Just a Little Cut

I cannot believe that we packed up our entire family and all our earthly possessions and we said goodbye to so many people we just love with our whole hearts and I didn't even blog one single second of that. We've been here for almost a whole entire month and I haven't written a moment of that down either. The last time I major moved--as in, to another state--I had one wee child and he napped so I got stuff done. Now I have three children and two of them are not wee and the one who is still wee is LARGER THAN LIFE ALL OF THE TIME THAT HE IS AWAKE.

There have been A LOT of incredible miracles and blessings surrounding our move and, for some of them, I've been too worked up to notice. God is doing a work in my worked up-ness, LET ME TELL YOU. Oooof. He is reminding me that in all my big feelings about our exit, he is in control of all of it.

I will, hopefully, eventually, get to the part where I write about all the crazy miracle house stuff that led to us being in this beautiful home that we got for way less than they were asking and then appraised for way more than they were asking. Today is not that day. Today is a day for explaining the miracles about this little foot...

This little foot slipped on a mossy part of a rock at the creek last night and got cut on another rock. Matthew was at soccer practice at the park. He stayed while the rest of us loaded Garrett up to head for urgent care. It's a new town. Our insurance is brand new. We wouldn't have any idea where to take him. Except. It just so happened...

The other day I opened some mail with insurance information. I didn't have time to really look at it but my eyes fell to a particular spot on the page that said where we should go for urgent care. I remembered because I thought, "Oh, that's right across the street from the hotel." I had noticed the clinic from the hotel we stayed at when we candidated. I didn't read ANYTHING else in that medical packet before setting it aside as one of the many things on my very long do-to list.

It just so happened that Matthew's soccer coach is a member of our church so we felt perfectly comfortable leaving him at the park on his first day of practice with a new team while the rest of us drove to the urgent care. It also just so happened that our youth pastor and his wife were available to help Troy get our other vehicle so that the rest of our family could still make the dinner we had scheduled with some people from the church. 

It just so happened that there was NO ONE at the Urgent Care except us. But the biggest blessing was...

It just so happened that this occurred on September 2. Our new insurance kicked in on September 1. Yes, we were insured with our Utah insurance prior to that BUT our Utah insurance was only good in the state of Utah. If we left the state, it turned in to "life or death situation" insurance. I once inquired as to what constituted life or death. My specific question, because my kid was trying to be a surfer, was, "What if he gets stung by a ray?" Not life or death. But without medical treatment I think roughly 10 out of 10 stings become infected. The response was something like, "Oh, I mean, we'd cover that." I didn't feel convinced. So for the last many years, I have felt slightly terrified that we might need medical treatment outside of Utah. Last year, when I smashed my tailbone in Crescent City and thought I had broken it for sure, I paid full price for them to tell me there was nothing that could be done. 

Had this cut happened under our Utah insurance, we'd have paid 100% out of pocket regardless because we haven't met our deductible on the year. Given my close personal relationship with urgent care and the emergency room because God, in His infinite wisdom, gave me a total of three crazy boys and Satan gave me kidney stones (or my lack of liquid intake gave them to me but I think that what can be blamed on Satan certainly should be), I know enough to know that this visit would have cost us hundreds upon hundreds of dollars. My 13 year old knows as well. Not because we've EVER denied him ANY kind of medical treatment because of cost but because he has eyes and has seen some of our bills. (Thankfully, our church had set up an HRA awhile back which helped lighten the load but, regardless of how it's being paid it still really stinks to look at a bill and realize that you're responsible for it in full.) Garrett looked at me, in this middle of all this, and said he was sorry. He'd been apologizing for hurting himself because for a minute there, we thought it was deep enough that he might be out of football for the entire season. Of course we said, over and over, that it was okay. It was an accident. Everything happens for a reason. But this time, his big eyes had a burden behind them. He finished his sentence with, "This is going to cost a fortune."

No child should have to worry about how much the gaping hole in his foot is costing his parents. 

"Maybe. We'll see. We have different insurance now," I told him. "Don't worry about it."

I know virtually NOTHING about this new insurance. Our kids qualified for the Oregon Health Plan. Somehow. I'm still not quite sure how or why but the Marketplace only accepted Troy and me and sent our kids on to OHP. 

When we left, I stopped at the front desk. She hadn't collected a credit card. She hadn't asked me for any money. "So...since I'm brand new to this insurance, can you tell me, will they just bill us?"

She looked genuinely confused. "It's OHP. It should just all be covered. You shouldn't get a bill."

It's so easy to see a gash on a kid's foot and think, "Oh, man, WHY? Why did this have to happen while he's fighting for playing time on his new football team. Why, two days before he starts 7th grade at a brand new school in a brand new town? WHY?" But, instead, I walked away from that office thinking, "Thank you, Lord, for protecting his feet throughout the month of August."

It just so happened that the Lord used a five stitch gash on my teenager's foot to remind me of His infinite goodness.