Though nothing about this is set in stone, as a general rule I see that the cup is half full and Mark tends to see it as half empty. This is alright… together we have a full cup. When one of us is leaking, the other has been there to patch it all up. It’s a good system and it works well for us.

Lately that cup appears to be more of a sieve with water leaking all over the place. How grateful we are for friends who have shown right up – ready to support us and stop the flow. Not only do they stop the leaks, they support and sustain us – sharing some of their own water to refill our cup.

Three days later – I titled this post and wrote those two paragraphs -then left my computer. This morning I realized that I really did spring a leak this week – Jackie and I were driving out to see the construction when the right back tire of our truck kind of exploded. We had heard a small noise so I was checking the tire pressure on the dash because I had been watching the left back tire which had been low for about a week. Everything was fine – then there was a much louder noise and I watched the pressure on the back right tire go from 36 to 2 in moments. We limped around the corner to our friends’ home.

Thankfully they were home along with their son and our friends across the street. We drive a Ford F150 and have now learned that they are known for being a bit stubborn when it comes to tire removal… which gave us time to enjoy the company of their wives and children. There were a dozen things to be grateful for that night… we were driving slowly, we were right by our friends, they were home, YouTube instructions, spring evenings… even our friend’s elderly father drove over to help.

I was thinking of all of this as I got ready this morning – and I began to think that it had all been a blessing for my blog post – a very tangible leak had been repaired by friends!! I was going to write about the imaginary cup of water being patched and repaired by the prayers of friends. I know that prayers make a great difference and we are so grateful!! The flat tire was an opportunity to accept the gift of the time and skills of friends – helping me to do what I could not do for myself.

(And a follow up by family yesterday as Greg and Jackie took the truck in to have the tires taken care of.)

Hands-on help and prayers and everything in-between. Thank you to all who love us and look after us. Mark had scans on Monday and we are driving up to see our doctor this morning. He has been battling a cough which had us pretty freaked out for awhile but we now hope is just a respiratory illness. On the medication front – we have had a little setback. Our doctor asked him to begin taking small doses. He gets two weeks worth of pills at a time – 4 pills per dose. She said to begin with one pill for a few days and taper up… so on Saturday it was time to open the new bottle so he could begin two pills per day. What a shock to find it only contained FOUR pills total?!

Of course it was the weekend – so he ordered more pills which cannot arrive until Friday! So we are out of meds but maybe this will help him fight the cough? Anyway, we look forward to visiting with our doctor this morning and I’ve got to be on my way…