How is it that someone can steal your peace? It was only for a little while, but it didn't feel nice at all. About four months ago one of Andy's friends was at our house and fell, hitting his leg against the edge of a shovel that was out back, and cutting his leg rather deeply. In short, the parents took him to the emergency room where he was stitched up, had a drain put in the wound, and given a prescription for an antibiotic, and told to come back within 24 hours to have the drain removed. Knowing that this family didn't have health insurance, Jerry and I offered to pay their medical bills which they agreed to. We didn't want to turn it over to our homeowner's insurance because we try to reserve that for something serious like a tree falling on the house, or lightning hitting it (both of which have happened to us!). Anyway, the wound got infected, requiring much more medical attention, crutches, and missing school for a week. When they dropped the medical bills off to us a few weeks later, in reviewing them I found that the parents had not taken him back for drain removal in 24 hours - they waited 48. They didn't get the prescription filled until three days after it happened so he had no antibiotic during that time. Of course the wound got infected. This was a pattern that I saw throughout the dates on the medical bills - they were told to come back in 24 hours for follow up, they waited 48 (or more). Then the final thing was when the boy told us that his father said he didn't have time to be going to the doctor's so he removed the boy's stitches himself. I checked with the hospital and found out that assuming that directions had been followed, antibiotic had been started right away and the drain taken out when it was supposed to, the bills would have come to one-third of what they actually were. The bills came to a little over $3000.00 now, and the father was rather insistent on us paying them quickly. I informed him that I did not intend to pay all of this - that he needed to take some responsibility for his actions in not having the prescription filled and not having proper follow up. I told him that we would pay what would have been the normal and reasonable charges had he done what he was supposed to do, and that was all. Needless to say, he got upset and began talking about getting an attorney. I told him to do what he needed to do. I was not afraid because I knew that the paperwork clearly indicated the negligence on his part, but I called our insurance agent to ask what the consequences of a lawsuit might be for an accident happening on our property. We were advised to turn it over to the insurance company then because the father sounded unreasonable and that by letting State Farm handle it, we were in effect out of the picture - that any dealings from then on would be between the family and State Farm, and that if they chose to sue, they would be suing State Farm, not us. We decided that would be the best route, so I talked to the father and told him that we were doing this and that we would then be out of the picture. I submitted copies of everything I had to State Farm, gave them my statement, and was glad to have the whole issue done with. Or so I thought. Yesterday, after not hearing from the family this whole time, the father called me and informed me that State Farm chose not to pay everything (gee, I wonder why?), and wanted to know when I might have $1700.00 for them to finish paying their bills. I told him that I was not paying anything - that we had already discussed this and that we were out of the picture. He didn't like this and said that he would do what he needed to do. I reminded him that if it involved an attorney, he wouldn't be involving us - he would be dealing with State Farm. He didn't like that and just reiterated that he would do what he needed to do. I said fine, goodbye, and hung up. Now ordinarily this conversation would not have bothered me except that there is something about this man that I don't trust. Up until recently he didn't work for a very long time but yet they always seemed to have lots of money to do lots of things with (buy a house, new vehicle, landscaping and other things). They are very secretive people also, and actually have a security camera located on their front porch so they can see who is at the door. This, coupled with the fact that the boy was over our house one day and when we were talking about the metric system (which the boys were covering in school), he said that his dad was always on his cell phone talking about "grams and kilos and stuff". Hmmm. His wife had told me once before that they have trouble with family relationships because whenever the father gets angry he threatens people, and she was upset because he had recently threatened their nephew who had broken their computer and the father had told him that either the nephew come up with money for a new one or else he knew where he lived and would take care of him. Needless to say, the mother was upset because now the extended family didn't want anything to do with them. It is just this kind of behavior that, for a moment, had me concerned, but only for a moment. Then I got angry. Angry that someone could steal my peace and happiness by making me afraid. I realized that this is part of this man's tactic which has probably been successful for him in the past - threaten and instill fear in someone so they'll do what you want. As I do with everything that I need guidance on, I prayed and a verse came to me, "The Lord protects those who obey him". Of course, I already knew that, but sometimes it's hard to remember when emotions rather than brains are taking over the moment. So here we are . Whatever happens, happens. I have a feeling that this man's bark is worse than his bite, and I refuse to live in fear of a coward. We are watchful (and have police numbers handy!), but we are not afraid.

On the lighter side, I had recently asked for guidance on the issue of moving and here is the verse I came upon, "Then let those who are in Judea flee to the mountains." Judea....Maryland.....sounds the same to me! This gave me quite a chuckle!