New worries

Every work day, Julia goes to a small family daycare just up the hill from our house. Allie gets off the bus after school and walks to the same daycare. Then Daddy comes by about an hour and a half later and picks them both up at once. We know they get wonderful care there and it's wonderfully convenient.

Our daycare provider, who we love and needless to say our children love, is pregnant. She's been having complications for awhile (though you wouldn't have know it to see her or talk to her) and things worsened last week. She went to her OB/GYN for a check and boom, they admitted her to the hospital for observation.

We thought it was going to be overnight, then it was going to be two nights, and we found out at the end of last week that she's likely going to be hospitalized until she has the baby. She's only at 26 weeks, so she would normally have 14 weeks to go yet.

We're scared and nervous for her, for her unborn child, her husband, her other two kids, the rest of her family, and, of course, for ourselves. Our family isn't religious, but hers is, so for her sake I'm saying a prayer that she, her baby, and everyone else in her family is going to come through this OK.

Us, well . . . It's so absolutely godawful to be thinking about ourselves in this situation, but of course we can't help it. We're worried about how well things are going to work out with the daycare staying open (right now, the plan is for various relatives of hers to help out at least through the end of the year).

We're worried about Julia adjusting to not seeing her (though of course, her own children will have things so much worse that it seems petty to mention it), and about Julia adjusting to her new caretakers (though I'm sure they're all wonderful people and we already know some of them).

We're worried about where Allie will go if the daycare has to close, since we can find all-day daycare for Julia somewhere if necessary, but figuring out where Allie goes when she gets off the bus is a little more complicated.

And I'm concerned most of all about how she's going to make it through this period. Laying in a bed in a hospital, alone for a good part of the time, worrying about everything and everyone. And unable to make things change.

We have options to handle our fears. She doesn't have a whole lot. So please, say a prayer for her and her family to get through this OK.