We made it home to KC today safe and sound. The trip was pretty uneventful for us, thank goodness. I love traveling with my husband-we have some of the best conversations while on the road and I cherish that time together.
We joked that we weren't stopping the entire way after our customary stop at Starbucks on the way out of town. Well, we were in Rich Hill and stopped to pee. I left my phone, which hadn't rang the entire time, in the truck. We got back into the truck and I grabbed my phone to see if I had any missed calls. Sure enough, there was.
Let me back track and give you a little background. A week ago, Matt and Tammy got a phone call that Tammy's Aunt and Uncle's house had burned and her aunt had passed away in the fire. Matt and Tammy, along with Tammy's parents, loaded up and headed to New Jersey, where her Aunt and Uncle lived. Tammy's uncle, Dr. Epple, was a very well known Pediatrician in the area and had just received some distinguishing award earlier that night. His wife was the director of his clinic. They were renovating their 100 year old Victorian home. Evidently sometime after they went to bed, an electrical fire started. Tammy's Aunt died in the fire and Dr. Epple suffered severe internal injuries after falling out the second story window, while the Police were trying to rescue him. He lived two additional days and passed away on Friday night.
So Matt and Tammy have been in New Jersey for the past week trying to help clean up and figure out what to do next. They headed out of town yesterday in hopes of driving straight through back to Kansas City. They had two cars and four drivers (Matt can't drive). Well, somewhere in Pennsylvania, they hit a snow storm. Matt called and had me look up all kinds of road conditions, etc. They decided to try to drive out of the snow before stopping for the night. We never heard anymore from them.
Fast forward back to this morning when we stopped to pee and I came out and there was a voicemail on my phone. It was from Tammy (and mind you, I had been trying to call them and told Steve something was up since their phones went to voicemail. Call it intuition, call it luck-I knew something wasn't right). They were in an ER in New Castle, IN. Remember how Matt is diabetic? Well, evidently something went wrong with the insulin pump that he wears. He got real sick this morning, they checked his blood sugar and it was so high the meter told them to "Seek medical treatment immediately." Normal blood sugar is 80-120; Matt's was over 600. The ER was giving him insulin to bring it down along with some long acting insulin to travel with until he can get here and we can get his pump fixed. They left Indiana around 2:00 this afternoon and were driving straight here, barring no other problems.
For some reason, they never think to call my Mom during times like this. It's usually me. I don't mind so much but I hate being the bearer of bad news. Mom handled the news pretty well, I think. I was quite proud.
So we got here just fine and Matt and Tammy are on their way in. They should be here around midnight or so. They will stay at her Dad's tonight then come over in the morning. The good thing is that they will get to have Thanksgiving dinner with us! That's a huge blessing and something that we are all looking forward to.
A quick little prayer request-I've got cousins who are missionaries in Thailand. They had to go to Bangkok on Monday because their visa's were fixing to expire. You may or may not know, but there is a TON of political unrest in Bangkok right now. Rod, Amanda and their two babies under three were supposed to fly out of Bangkok last night but were not able to because of all the protesters storming the airport. They are currently stranded in Bangkok and are trying to figure out how to get out of there. Please pray for them and their two daughters. Pray that God will get them out of there safely and quickly.
This is our first trip back since Gma and Gpa passed away. My poor daddy is very "edgy" right now and really, who can blame him? I think everyone is. It seems weird not to call them and tell them we're in town. It seemed weird to see the pecans for sale along the side of the road-Gpa always asked me if there were lots. It just seems weird period. I know this is the hard part. I know that the first holidays after death, especially Christmas and Thanksgiving are the worst. It's still just so dang sad though.
The minister from my home church was great friends with Gma and Gpa. He visited them every Monday afternoon. We teased him a lot saying he was just trying to be a "Golden." He did the funeral for both Gma and Gpa. Anyway, he wrote a poem for my family that I'll post on here closer to Christmas. It's written from my Gma and Gpa's point of view from heaven, as they are watching us (trying to) enjoying each other on Christmas. Oh my word, I bawled like a baby when I read it. A cherished thing, that's for sure.
A few weeks ago I made a photo book from the website Snapfish. Oprah was giving them away free for 48 hours. That is who I use for all my photos anyway, so I logged on and made a book for Mom and Dad. It came last week and I love it. It's nothing fancy by any means and honestly, it needs more pictures, in my opinion-but it was still cool because it was personal and had a lot of meaning to it. (I'm a sucker for those kinds of gifts!) I was going to save it for Christmas, but I couldn't hold out any longer. I gave it to them tonight.
Both Mom and Dad thought it was awesome. They love, love, loved it. Dad though....I made him cry. I used an array of pictures that involved my brothers, their wives and then Steve, Tanner and I. I also threw in three or four of Gma and Gpa. They are the reason we are the way we are today, so I thought it was appropriate to include them in the book.
When Dad saw the four generations pictures, he reached out, touched the book, said "There's Dad" and started to cry. He didn't notice there was another picture right by it that had Gma in it! Ugh! The next page was the picture of my Gparents that I put on here after they passed away-they are standing with their backs to the camera and Gpa has his arm around Gma. They are watching the family go-cart race in Branson. When Dad saw that picture, he totally cried! I felt so bad that I started to cry too!
I hate that my Dad (and the rest of our family) has to hurt like this. I know that time will make things a lot easier. The sadness is still so new though. I hope and pray that once we get through tomorrow things will maybe be a bit easier. That may be wishful thinking on my part.
Well, this post is certainly longer than I expected or wanted it to be. If your still with me-thank you for reading. I hope it didn't bore you too much.
I want to wish everyone a Happy Thanksgiving. Eat lots of turkey and dressing, enjoy your family and friends and most of all, thank our Heavenly Father for all the blessings He's given us.
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