desert or flood...cont

So off we drove back up to Lodi for another birth. We walked in and realized it would not be long as she was already feeling pushy. Hurriedly we gathered everything that we would need for the delivery and I put on my gloves. I tried to understand some of the dutch, and actually got enough words to understand something that they said. It wasn't too long and we had a baby, a big little baby girl. This family had two invalid children and so it was in the forefront of their minds whether this little one was normal or not. Time only will tell yet being how big she was it's likely that she will be normal. We watched a beautiful sunrise there and then headed back home. I'm not sure how long it took before I fell asleep but it wasn't long. 

I practically slept-walked to my room at about 10am and crashed into my bed. I sadly forgot to turn my phone on silent and was woken up a few times, yet didn't answer the phone until about 1am when Amy called wondering when I was coming over. 

This was my day to go over to their place and cook for them. The kids were all anxiously waiting for me to come bounding in the door. My voice gave away the fact that she had woken me up. Realizing that I should probably get up if I was going to make it over to her place I slid out of my bed onto my knees, a bit sad that I had only had about 3 hours of sleep. 

I had a nice breakfast at 2pm, pancakes, hash-browns, scrambled tofu, and some fruit. I had to clean out my fridge. I made it to Amy's at about 4:30pm. 

What to do??? Back and forth and back and forth we went. Should we go or shouldn't we. Only 3 feet away and facing each other?? That would be a bit strange. I still wanted to go but Amy wasn't so sure ;) It was my last chance to go to a Sunday-night Amish Youth Sing, and I had really wanted to go to one. But I didn't want to look totally out of place, so we were going back and forth about it (while starting to cook) when Amy's phone rang. 

I knew exactly what that meant when I heard the tone of her voice, off to another birth! We left our food on the table, soycurls soaking, cashews in the blender and ran out the door. How much fun, 2 births together in 24 hours! As we neared the house the husband called again saying she was feeling really pushy, I knew what he was saying by the fact that we started going a whole lot faster up and down and around the hilly curvy roads. We had been praying that it would be quick, yet that we wouldn't miss it, and it looked like the Lord was answering our prayers. 

As we pulled into the lane Amy looked at me and asked how I'd get out. I had already started rolling down the window and just smiled at her as I prepared to jump out. 

We ran in the door and had 6 minutes before Ruby was born. Were they ever happy we got there when we did! After our routine of baby exams and rocking we drove "home" to finish making dinner. 

Micah took the soycurls out and tried one, un-seasoned! He was a bit skeptical that what I was going to do to it would give it great flavor but was he ever surprised :) The kids gave me quite the "welcome" home!! I should have known they were up to something, I thought the house looked a bit dark but never dreamed they were planning something. 

We all rushed around getting dinner ready, boy was that ever fun! Then we sat down to our meal at a horrible hour, 10pm!! Can you believe it? They seemed to enjoy it and the girls made a wonderful dessert for us. I even took it with me the next day for my journey back up north. 

After cleaning up we all squeezed together on the couch and watched planet earth, well we all fell asleep at different times, but we all saw parts of it. When it was over we brought the mattresses up and fell fast asleep. What a great way to spend my last whole day in Ohio. 

It was an early morning. 5:30am, and I figured I'd better get up with all that I had to do. I was off to go clean my apartment, finish packing up, make a few stops, have a buggy ride, go to Lehmans  and then head north to Grand Rapids, MI, just to fly out the next morning for Louisville, KY. 

It was a very foggy trip home, hard to believe that a month had gone by so fast. There were many places that I couldn't see and if I had not known my way so well I would have doubted where I was going. There were times when it was clear yet many places where I could see nothing ahead of me at all. I only knew where I was and which way to go because I had traveled that road so many times. In that fog the Lord spoke to me. It seemed to be a perfect representation of where I saw my life. Not being able to see ahead as to where I should go and how I should even go about moving ahead, yet knowing the God I serve and seeing how He had led me in the past gave me faith to go forward even though the path was not clear. 

As I neared home Amy called to let me know that she was on her way over to help me clean. What a sweet friend! We cleaned and cleaned and then finished packing up my things. What a sad time, oh how fast, too fast, that month flew by. I took some final papers up to have Freida sign before running to the bank to get everything notarized. Before I ran out of my door for the last time I remember that I had something special waiting for me... my last piece of raspberry pie from Freida. Oh how very very yummy that pie was, I savored every single bite. We arrived at the bank and within two minutes we were done. Outside the bank we parted our ways with a prayer and off I drove to Amy's. 

I actually arrived before Amy did and had enough time to finish breakfast before we drove over to Regina's house for my Amish buggy ride. 

Regina, her sister, and her mom had quite a bit of fun with the idea and implementation of my dressing up as an "Amish-girl." I came downstairs and they were all smiles. Off to get the horse out of the barn and get him hitched to the buggy. I never imagined how long it would take to get everything ready to go somewhere in the buggy. It had to be at least 30 minutes after we started that we were getting into the buggy. Regina, Amy, and I all pilled into the buggy and off we went. After a little bit Regina handed me the reigns and I was able to drive most of the way until home. Seeing buggies on the road takes a whole new perspective once you've actually driven one. I was watching all the time for those crazy cars that would come speeding by. Us three girls had a wonderful ride and then I went through transformation and became "English" once again. We drove home, grateful to be able to just jump in the car and be home in only a few short minutes. We took a few more pictures... I injured myself once again, started my adventures with an injury and left my adventures with one... and then headed out the door to go to Lehman's. 

What a neat store!! Us girls had a blast going around seeing all the old stuff that they have. Later I'll post some pictures that will tell of our time there better than words can explain. 

And here ends my most amazing and wonderful blog of my unforgettable adventures of my time in Ohio...