This week has just been “one of those weeks”. Today has fitted perfectly into the profile of what you would expect during “one of those weeks”. On the outside I have remained calm at all costs – inside I have been counting down the hours till the end of my day – which was progressively getting longer and longer. At 5 o clock I had to be a part of interviewing someone, then rush off just before the end of it to get the girls to the shops before they closed so that they could choose a baby shower gift for one of their teachers, and then get home to start supper.
It was at 5.50 – as we were leaving the mall – that Rhys phoned to say he had bad news. He had found Michaela’s mommy hamster dead on the lawn. The mommy hamster who has 8 two day old babies. Which was the first thing I thought of. I asked Rhys to phone the pet shop before they closed….at 6! to ask them if they have a mother who might be able to feed the babies. And then I had to break the news to Michaela that her hamster is dead.
Anyone who has had a long enough conversation with Michaela since April will know that she has hamsters. She bought them, cares for them, can tell you the most random facts about them, and totally loves them. Most of her pocket money is spent on home improvements for them. So hearing this news was devastating for her.
When we arrived home, Rhys had just gotten off the phone to the Pet-Shop-Man. He had a mommy hamster with babies there and he would wait after hours so that Rhys and Michaela could take the babies there and see if the mother would feed these babies as well as her own. Michaela left with Rhys, sobbing her heart out and overwhelmed with guilt.
Half an hour later they returned. Michaela even more traumatized than when she had left. The mother hamster at the pet shop had eaten 2 of the babies right in front of her.
So Rhys phoned our neighbours, who run World of Birds - and are always hand rearing something – to see if they had any advice. They were so amazing. They gave Michaela a heat light and set up a little nursery for her, made up a mixture of ideal milk, probiotics and vitamin drops. Gave her the tiniest dropper and showed her how to feed them, and even lent her a digital thermometer to keep track of the temperature in the “nursery”.
Michaela started settling down emotionally. Rhys bravely offered to sleep in her room with her tonight, and wake up every 3 hours to help her feed her babies which she was very grateful for.
We eventually had supper at about 8.30 and I finally, with a deep sigh of relief, went to run my bath water, feeling very proud of myself that I had gotten to the end of the day, still holding onto that very thin thread, until I put my hand in to test the bath water temperature…….and it was luke warm! The thread snapped as I rolled my eyes heaven-ward and thought: Really! U allowed me to have cold bath water after the type of day I’ve had! Really?!
As I was sitting in my room, fuming over my day and this week, Michaela walked in and said: “ I think I know why this happened to me today. I heard that it happened to someone called Job. All these bad things happened and the Lord was testing his faith. I think He was testing my faith today”.
“So how do you think that worked out for you”? I asked her
“Well, I still have my faith” she said and walked out the room.
