We were both a little taken aback, since Colton had seen the surgeon as
the source of all the poking, cutting, prodding, draining, and pain. Now here
we were, just a week out of the hospital, and he seemed to have changed
his mind.
“Well, I guess he likes Dr. O’Holleran now,” Sonja said.
Even if Colton had found it in his heart to forgive the good doctor,
though, his little proclamation in the kitchen was weird. How many not-
quite-four-year-olds analyze the family financial woes and demand
payment for a creditor? Especially one he never particularly liked?
And the way he put it too: “Dad, Jesus used Dr. O’Holleran to help fix
me.” Weird.
Even weirder, though, was what happened next. With $23,000 in bills
due and payable immediately, we didn’t know what we were going to do.
Sonja and I discussed asking our bank for a loan, but it turned out we didn’t
need to. First, my Grandma Ellen, who lives in Ulysses, Kansas, sent us a
check to help with the hospital bills. Then, in a single week, more checks
started arriving in the mail. Checks for $50, $100, $200, and all with cards
and notes that said things like, “We heard about your troubles and we’re
praying for you,” or “God put it on my heart to send you this. I hope it helps.”
By the end of the week, our mailbox was full again—but with gifts, not
bills. Church members, close friends, and even people who only knew us
from a distance responded to our need without our even asking. The
checks added up to thousands of dollars, and we were astonished when
we found that, combined with what my grandmother sent, the total was
what we needed to meet that first wave of bills, almost to the dollar.
Not long after Colton became a pint-size collection agent, he got in a little
bit of trouble. Nothing huge, just an incident at a friend’s house where he
got into a tug-of-war over some toys. That evening, I called him to the
kitchen table. I was sitting in a straight-back chair, and he climbed up in the
chair beside me and knelt in it. Colton leaned on his elbows and regarded
me with sky blue eyes that seemed a little bit sheepish.
If you have a preschooler, you know it can sometimes be hard to look