Better a Neighbor who is near

High up on my thankful list today are my neighbors. Growing up I lived on the same street for most of my life and knew my neighbors fairly well. It was nice growing up in the same neighborhood and knowing who lived close by. It's been something I miss now that we live in the big city and have become apartment dwellers. One evening last fall I brought my children outside to play and discovered that in our apartment complex there was somewhat of an outdoor concert going on. The purpose of it was to draw a crowd and advertise for some big new country club being built somewhere along the coast. But they were handing out free bubble swords to the children so we joined the throng and braved the loud music to get some bubbles. While we were there, a woman approached me, smiled, and said in English, "my name is Sunny, can we be friends?" I laughed and said ok. This is quite a common occurrence for me when I'm out walking or shopping. There is always someone who wants to be friends so they can practice their English. With a bit of trepidation I gave her my phone number, wondering if this would be a problem later (i.e. free English lessons). But she did live in my complex and had a daughter Robbie's age so I thought it should be fine. I have over the past few months little by little gotten to know Sunny and have been forever thankful that God put her in my path that night. She has 2 small children roughly the same ages as mine and is home with them during the day (both of those are amazingly rare occurrences here). She likes to drink coffee so we semi-regularly go out for coffee or we spend the time teaching each other how to cook different foods. She is a very sweet friend and is always offering to help me with any problem that arises. I have never been so thankful for her as I was last night:

Around 7:30 pm we were happily playing hide-and-seek. I was hiding behind a door when I heard the dreaded thud followed by screaming. I ran into the living room to find Maddie with a 2 cm gash over her left eyebrow that was pretty deep and ugly looking. I immediately knew it needed stitches so I grabbed a wet cloth to put some pressure on it and started barking orders to Rob about what clothes and things we needed to take with us. Then I stopped.......I suddenly realized that I didn't actually know where the hospital was. We regularly have pneumonia or some other crisis (mono for example), but we have always been able to drive back over to the international clinic in Qingdao for those problems. We have never yet had a late night emergency requiring a quicker fix. Then I remembered Sunny. I gave her a call and she quickly told me in half English/half Chinese that she needed to make a call and would call me right back. A few minutes later she appeared at our door with a plan. By this time our very newest neighbors, Alex & Bethany Tandon, had arrived to take care of Robbie (huge blessing to have them living a stones throw away). We got into the car (another huge blessing) and Sunny directed us off to the hospital. We arrived at a huge, brand new hospital that dare I say it......was clean (minor miracle)....was organized (shocking)....and had state of the art equipment (by now I was just standing and gawking). Then because miracles never cease I discovered Sunny had called ahead and the eye specialist was on his way to stitch Maddie up. When he arrived he was quite young, however spoke remarkably good English, was polite, and obviously well educated. He could have maybe had a tad more suturing experience, but at this point I was not going to complain. My mental image had placed us in a filthy crowded ER, pushing our way over people to see an overworked, impatient doctor who would if we were very lucky find a clean needle and roughly patch up Maddie with no anesthetic (they hate pain meds here). When I found myself in an immaculate procedure room, with no other patients, using a sterile equipment tray with ample anesthetics and a qualified English speaking doctor I almost fell over. Of course stitches on a 3 year old is traumatic and involves lots of tears but that is true no matter what language you speak.

A relatively short time later we arrived at home, with a stitched up and bandaged Maddie in good shape. No one was stressed out and we were overwhelming thankful. I will never stop being amazed at God's goodness to me. Last night it came in the form of neighbors. One set to watch our son, and another one (that I almost missed the blessing of knowing) who arranged the details of what would have otherwise been a long and stressful night. He always knows what I need and provides it long before I ask.

Proverbs 27:10 "Better a neighbor who is near than a brother who is far away"

Matthew 6:8 "For your Father know what you need before you ask Him"