So. Tired. And so thankful for the blessings of safety and compassion today.

I am a person who functions best on lots of sleep—seven hours minimum, nine hours ideally—and am going on five and four hours respectively for the past two nights. My husband sleeps a lot less than I do, but is going on his third overnighter at the hospital and has only slept a couple of hours total that entire time. Yet the Lord has granted us safety, keeping us from the very real danger of falling asleep at the wheel and causing ourselves or others harm. I will be able to rest tonight, but the doctor told the family today to say their goodbyes and tell my husband’s mother it’s okay to let go—so it’s doubtful my husband will get much rest. If you happen to read this, your prayers for comfort and continued safety/protection over him would be appreciated.

I am also so thankful for the compassion, generosity, and understanding of my colleagues. I told my supervisor and co-teacher of the situation, and was offered immediate compassion and understanding. My supervisor told me to hand off my classes in the coming week so I didn’t have to worry about them at all. My co-teacher of one semester is planning to take on my full workload in the class we teach together next week—our normal split is 80/20—which leaves me with a bit of prep work to do for him and only a one-credit class I’ve taught 20+ sections of in the past few years to make arrangements for, if need be. What a relief, and what a blessing.

I’ll add the blessing of modern medicine to the end of this, since when I started typing I had a massive headache that I’ve been fighting all day, but the ibuprofen and prayer I took and whispered half an hour ago are kicking in—no more pounding, and a bit of relief. Thank you, Lord, for all you do—for taking care of us, watching over us, and directing our hours, days, and paths.