Twilight Zone??

It has been a whirlwind of a couple of weeks (I keep wondering when life will slow down - maybe it never does!). Here's a recap of what it's been like in the Marcum household.

1) Rudi and Patti's wedding (see previous blog entry)
2) Josh's parents arrive the night of the wedding to spend a few days with us (For the record - I'm so glad they were here. Of course, visitors always add to the business of life - but it was such a wonderful visit. And, seeing as two of the ladies on our team are in the States right now visiting family (more power to them!), it was really nice to have them - kind of took off that edge of missing my family and wanting to be with them.)
3) Jenny and Erik Reyes and Zion (Josh's sister and brother-in-law) arrive. They are part of a team to Sucre, Bolivia that just arrived a couple weeks ago. They came to Cochabamba, a much more modern and developed city (imagine that!), to do some household shopping. We spent a lot of the week helping them purchase furniture, washer and dryer, household goods etc. Don't get me wrong - it was a joy to help them! We are so excited they are here.
4) I loose my wallet (including Bolivian ID card, American drivers license, credit card and debit card, and about $10) the day Jenny and Erik leave. Needless to say, I was very upset about the whole thing - imagining the paperwork and hours it will take to get a new Bolivian ID, a new American drivers license while in Bolivia, canceling credit cards and getting new ones while in Bolivia. We return to the restaurant where it was left on the table- nothing.
5) Josh leaves on an overnight camping trip with the men of the congregation.
6) Eliana begins running a 102 fever. After about 24 hours I take her to the doctor, and end up waiting 2 and a half hours because he's out on an emergency call. She has a severe throat infection and is on antibiotics (which give her diareaha and and upset stomach and makes for a very fussy baby who won't eat except for nursing). So I haven't had a good night's sleep this week yet, and feel like all I've done is nurse, walk, rock, and hold Eliana (and in my spare time keep up with a precocious 2 year old - who we found sticking DVD's INSIDE the casing of the TV yesterday, requiring us to take apart the TV in order to recover them - and attempt to cook half-way decent meals - our stock of leftovers is nil, thanks to this week). Josh's usual schedule continues - and I feel like this week we've been ships passing in the dark (in a too literal sense, since I've been up half the nights with Eliana.)

All of that is background to the story I'm about to tell you. I recieve a call this morning from the girls' doctor's office, saying that they have gotten some information about my lost documents. At first, I'm confused, (remember this is in Spanish, and I have the hardest time talking on the phone in Spanish) - I think they've lost the girls' doctor records and have recovered them. No, no - someone called their office saying that they found my lost ID card (I had a card for the doctor's office in my wallet as well, so I'm assuming the guy found the card, called the office, asked if they had a patient with my name, and asked them to contact me). I am so excited - my faith in Bolivia restored! The receptionist gives me all the information - name, where he works (office, street and cross street) cell phone number. So I call the cell phone - no answer. Eliana wakes up and Josh can stay with Michaela. So I pack her up in the sling and walk up to the road (about 5 minutes) and catch a bus into town (our car is in the shop). I arrive at the office, walk inside and ask for Diego Fuentes. No one knows him - no one of that name works there. I go outside - look around, ask in all the shops up and down the street, ask the kiosk sellers, ask the shoe shiners. No one knows a Diego Fuentes. After about half an hour of asking everyone in creation and looking the fool, I stand there on the street corner, feeling like I'm in the twilight zone, and ask "What are you doing here, God?" And eventually catch a taxi home.

Okay, so let me ask you. Why would a guy go to extreme measures to call my doctor's office, have them call me, and give me all that false contact information, requiring me to haul downtown with my baby and try to recover my missing papers?

Scenario 1 (suggested by the taxi driver as I was discussing the issue with him on the way home): It was a joke. The more I think about this scenario, the madder it makes me! Some joke to get my hopes up that my missing papers (of which I've already started the process to recover, having called and emailed the Texas State Department to find out the process of getting a new license, filling out the forms and getting the package ready to Fed.Ex.) are found - and require me to go downtown with my baby, wasting 2 hours of my day.

Scenario 2 (which makes me rather paranoid): The man called the doctor's office in an attempt to locate our home address/ home telephone, knowing by my papers that I am a foreigner - for who knows what reason, to take advantage of us in some way.

Anyone have any other ideas??

In an attempt to regain my perspective on life - I've been reading my Bible. Always a good thing to do. I'm studying through the minor prophets (a very good way to put things in context) and just the other day, read the book of Habakkuk. I ended up feeling very humbled - reminded of the sovereignty of God - of how He is God of history, and how my very small problems (not that they don't matter to Him) are small beans in comparison to the world wide problems He dealt with in the past and continues to deal with in our present day. Josh gave me a handbook of the minor prophets, written by Dr. Jack Lewis (one of his previous professors at HUGSR). Habakkuk 2:4 states "the righteous will live by his faith." Dr. Lewis' commentary on that verse went something like this "The righteous man will live by his faithfulness. Running the universe is God's business. The righteous man has his daily tasks to fulfill, and by them he will live [faithfullly]" - faithfully being my addition. Thank you, Dr. Lewis! Those were words I needed to hear. He is the one who "enables me" (Hak.3:19) to walk above all this. May the gracious way I approach every hiccup in my daily life be a witness of my faith and His righteousness.