The Worse Day

I remember going to a church function and playing this ice breaker game where everyone at your table draws a piece of paper.  On the paper is a question and each person has a different one. 

I distinctly remember my question that day.  "What was the worst day you ever had?"  I thought the question was ridiculous at the time, because, let's be real- if the people you are trying to get to know only remember you for your worst day, they probably aren't going to be calling you to meet for coffee any time soon.

I answered, "My wedding day."  Crap -these people think I'm miserable in my marriage.  "I mean, the day itself sucked."  Dang! You can't say sucked at a tea.  Stupid, stupid, stupid! "The florist forgot my flowers.  And I lost the key to the reception place.  And, um, we all got caught in traffic and were late.  But, it's okay now.  We're good.  Really.  No worries.  We've even got a little girl now."   I'm officially never going to have friends.  I'm an idiot. 

That was over 7 years ago. 

And I wish that was the worse day I've ever had. 

My worse day was not that long ago.  February 1, 2012

It was a Wednesday.  Wednesdays were typically very hectic because I worked one job 8-3, then straight to my second job at night. 

I was driving my daughter, Maddie, to school.  We were almost there when she told me she forgot her backpack.  I turned around and went back to get it.  Since we are on a tight schedule in the mornings, this put me late to work.  And I HATE being late. 

When I got to work, I was already flustered because I was late.  Then I found out all of our computers were down.  In my job, that's not good.  My day just kept getting worse and worse. 

I was then late getting to my second job.  Traffic puts me in a foul mood and I just was not wanting to deal with waiting on needy people that night.

I described just how rotten of a day (year, really, but I'll get into that in a future post) I had had and said, "You know, I don't want to say that I can't handle anything else, because I'm afraid God is going to show me."

An hour later, I was walking out of the kitchen and my co-worker told me that Justin was on the phone and that it was an emergency.  Maddie.  Something's happened to Maddie. 

I answered the phone. 

He sounded worried.  "Don't freak out," he said.  "Okay.  What is it?"  I felt my stomach sinking.  Thinking of anything and everything that it could be.  "Stay calm.  Don't freak out, but. . . "

I'll never forget his next words.

"Our house is on fire."