Fall Splendor

Took these photos today during my lunch hour - just a mere 5 min. walk from my office. Fall is one of my favorite seasons, but all too often our fall season is much too short lived. It seems to me the trees are holding onto their leaves a little longer than usual. I especially love the red and orange hues which are hard to find on the prairies ... my childhood memories of autumn come from living in Ontario where every year we watched the green leafy leaves of the maple trees turn to rich red. It's hard to find a tree in our fair city whose leaves turn any color other than yellow and various shades of gold but occasionally you'll see bursts of red amongst the shrubbery as seen here which I absolutely love!




I am so thankful for being reminded of God's faithfulness while capturing these images. Today was a particularly difficult day for me. Rachel had not been feeling well since the weekend and I knew that Tyler took her to the hospital last night around 9pm but I was in no way prepared for his call this morning around 9:30 am to advise they were still at the hospital and that Rachel could possibly undergo surgery. The CT scan suggested her appendix may need to be removed but the tests were "inconclusive". Rachel had been given IVs and was not allowed any food or drink (standard pre-op procedure).

I'm sure any mother can relate to the feelings of helplessness I felt - there was nothing I could do to "fix" the problem. Moreover, it was her husband who was at rightfully at her side, not me which was also a new experience for me. I was to fly to Denver today to attend a conference and despite reassurances from Rachel that I should go and that she'd be fine, I just couldn't do it. After taking a walk and thinking it through, I decided to cancel my outbound flight, with approval from my boss who was very understanding and supportive of my decision. Seven long hours after Tyler's first call, he called me with an update to say that the doctor did not feel it necessary to operate and they were letting Rachel go home. My prayer is now that whatever it was that caused her all this pain and grief has run its course and that she'll be back to herself in short order!