A Hug from a Homeless Man

It's been a weird week. Buck flew to Denver to be with his dad, who had a stroke a little over a week ago. He has some vision impairments, he can't feel his left side, and he gets confused easily. However, it was a good time to connect with that side of his family and to support them in a time of worry and stress. He continued building a relationship with his step-brother, who is a veterinarian. I don't know if it was like a trust exercise or what--but Buck let him put acupuncture needles in his neck to help with all the migraine and various body pains he's been having for the past year. It helped some!

When he returned home, Buck went to see a physical therapist, who has a totally new idea on what might be wrong--this time involving the lungs and posture. Buck is skeptical, but trying the exercises and planning to do the follow-up appointment later this week.

My birthday happened; the kids made some very cute decorations--I'll have to post them later, this web browser won't let me upload pictures for whatever reason. They also made me some sweet video messages, that I'll try to post.

Then we drove to the northern lands for a hunting trip. Before three of the kids and I even left home, Buck and Brennen already had a deer (they left the night before)! We decided to continue the weekend plan, though possibly shorten it. Off we went and spent quality time with the family at Aunt C's. Good laughs with the cousins. And all the littles like to play together. Good food, good day! Another deer joined the first with three child hunters in tow--Gab and B had no problem with the gutting or skinning, and actually wanted to help. Wow!

We ate a terrible breakfast at the hotel, watched the kids enjoy the water park slides and such, then checked out early. We enjoyed dinner with the fam, and then started the drive home through a thick, dense, dreamlike fog. It was actually kind of scary! I was so tired from all the exhaustion of the week preceding, that I could barely keep my eyes open. We stopped for gas and caffeine (Dr. Pepper?) and made it home safely--flipping to 100,000 miles along the way!

Buck and the eldest got to work butcher-shopping the doe and buck we brought home, while B and I did a little birthday money shopping and went to pick up our pup. The medical-discharge only thing was an unpleasant wait, and the potential diagnosis even more heart-shaking. Not to mention the (once again) $1,000 worth of surgical procedure forthcoming a.s.a.p. with potential chemotherapy to follow. Really? Ugh. Poor dog! The blessing of having a vet in the family, who Buck is now on a text, call, check-in with whenever comfort level, encouraged us to pursue the preliminary round of testing, which will take place tomorrow.

Later . . . checking receipts/online accounts--we found we'd been charged nearly $70 for that nasty breakfast at the hotel (Buck has called twice with no response) which is a different amount than on the receipt. We also found another restaurant charged us a $19 tip! Wow, we are not that generous :) Neither is a big deal, just little things we have to deal with. Also, an online purchase arrived today with a huge gash in it (guitar gig bag), so we must return and reorder that. Oh, and the washing machine has been gathering a pool of standing water in the tub--when it's not on!? So, we have to get that repaired . . . the list goes on . . .

However, Buck and I had talked about letting C take charge again, during daylight hours-- and keeping it local--so we could do some Christmas/kid birthday shopping. We set out after lunch and made good progress. Almost immediately we noticed a man with a cardboard sign, not on our side of the road, but where we might be able to find him later. We still have several of the portable care package bags that we packed with the kids earlier this year (though we dropped a huge bulk of them off at a shelter here in town). We kept driving, thinking we'd hopefully catch him on the way back.

In the meantime, when we parked at a sporting goods store, we heard a somewhat frantic man asking people in the parking lot for a small amount of cash to put gas in his vehicle. Most people were freaked out by this and said no. We had five bucks. He took it gratefully and ran off to his vehicle. We continued our shopping.

Several stores and hours later, we stopped at Sam's Club to utilize a $10 gift card we've had for months. This is the same Club where a big, black man gave Buck a giant hug because he felt moved by the Spirit to share a hug with a brother in the Lord. Right on! Today, we saw the homeless man walking across the parking lot, with a pretty pronounced limp. We drove across the lot and asked him if he was the man we'd seen earlier. At first he denied it and then when we asked if he was hungry, he said it was him. Buck handed him the care package and he was instantly in tears. "Why did you come back to find me?" We told him God loved him, and wanted him to know it. The man sank to his knees next to our car and wept. He said he'd put everyone he'd ever loved in the ground, why was he still here? We told him God had a reason, we didn't know what it was, but don't give up. He asked Buck if he could have a hug . . . so, through the window of the car in the Sam's Club parking lot, a broken-hearted man hugged my husband as he wept. Wow, God, that was something we didn't expect today! We didn't catch his name, but maybe say a prayer that the blue-eyed man reads the simple gospel explanation in the bag we gave him and that God's love penetrates his "heard-heart" (there might have been an expletive or two in the original version of his self-description :)

Back at the ranch, C assured us all was well (our neighbor was available for any emergencies too), so with our every half hour or less texts bolstering our confidence, Buck asked if he could take me to dinner. We really are blessed. Even when things are annoying and sad and worrying, we are blessed.

We were able to stop at the one restaurant that double charged our tip, and got our $10 back. And I heard AGAIN from our K friends (mama K has been incredibly sick with the flu and upper respiratory since they arrived home, we haven't had a chance to visit them at the house yet) about the little surprises they find here and there. Yesterday she asked who gave the boys the sleeping bags, because they've used them every day! And I told her those were from my mom. Today she messaged me pictures of the Kirkland Signature saran-wrap we left in the drawer to replace all we'd used on keeping paint brushes wet between coats. She's so grateful for even the little things; we should all be too!

It's been a weird week, but we're trying to walk with the Lord and see where He leads! Ups and downs are part of the path. We're doing our best to trust and obey.