High and Low

Yesterday was E-day, extermination day. Sunday evening we took the kids up to Andy's parents to spend the night and then we came home and started packing everything from the closets and bookshelves, so that the exterminators could spray everything. I was up until 6:00 am. I slept until 8:30 am and the exterminators were here at 9:15 am. A crew of three men came in and started steaming the mattresses and spraying insecticide along all the baseboards and ceilings. They also dusted all the electrical outlets and light switches. Their was good news. They found no "nests" or clusters of bed bugs. The only one they did find was between Andy's and my box springs (we have a king size bed with twin box springs underneath. They treated the box springs well and also the furniture downstairs. I was really beginning to feel good about the entire situation. There was light at the end of this horrendously dark tunnel.

After the exterminators were done, I went up to pick up the kids. I stayed for about an hour and then gathered their things (very limited in what they took and all clothes were in a sealed plastic bag). We hit a few stores on the way home, including Atlantic Book Warehouse. The one on rt. 309 is closing and they were having a sale. I went in telling the kids were weren't going to buy just because it was on sale. We would look. The books were only 25% off so the sale wasn't great. But while I was looking I found this:

It was just lying there innocently on a pile of books! I have been looking for this book for 6 years! It is out of print and people on http://www.half.com/ want $25-$55 for the thing! And they are ex-library copies! I only paid $4.75! I have needed it to almost complete the books needed for Before Five in a Row. I now only need Yellow Ball. I did the program with Sarah when she was three and was hoping to start the program with Daniel in January. Yellow Ball is a book available at our library, but My Blue Boat is something I had to borrow from a Florida library last time! I was on cloud nine....until I came home.

I was putting the kids to bed when Matt said his elbow itched and upon closer inspection they looked like bug bites. I immediately went into panic mode when he said they had started itching THAT MORNING! He woke up at his grandparent that morning. Had I not been cautious enough when taking them up there? I immediately called Andy's parents and asked them to bag up all the bedding. Lois said she would put it outside until she could get to it. She has an insane work schedule this week. After getting the kids in bed, I started putting everything into a bag to take downstairs to wash when I found a little beast on Sarah's jacket. That was all it took for Satan to take control of my thinking, throw me into a pit of despair, and become depressed with the possibility that I had infested my in-laws house with bed bugs. I called them up crying and apologizing for what I may have done. I am still crying. After feeling so good about the situation, I am back into obsession mode. I am consumed with the thought of bed bugs. I am weary to the point of tears. I think it has hit me so hard because I view Andy's parents home as a safe haven. A place of refuge from all that is ugly in this city. A place I can go and feel welcome and loved and secure in the midst of this chaotic life. I do not want these little beasts to invade my place of refuge. They have already invaded my thoughts and home.

Lois and John are two of God's greatest blessings in my life. It is killing me inside to think I may have brought this plague upon them. Please pray with me that there are NO bed bugs up at the Schultz'. Please pray for me to really trust God in this situation. I am still struggling with the why of this whole situation. I just want this to be done and be able to live comfortably in my own house without fear and worry.