This is a post from Blueprint Practitioner, Frank Lehane.
Needing life-saving care for a dear one can come as a shock. Add to this the shock of having to secure competent, critical care in a foreign country amidst unfamiliar languages, unfamiliar surroundings, and unfamiliar faces. The thoughts of trusting in an All-Giving God, once just a convenient idea taken for granted in good health, now smacked me with hard facts needing immediate action.
Who can I trust? Who can help us? When all you have are best-guess estimates from doctors, not to mention the looming financial liability, deciding to trust in the All-Giving God became the anchor to which my serenity and sanity were tied. Getting and staying focused on getting Kathy well enough to safely weather a transoceanic flight began giving me glimmers of confidence, calm, and even joy as the day of departure and homecoming drew near.
Once we made it safely home, only then could I allow my focus to busy itself with the financial outlook ahead. Armed with a handful of receipts from the Hospital de Figueres - Spain, I submitted all to our insurance carrier. In the back of my mind, I didn’t really expect to see any reimbursement for Kathy’s overseas care, nor did I feel particularly concerned about it. After all, the All-Giving God had kept us and provided for us until now. I felt confidence and peace in whatever the financial outcome might produce.
I even found myself reassuring concerned friends who would attempt to console me by saying how they were sorry our beautiful vacation was “ruined” by an unexpected medical crisis. Although no one invites crisis into their lives, I had fun explaining how the blessings of Google Translator (neither Kathy nor I speak Spanish or Catalan), the warmth and servant hearts of the doctors and nurses (and kind patients sharing the room), and the decisive actions of travel colleagues and tour guides were actually unexpected additions to what had already been an extraordinary, once-in-a-lifetime adventure.
After over 2 months since returning home, Kathy opened our mail today, revealing a full reimbursement check from our insurance carrier for all of Kathy’s medical care in Spain. Was I surprised? I was surprised not so much by this blessed financial windfall, but much more by Kathy’s delightfully surprising question to me in light of her ordeal in Spain: “Where do you want to travel to next time?”