We’re here.

I haven’t written much since I posted about our impending move 3 months ago because we’ve been busy working, purging, packing, purging some more and dealing with the typical end-of-year craziness.

The boys both graduated 8th grade – Luke as valedictorian.

The very next day Mark and I headed out to Ark. because I started working in the office the following Monday. It was definitely a much quicker, quieter ride just the two of us – a throwback to our college days. We had basically 24 hours before Mark headed out for Haiti but had time to stop by the rental house for a quick inspection and selfie.

After Haiti he headed home to wrangle the kids for two more weeks before I flew home in mid June for my parents 50th wedding anniversary party and our family reunion in Payson. In that time he kept purging, packing and getting in last sleepovers and Luke’s 15th birthday party. My hero!

My parent’s party was a great success except for the fact that my mom was once again in the hospital with GI problems (no emergency but still a bummer). But she got released just in time for our family reunion. It was fun to spend several days with my parents, brothers and all my nieces and nephew. We got in some hiking, swimming, fishing and lots of eating.

 

Then it was time for family good-byes as we pulled away. I was fine until I hugged my mom and then I kind of lost it.

But there wasn’t too much time to dwell on it. The next morning we were up bright and early to load the ABF U-Pack trailer. Or rather we were awake to greet the company we hired to load the trailer. (Best decision EVER!). By 3 they were done, the kids were shuttled off to grandparents and we spent the next 4 hours finishing up last minute stuff. Sort of. Thankful for family and friends who stepped up to finish off some stuff for us like painting and hauling away trash.

We took one last selfie in front of the house before Mark and I checked into a nearby hotel so we could pick the dog up from the boarding place in the morning before grabbing the kids and hitting the road.

We had a great last visit with our besties – Dustin & Jen in the hotel lobby before our sad goodbyes. More tears.

The next morning with the dog and kids we hit the road. This was the first time Buddy’s made a road trip with us and he did GREAT! No whining, barking or vomiting so I call that success!

The two day trip concluded on Sunday around dinner time with a humiliating state line photo. The kids were horrified.

Them: “What if someone sees us?”
Us: “No one knows you.”
Them: “They might see and remember us when school starts.”
Me: “Then you can tell them ‘I know, my mom is soooooo lame.’ I can’t believe she made us do that.”
Them: “Really? Okay.”

After one night on air mattresses the kids were rescued by Aunt Hollie and got to stay with them until all our stuff arrived on Wednesday. Thursday after work a great community helped us unload – our landlord, the university chaplain & his son, one of my co-workers and the husband of another co-worker. That plus my two boys and a nephew and it got done in 90 minutes.

By Thursday we had everyone back under one roof. It looked like a live version of Minecraft inside but at least we had beds and a refrigerator. I’ve never been so happy to see my refrigerator in all my life!

Saturday morning we wandered downtown for the Heritage Festival – small town life. The kids were mildly amused by the shootout. But we got to meet and talk with people. Both Mark and I are loving how you run into people you know everywhere. We even met a woman who was a missionary in Ethiopia for 35 years!

 

We’re still unpacking and getting organized but we can sit at the dining room table, I can cook dinner and the kids have Internet. So we’re all pretty happy!

Next week is company! My friend Brandi and her 3 kids are stopping for one night en route to FL. Then Mark’s parents, his sister and my two cutie-patootie nieces get here!!! Yay for the British invasion!

 

 

Three weeks ago I left for Pittsburgh to see my bestie for a few days before heading to Chicago for the Christian Alliance for Orphans Summit. I wasn’t there even 24 hours before my dad called to say they were taking my mom to the hospital because she had a virus and her blood sugars (she’s a brittle Type 1 diabetic) were too high and they couldn’t get them down. He actually left a message as I didn’t hear the phone. It’s SOP in our family that they call me when this happens and I call the brothers who live out of state.

I wasn’t too concerned since this happens frequently when she gets sick and is usually quickly resolved.

A couple of hours later he called me in tears as the medical staff was “swarming her.” That’s not a phone call you ever want to get. He didn’t know what was going on but wanted me to call my brother’s right away. (He didn’t even remember that I was out of town.)

I did, and then waited what seemed like an excruciating 3o minutes for my dad to call back.

In the hours that followed I learned that my mother’s blood sugars skyrocketed into the 700s (normal is 80-120) and she had a heart attack (before arriving or after – we’re not entirely sure). That “swarming” was them actually shocking my mom when she coded. (Thank goodness I didn’t know that at the time!)

BTW, women, please know that symptoms of a heart attack may be different for women then they are for men. You may not experience chest pain, instead you might feel nauseous and sweaty or clammy. Who knows if my mom really had a virus or if those were warning signs of her heart attack.

When things had calmed down a bit I asked my dad if he wanted me to fly home. Of course there’s nothing really I could do there and one of my brother’s quickly volunteered to fly in so that I could continue on to CAFO where I was presenting two breakouts.

I still waffled back and forth in my plans. My mom ended up sedated and on a ventilator and at one point I had my flight home all picked out. But as soon as a heart cath was done and a stent put in the 100% blocked artery, she immediately began to show improvements in her blood sugars and all her other numbers.

Maybe the choice should have been easy. But yet there was a part of me that felt like this was also a very real spiritual battle and that Satan would have loved nothing more than to keep me from going to CAFO and leading the breakout on Post-Adoption Depression. And if you know me, you know how stubborn I am, especially when it comes to Satan.

My dad continued to insist I didn’t need to come home. As one brother left, the other flew in and stayed until the day I was getting home. So I continued on to Chicago.

I was near to tears for much of the two days, not because I felt like she was still in danger but just all those emotions were raw and on the surface. So every worship song made me cry and when Senator Mary Landrieu (talking about getting children into families) said “you never outgrow your need for a parent” I pretty much lost it.

Thankfully my mom came off the vent that same day and when I walked into her hospital room the next morning she woke up at my voice and gave me a groggy smile.

She croaked out the words “I wondered where you were,” and then I lost it all over her shoulder. (That statement is funny now because she doesn’t remember anything prior to the day before I arrived home and even then she only remembers my oldest brother’s voice but thought it was a dream.)

She’s 73, I’m 41. I still need my mom.

Thankful every day that God has chosen to give us more years together.

P.S. My mom is doing so much better. She was released from the hospital last Monday and is in a rehab facility. Besides regaining her strength she still cannot swallow correctly and so she has nasal feeding tube in. As soon as she can swallow without aspirating they’ll remove that and send her home.