So for the last nearly year, we've had radio silence about some of the plans my parents were making. It was imperative for their business that we kept things completely quiet, and tight-lipped. They were trying to sell my father's business, and the chance of someone finding out that they were planning to do what they were planning could seriously injure their chances of selling, or getting a fair price. So. My parents had decided to move out of the country. For anyone who knows us or them, you already know they've moved. So. My entire family (minus my married brother) moved to Guatemala on August 14th.
August in general was a really terrible month for us. My parents were supposed to have left Pensacola on the 1st and come out to Texas to be able to spend time with family and friends before they moved. But on the 30th of July my mother received a phone call that her father was back in the hospital (he almost died at the start of July) and it didn't seem like it'd be that much longer. So they postponed the trip. Because Frank had made the sacrifice to take a week off between contracts (his first contract ended on the 10th of August and he chose to not start the new contract until the 18th... no work in between those dates), we were already taking a week with no pay. The downside of his job is that he gets no paid time off or sick days. The company would give him the time off, but he wouldn't have gotten any kind of pay for that time. Sadly, we were unable to afford taking two weeks without pay. So on August 2nd, my mothers family finally decided it was time to let my grandfather pass and stop prolonging his life. He was put on a palliative care floor and everything except pain medicine was discontinued. From that Friday evening, none of my mother's family left the hospital until my grandfather passed. As anyone with medical or end of life training knows, someone at the end of their life can hold on far longer than any doctors or professionals may predict. My grandfather held on until August 6th. He passed on the day between my mother and my grandmother's birthday (which I know is horrible, but I was praying for that... not that day particularly, but that he wouldn't pass on either birthday; I didn't want my mother to always remember her birthday as the day her daddy died, and I didn't want my mom or aunts to remember their mothers birthday as the day their daddy died. God heard my prayers on that.). So my family left on Thursday the 8th to head to Birmingham for the viewing and stayed overnight for the funeral and family time the next day, Friday the 9th. Now, we had discussed driving up to Birmingham and coming in early Friday morning to make the funeral.. We could've made it work. Until we took our van into the shop to get work done so we could pass state inspections. Turned out to need alot more work than we initially expected. Not only was it barely done by close of business on Friday, it also cost over $2000 more than we expected it to cost.... not because the shop charged us too much, in fact, if anyone ever needs work done, I highly recommend you look up and see if there is a Christian Brother's Automotive near you. They did amazing work, are Christian owned (scripture on the walls, Christian music playing in the lobby), and they charged me a price comparable to the price for the work my parents had to have done in Pensacola on their own van (same exact work). It was just more than we expected to pay because we weren't aware that the van needed that much work. So we were not able to make the funeral. So continuing on with the time-frame.... My parents left for Pensacola Friday afternoon, spent all afternoon and evening packing, and got up Saturday and drove from Pensacola (leaving "home" permanently) to Waller, TX (to drop off the trailer loaded with all their belongings they were taking to Guatemala), and then over to Cat Spring, TX. My parents planned to spend Saturday (still just the 10th of August) with my first cousins once-removed (my grandfathers cousins) and then go see my great-great aunt (cousins' mother) for what would most likely be the last time, since they are now living in Guatemala and my Aunt Jennie just turned 99 on September 3rd. Then on Sunday the 11th, they were going to be driving into Houston to meet Frank and I at Pancho's Mexican Buffet (mine and my siblings favorite restaurant from our childhood) for lunch. Well, what they didn't know was that we arranged to drive in to Cat Spring and stay with my cousins (who we call Aunt and Uncle) on Saturday so that we would be there and surprise them when they came in. So that Saturday they arrived around 11 at night. Frank and I hid in one of the back bedrooms, and after they had all come out and were milling around the kitchen, we came walking out. The first one to see me was Evelyn, and she shrieked and started running... so the other girls looked. I almost got knocked over by three screaming teenage girls (a minor Justin Bieber moment for me, lol) before the rest of my family even realized I was there. So we got to add a few extra hours onto the visit with my family. July took forever to pass, the first 10 days of the month of August passed with excruciating snail-speed, and then those 4 days with family passed with lightening speed. It just wasn't fair. We didn't get a lot of sleep, but we maximized our visiting hours. And Wednesday morning when they left, a lot of tears were shed. I think I lost an hour of my life that Wednesday afternoon. We were staying with some lifetime friends of ours (known me since I was 18 months old), and they were gracious enough to allow me to just fall apart. I remember climbing into the shower and turning the water on hot (and I NEVER take hot showers) and then just standing under the water and crying. When I finally got out, I looked at the clock and 90 minutes had passed since I last looked at the clock. We spent a couple hours visiting with my adopted family and eating lunch, then ran some errands to take care of stuff for my parents. That late afternoon we went over to my cousins house and there we stayed for the last couple days of our Katy trip. Tim, Tracie and their boys made us feel at home and loved... It was a great visit. Friday the 16th when we came back to the Dallas area, we headed over to Ft. Worth and spent the evening helping get my "adopted little sister" settled into her new apartment at her new college. It was nice to be "needed" that weekend, and definitely helped me not feel so lost. The more I keep busy and the more I do, the less I miss my family. Then we were back into the daily grind of real life, with Frank back at work and me keeping "house" here in the hotel.
Well, this seems long enough for now. I'll post another update and finish filling you in on the last half of August and the start of September sometime in the next couple of days. :) Thanks for reading!
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