Calls from the School

On Friday while I was in court I had my cell phone turned on silent, but I could still see the calls I was receiving. Sabrina's school called about 10:30 in the morning, while I was in court waiting for my hearing. Sabrina's school, not Catherine's. There is never a problem with Sabrina - she is totally healthy. I immediately thought she must have taken a serious fall and suffered a significant injury.

So I made my way out of the courtroom to try to get the call as quickly as I could. But, the courtroom was packed. By the time I got to the hallway and could answer the call, the school's caller had hung up. I was still in a state of panic, frantic about what could have happened to Sabrina.

So I called the school back, but just got their voice mail. Ugh!! I checked my voice mail and did not have a message. I called back a few times and finally got through.

The receptionist at her school was calling all parents to tell us they were closing the school down at 2 p.m., rather than the regular 6:30 p.m. Atlanta was expecting a blizzard in the afternoon. Standing in the hallway of the court house, the weather looked absolutely fine. Not a single snowflake was falling at that point. But, they were closing her school down and I had to rearrange my afternoon hearings to be able to get them. (It did start sowing heavily about 1:30 p.m., so the early closure did turn out to be justified.)

Thankfully, my heart could stop pounding. Sabrina was fine. Why do I panic every time the schools call me in the middle of the day? Will I ever get over this?

I clearly remember the very first time I got a call from Catherine's school. Catherine was still on treatment and getting chemo every Monday. The first call I got from her school was on a Tuesday morning. I was in a state of panic as soon as I saw the name of her school on the telephone.

When I answered, the director of the school was calling me. Not one of her teachers. Not one of her nurses. Not one of the office staff.

The director calmed my nerves by immediately telling me that Catherine was fine. She was calling because she is a member of the prayer ministry at her church. Once a week she (like all the other volunteers) spends an hour in the prayer room and prays for members of the church. Apparently there are hundreds of prayer cards for people who have needs and each volunteer takes the next handful of cards for their hour.

That week the school's director, during her prayer hour, took the next handful of cards to pray for specific needs. Catherine's card was in that stack. Her card is actually several cards stapled together, because our church has been praying for her her for years.

The director had no idea that we went to the same church. It was such a wonderful discovery to find out Catherine's school's director not only attends the same church as we do, she is actively involved in their prayer ministry. She just had to tell me about this "coincidence."

So that call was wonderful news. When the phone rang, my heart jumped to the worst possible scenario. Why am I so filled with fear? Does Satan place those fears in my heart? Will they ever go away?