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When October had finally arrived, an open window appeared to get back to the westcoast to be with the rest of our family.
With Thanksgiving briefly behind us, we quickly celebrated our daughter's birthday and praised God she was alright after having been in a car accident.
At dusk, when driving down a country road, quickly without warning an entire family on bicycles came into view before her, and when the little girl fell off her bicycle directly in her path, she had no choice than to veer to the right, in order to miss running her over. Swerving hard to her right, she veered into a meadow straight and hard - into a tree, which was damaged and uprooted a bit from the blow.
Thankfully, another larger tree on her left side prevented her car from flipping over when her roof hit it, the blunt force tipping back to get her wheels back on the ground.
Traumatized, sore and suffering from whiplash, it was a nail biter until her car came out of the shop the day before I flew to Vancouver so she could get to work in our absence.
Both hubby and I found ourselves often thinking and praying for our young lady - during our entire trip, prayer intentions continually offered heavenward.
For many months, there has been such sweetness filling our lives, coupled of course with an almost equal amount of sorrows. Life is just that way of course, always something to either kick us down, keep us on our knees, and allow us to remember the fragility of life. People matter, more than things, my mantra over and over again. We're so pleased that our long hoped for visit back to the westcoast was able to happen, where we truly delighted in meeting face to face with our newest grandbaby and hugging all the many ones we love who live there.
Also, behind him during September and early October were photography sessions with over 250 assorted photos snapped, and a few hours of live video taken, all to be unveiled slowly over time in dramatic presentation form, for a major fundraiser at the respiratory physiotherapy hospital he continues to attend, and visit other patients at biweekly.
I love this photo of him above, sent to us by the hospital director, where words have no business being attached, his pose and stance like mine, which speaks loudly on how we both feel about still having our life together despite all the unknown variables this year.
Frustrated, and nothing working out in our favor, all while new grandbaby was growing older and older before we could even meet her, finally we had to throw in the towel after cancelling so many times and just hop on a plane and get over there. Our grandbaby was eight months old, and at last, we would be able to be face to face with her.
Emotionally, all becomes a little overwhelming with so many attempts made, so many disappointments to yet again have to share with our older children; no, we can't come at that time after all, when they've spent vacation times from work, awaiting our visit, working their schedules so many times around us.
Once there, our visit became joyous and gut busting exciting, crazy and exhilarating, but somehow also absolutely exhausting! Gee whiz though, so many warm memories were collected, so many poignant moments were shared, so many "I love yous" exchanged, so many warm hugs collected, and then all too soon, it was time to leave - again.
Each time we visit the westcoast, even as quietly as we were about heading over there this time because we were concentrating on all the family events to attend, it always, very quickly becomes a whirlwind of connecting with our loved ones.
Never in the plan is exhaustion, no way for we get three additional hours, don't we? For some reason though, it always seems to end up very tiring, after the fact, at least once we arrive home again. I'm going to blame it all on time zone changes. Yep, that sounds good to me.
Of huge importance was not only spending time with loved ones, giddily, in the forefront and of huge importance, our younger two children were invited beforehand by a former priest, that if our trip west worked with the designated timing, they could participate in the reception of their Sacraments of Confirmation, right along with their niece, AND family around for that event, all which happily coincided during our visit, though it seemed like such an odd time of year.
As exciting as the whole idea was, reality struck hard, and it fast became an intense study time to fill hours and hours of our days. But as odd as that timing first appeared, nothing prepared me initially for just how perfect all would be revealed, when we realized the beauty and blessing of having this sacrament fall on the traditional Catholic calendar of the "Feast of Christ the King".
It meant so much to all of us for these two to obtain this sacrament with extended family present, but it also meant a continued commitment to studying ahead of time towards that goal, on the plane, reviewing with their sponsors on the telephone and in person, more studying at the hotel, and finally - a huge oral/written testing plus face to face interview with a familiar priest.
I'm sure not only the candidates are tested, so are the parents. :) Whew! This mommy was really sweating while awaiting the results. Pacing back and forth became a temporary pastime on that appointment evening both for my hubby and myself. We paced for what seemed like "forever"!
On Confirmation Day, it was a wonderful surprise to find my husband volunteering and working alongside the other men in the kitchen, all preparing ahead of time, to present a scrumptious celebration meal.
What a great afternoon, just to sit and absorb what had just happened in the lives of our younger two and grandaughter, to be able to visit with family and friends, to engage in wonderful conversations over a meal, and to have their new Bibles gifted to them, and then blessed and signed by the Bishop in remembrance of this wondrous sacramental day. And then there was our grandson, heart swelling moments for me to catch my breath when seeing him as an altar boy for the first time.
Many more wonderful memories for sure were at hand, so many; grandchildren slipping their little hands in mine, sneaking onto my lap or kissing my cheek for no reason, cherishing the vision of our daughter in law as sponsor to our daughter, and then happily seeing my father accompanying yet again, another son on to the altar as Confirmation sponsor.
Nothing is more fitting than ending with Benediction, especially when one is bursting with an abundance of gratitude and utter thanksgiving for the great day!
It was odd traveling without the entire family together, at all. Our older two living over here are deep into the wonderful world of adulthood, both having completed schooling in career training over the past year. It's hard though. It's so hard to have the family split up and not able to reunite altogether more often.
Onward, we had a full agenda to devote all of our time with family. Aside from all the studying and preparing for the upcoming Sacrament of Confirmation for our younger two, we also had our sweet new grandbabe to spend time with, birthdays to celebrate; my mother, six grandchildren, daughter/grandaughter to have a horse riding lesson together, a soccer game to attend, sharing in everyone's interests, and so forth.
Back and forth on rainy days from hotel to wherever we had to be, be it 7:00 am to see grandbaby before her morning nap, as early to share breakfast out with Nana/Grandpa for the birthday child/children individually, or dining together with family for a meal, strong coffee was a definite necessity.
I wouldn't trade a moment of any trip, not ever, and find it's always difficult to spend and think of final moments with everyone before having to leave for home again. Regrets only for having a somewhat broken camera, realizing I missed so many photo opportunities along the way, a tremendous and great regret for a photography buff like me for sure.
As we boarded our plane to return back home after 2 weeks, my husband's mother had just undergone a very serious operation for a large blood clot, only two days after we all pitched in to move them into assisted living. The timing just didn't seem fair, not at all, for she barely got to nest in her new home. The photo above seemed like a happy time when in actual fact, we were awaiting an ambulance for her, and then prayed all would be well.
Deep in thought, our departure was very bittersweet, mostly as we began to assimilate the gravity of the situation. Should we stay? Should we leave? She's since remained in a vicious cycle of continual recovery mode, hoping and praying all might begin to settle down soon even as I type this up today. In hospital with congenital heart failure, fighting pneumonia, with two IVs in her arms, we send her our love and continue offering prayer for her.
As we spent our final evening at the airport's hotel for our ease towards our very early morning flight, we gulped back our worries, silently keeping them to ourselves and began perusing the menu together. As if they'd known how special, how truly wonderful it would be for us, appearing suddenly from around the corner, there they were, friends who drove all the way out to meet us there just because they wanted a hello/goodbye with us before flying off. Changing tables, they joined us for dinner, the best dinner ever for sure!
Love them, such good friends to "be there" for us, to sacrifice their evening and travel so far just for the purpose of spending time together. This was definitely one of those beautiful, unexpected, stolen moments we will always treasure. Forever...
