of course, this wouldn't have been unexpected if I had just remembered to clean out the burned chunks....By the time I got the oven cooled and cleaned out, dinner was rrreeealllly late.

Or, it has been reaching for a new half-gallon of milk in the fridge and watching an open cup of a sticky drink pour all over the fridge. We do have an no-open-container-in-the-fridge law in our house, but it is often overlooked. On the bright side, my neglected fridge gets a good cleaning this way.

There is always the good old-fashioned car malfunction. Familiar territory, but always unexpected.

It has been Brian texting to say he'll be late due to an unexpected visitor at the office, or a computer problem, or needing to go help someone who is having a car problem.

I also think fondly of the carbon monoxide leak and resultant new blisteringly expensive boiler system. Unexpected to the max. (Oh, how I miss saying "to the max". Some things about the 80's need to stay in the 80's, but "to the max" just says it all. I might revive "to the max" in my own vocab, but I will leave "gag me with a spoon" right where it is.)

Visiting viruses violently visit very unexpectedly. (I fought the urge to include the words virulent and vicious....)

Balloons seem to pop (haha--get it?) into my life from every angle, just when I'm not expecting them. ENOUGH with balloons already. I am worn thin on that unexpected encounter. I am finally on the upswing from three days of battling a balloon-related allergic reaction that would not leave me alone. I had not scheduled that into my weekend. Unexpected.

Stubbed toes, migraines, traffic jams, broken appliances, tragedy....life sure does bring the unexpected.

How about hearing Joseph yelling from the basement, "There is water pouring through the ceiling!" That was last night, following a day when my grouchy self just needed to get in bed and un-grouchify.

Did you ever expect that a paper you left inside your printer/scanner could end up soaking wet? Dripping? Yeah, me neither. Following an unexpectedly great visit with a friend last week (not all the unexpected is negative), I left a paper that I had scanned for her in the scanner. Last night, after racing down the stairs to respond to Joseph's yell about ceilings and water, I discovered my paper was drenched. As well as the printer. And some other odds and ends. And the wall was dripping with water. And the papers on the bulletin board were wet and smudged. Yup. Unexpected. Who knew that a 6-year-old taking a shower could partially flood the downstairs desk and fill the printer with water? Not me.

So, today, fully expecting the unexpected, I prayed about it again. Then I headed downstairs to see how much water had drained out of the printer overnight.