Baby is asleep, got Lily on the bus, Andi is eating oatmeal watching Sprout, I think I have time to update. Long overdue.
We got a call early Good Friday morning that Andrew’s dear Aunt Carol had passed away. Carol was an amazing woman. Carol and her family came to our wedding in Mexico almost 8 years ago. We watched her para sail. Carol sent everyone a hand made card for every holiday, not just birthdays and anniversaries but I mean Easter, Thanksgiving, Halloween, etc. She made our girls beautiful quilts Christmas 2007 and was just one of the most selfless people we have ever met. We got a call a few weeks ago that she wasn’t given much more time so Andrew flew out to see her and she was up and aware and spoke with Andrew and he is so happy that he was able to have that time with her.
After the call we had some decisions to make and plans to make. We decided cost wise just Andrew and I would go, of course Oliver would go with us. My mom looked after the girls for us. We had to make the trip a quick one and boy did we ever. Too quick.
We flew out at 8:45am and after a layover in Denver we landed in Sioux Falls, SD at 4pm. Got a rental car and drove straight to the funeral home where the viewing was. I was surprised at how this cancer took over such a once vibrant woman. It had been too long since I had seen Carol and it broke my heart to see the devastation this cancer can cause. Oliver must have had gas or something because he was inconsolable pretty much the entire time we were at the funeral home. I nursed him several times, burped him, Andrew had him in the bjorn, I held him while he slept but that was all too short. The place was packed which is such a great testimony to the woman we were honoring. We didn’t get out until around 9pm, got a bite to eat with Andrew’s brothers and families (sad that it had to be a funeral, but it was nice to all get together) and we went back to Andrew’s oldest brothers home. Our sweet 6 year old nephew was kind enough to loan us his bed! They had a pack and play and I laid Oliver in it and that kid was out until 6am the next day. It was 4am out time, but I was thankful for that block of almost 8 hours of sleep!
We had some running to do in the morning, my flower fell off my shoes I was borrowing from my mom and it looked pretty silly with one shoe with a flower and one without, so we had to run to town for some shoes for me. We packed very minimally so an extra pair of shoes was not in my plans. Back to the house, then over to Carol’s home, her husband and son had food at their place, we stayed there until time for the service. Andrew’s uncle is such a great guy and it is so heartbreaking to see how broken his heart is. You just want to do something to help the hurt and there is nothing you can do. Death is just so hard to comprehend when it isn’t someone who had lived their life as long as they should have.
I am pretty sure God had a hand in the fact Oliver fell asleep in the car and stayed asleep through the entire service. So did his cousin Jayda, only 11 days older than Oliver, so we were able to enjoy the service. Well enjoy isn’t the right word. We were able to listen and pay our respects from the pew, not bouncing around in the back with a fussy baby. After the funeral we got to talk to people we hadn’t seen in years. It was nice catching up with my in laws, so many of them! Not just Andrew’s immediate family but cousins, aunts, uncles, grandma’s, etc. I am pretty lucky to have married into such an amazing family, and one about as big a mine, that isn’t easy! 🙂 I hate to say it was a good time, but it sure was nice to see everyone. There were 4 babies all born within the past 4 months! They all slept thru the service! But just as soon as we got there, we had to leave. We had to get back to the airport by 6pm. Oliver slept on both flights back home. We got home at 10pm, but we landed in a different terminal than we left in, meaning our car was parked on the other side of the airport! So Andrew grabbed a shuttle, I waited for the car seat, then he picked me up. We knew our gas was low but thought we’d make it to the gas station by our home…ha. It was 11pm and we run out of gas on the overpass! We coast to the off ramp and call my dad. He comes in like a knight and brings us gas. We get to a gas station and home by midnight. My mom was up waiting for us and told us the kids were great and went home. Oliver was out and slept until 6am and then our day started yesterday. It was a long tough one.
But we are home. Things are back to normal and the girls were awesome while we were gone. I realized I would be lost without my parents! Man without them we would have had to take everyone to SD and be paying for the next several years on it and would be still waiting for gas on the freeway 😉
So I can honestly say I married into a great family as well as Andrew did. How did we get so lucky?
This is pretty much how Oliver was the entire time and this is his sweet natured cousin wondering what could possibly be so wrong. Oliver and Jayda, isn’t she so pretty?!
Andrew and his brothers
Papa Steve and Grandma Cheryl with the latest edition in Grandbabies
Calm Amongst the Chaos 