Seems I've heard that phrase somewhere before. If my memory is correct, someone named Alexander experienced a similar day. (
Alexander and the Terrible, Horrible, No Good, Very Bad Day
)
My Thursday was horrible by all accounts. If I hadn't experienced it, I'd have thought the person telling me about it was crazy. That's why I prefer not to talk to myself.
My morning started at 3am. And I don't even have a baby in the house right now! After 2 hours of cramping, I finally was able to go back to sleep at 5am. (Just in time for waking up at 6am!) I felt just as bad when I woke up as I had at 3am. NOT a good start to the day!
After taking hubby to work, I headed to a doctor's appointment. I was supposed to be there at 10:10am. After my doctor's appointment, the kids and I were planning on having lunch at the park. I then needed to do some laundry and pack as we were leaving at 7:30 the next morning to head to Flint for a mini-vacation with Discover Michigan for Gary's job.
It was 9:15am. As I was about to enter the highway, I noticed my car was past hot. It was seriously overheating. Lovely.
I turned around thinking I could make it back to Gary's work. I didn't. After the car started smoking at the next intersection, I pulled the car into the nearest parking lot. Gary was in a meeting and I didn't know when he'd be out. Thankfully, a friend was able to help.
Did I mention that my hormones also started going crazy that morning? I literally woke up on the verge of crying. The car breaking down did NOT help that.
My friend gets there and we try to figure out what to do since her car only has enough room for 5 people total. And there were 4 of us...plus she and her 2 children. Somehow the numbers weren't adding up. And she didn't own a clown car.
We solved our problem by her taking my oldest, our son, and her son to her house. I kept my other daughter, and her 4month old baby. (It was horrible, I tell you.
Having to hold a sweet baby for 30 minutes!) While she took them home and came back for the rest of us, I walked over to Gary's work. The baby was passed around, hubby and I talked, I cried...because I was horribly emotional, and my friend came to get us.
Shortly after, I learned that I had not actually completely miscarried yet. Hence the cramps at 3am and when I woke up. UUGH! Let's add something
else to my day, please. Did I mention my hormones were also going crazy, and pretty much
anything would set off my tear ducts right about then? Like if you looked at me. Or if a cat walked by. Or a bird flew overhead. Or I had a thought.
Anything. Literally.
After I watched my children plus her baby at her house while she went to a planned appointment with her son, I finally made it to my doctor's appointment...using her car. I got there at 2pm. (Remember, my appointment was a 10:10?) This was an urgent situation, though, so they had no choice BUT to reschedule me. Thankfully, they were understanding.
At 3pm, her husband, a mechanic, took us over to Gary's work then went to work on our car. Gary's work offers a very nice benefit. They have a company car which anyone in the company can check out and use at any time. I hadn't immediately utilized this option because I'd hoped my car would be fixed by now. With all the appointments and running around, though, that hadn't happened. I also knew that this car was a piece of junk. Literally. It is a 1980 something car that they refused to repair despite many things wrong with it; although it usually at least got you from point A to point B. Not in comfort, but it got you there.
It was now 3:30, and I still had laundry and packing to do plus a meeting at 7pm. I didn't have time to reject a working car. We settled into the car and headed off. ("Settling" being defined as: Ensuring that the car has enough coolant as the "low coolant" light likes to come on and kill the car if all reservoirs aren't full, children climbing through the doors that do open to get to the side of the car where the door doesn't open, putting my purse behind my back because the seat wouldn't move and is stuck as far back as it can possibly be, rolling all of the windows down as the air conditioner doesn't work...and ensuring that the bobby pin is properly in place so we can roll said windows back up when we're at our destination...praying there is actually gas in the vehicle since the gas gauge is broken and I have no idea who last drove it, reminding the kids that they can't touch the radio or anything else as touching one thing can spark an electrical issue in another area of the car, etc.)
My first goal was to get to the gas station to ensure that I knew it had gas. As we were almost to the gas station, the car jumped, sputtered, the "low coolant" light came on, and just as I had it in the median of the road, died completely.
I lost it. Completely. With my children right there.
It was now 4pm, 2 cars had died on me, my laundry still wasn't done, I hadn't even started packing, my kids would want dinner in about an hour, and my friend couldn't come pick me up again because she was gone now. (And her hubby was still working on our car.) Did I mention that we needed our car to leave town at 7:30 am the next morning for hubby's work? Yeah. It was THAT kind of day!
I called a neighbor in tears, and she kindly came to pick us up. She also offered her washer knowing that ours had died, we couldn't drive to the laundromat, and we liked having clean clothes. At least I could pack and do laundry. Didn't know how or when I'd pick my husband up from work, but at least I could pack and do laundry. And feed the children. Home is a good place to be even if you're stuck.
At this point, I also called and told the leader of my bible study that I wouldn't be there. There is only so much I can handle in one day. She was understanding, and assured me they'd pray for my husband and children as they attempted to deal with my hormones. (Did I mention my hormones were going crazy?) And for a quick fix to our car.
I also advised my husband that he had better e-mail the people in Flint and let them know
that his wife was crazy that we likely would be a little late tomorrow.
Just as I was wondering if my husband would actually have to walk home, my friend called me to let me know that her husband had finished working on our car. She would come pick me up in our car, we would take her back to her car, and then she would go to our bible study and
let everyone know that I was uber hormonal and that they should consider saving my family from me give everyone an update on our situation.
Life from there on out was exactly as planned. Wait. No. That's not right. Let's try that again.
We picked my husband up, and grabbed a quick dinner out because there was no way I was going to walk into my kitchen and touch fire after the day I'd had. He then took us home, and went BACK to work where he stayed until midnight!! I'm not quite sure if he actually had that much work to do or if he just was scared of my uber hormonal state. I'm pretty sure it's the latter. I don't blame him.
Still, throughout this entire day, the one thing I noticed (after the hormones calmed down and I was pseudo-normal again), was that God was with us the entire day. Our car
could have broken down when we were on the highway and miles away from an exit on Friday. It
could have broken down while we were on our way to Flint or in Flint. It could have broken down anywhere or anytime else than when it did. But it didn't. It happened at probably the best time possible. (If there is a
best time for a car to break down.)
The doctor's appointment? It was actually probably better that it got postponed. Had I been on time, then I wouldn't have known yet that I wasn't done miscarrying. As it was, I knew that by the time I actually went to the doctor. So we were able to address that then instead of having to schedule yet another appointment. (I had already had 2 in 2 days.)
We were never alone. In every instance, God provided a friend to help us. Two to pick us up and one to fix our car immediately. Our laundry did get done. We got packed. We made it to our mini-vacation. (And had a great time, I might add!)
It
was a "terrible, horrible, no good, very bad day". (Probably made much worse by my ever-present, bubbling over emotions.) But God was there. Even in the timing of the bad, I see His hand at work.
What more could we ask for; even in a terrible, horrible, no good, very bad day?
-Me