I dread the thought of solo-parenting whenever my husband travels overseas for work. With his absence, I also need to double up on parenting duties and the household chores my husband typically handles.
Recently, my son experienced a recurrent eye infection while my husband was away. Juggling my solo responsibilities already felt overwhelming, so I postponed taking my son to his eye doctor, hoping my husband could handle it upon his return. Unfortunately, things did not go as planned.
One morning, I received a call from my son’s school before heading out for a work meeting. Hearing my son’s voice my heart sank with deep anxiety, mom guilt and stress. His Physical Education teacher had noticed his eye condition and sent him to the General Office. While my son explained the situation over the phone, my meeting was about to begin. I felt paralyzed, unsure of what to do next. How could I possibly drop everything to pick him up from school?
As I attempted to guide my son in explaining to his teacher that his condition was non-contagious and he could just rest at the sick bay before going back to his lessons, my mind was overwhelmed, making it a struggle to find the appropriate English words to convey the message, as I am more comfortable and fluent in Mandarin. It was then that another teacher, who happened to be my church mate and had been with my son in the General Office, took over the call to update me about his condition. However, she could not stay for long, so she handed the phone to my son’s Chinese teacher who happened to walk in. I was able to adequately explain my son’s condition to her in Mandarin. Thankfully, the Chinese teacher assured me that an experienced staff could tend to his infected eye and let him rest. Later, this staff also called to update me on my son’s condition.
After these phone conversations, I broke down helplessly in tears. “Lord, I can’t cancel my work meeting to bring my son home; I can’t do anything at all for him now. Please help me and my son!” I desperately cried out to God. My natural tendency is to harbour guilt as a failed mother and blame my husband’s absence and inaction. Just then, in my guilt and helplessness, I received a text from a WhatsApp group chat that ended with this line, “Whoever believes in Him will not be disappointed.” (Romans 10:11; NASB1995). It dawned on me that my Jesus had been calling me to trust in Him.
Divinely, God had arranged 3 persons to help. When I had no resources or help to turn to in that urgent situation, He sent my church mate whom my son is familiar with to comfort him, and allowed the Chinese teacher to speak to me when I was lost for words), and arranged a caring staff to tend to my son’s eye. God had prepared them at the right time for the exact needs of my son and I, way before I knew what was going to happen.
Indeed, we are not to give up trusting in our God in all situations. Even though we cannot fathom just how He is going to deliver or provide for us, He promised that we will not be disappointed when we keep on trusting in Him. Psalm 139:16-17 (ESV) tells us, “in your book were written, every one of them, the days that were formed for me, when as yet there was none of them. How precious to me are your thoughts, O God! How vast is the sum of them!” We may easily forget about God or find it hard to trust Him, yet the sum of His thoughts for us remains vast. He thinks about all the days that were ordained for us. He thinks about all the little details of you and your children’s daily life.
Heather, Mother of two
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