Life and Death

This past week was quite a blur for many reasons! Last weekend Austin got a call from his sister that his dad wasn't doing well. He ended up leaving Sunday afternoon to go be with them. He spent Sunday evening-Tuesday morning there. The kids and I were basically keeping up with our normal routines during that time. Life was extremely busy with our normal schedules plus added holiday stuff. When he got home Tuesday we were able to catch up on some much needed couple and family time. We also were able to play catch up around the house. Wednesday was also nice to have him home. That evening though shortly after the kids and I got home from church his sisters called and said they felt like the end was near. They ended up calling back about 45 min later and said their dad had passed away. Wow what a hard moment! It was a long and eventful night. We found out about 9:15. Colby was still awake so we went ahead and told him the news. He was up until about 11:30. I think knowing Austin was gone and all the news he was just wound up. That morning I chose to sleep in and allow them to sleep in. With getting less sleep and just the heaviness of the news weighing on our minds I just couldn't rush them off to school. I felt it best to allow them time to process and absorb the news. By lunch time though they were good to go and ready to get out. We made plans to eat lunch at the mall with some friends. Originally it would have just been me meeting some friends. I figured it would be good for all of us to go ahead and re-enter the world. I had started to back out  but I am thankful we went ahead with plans. I wasn't sure how the kids would feel about going into their classes. I was going to see what Colby wanted to do and I would keep him with me if he didn't want to go up to class. We got to their school though and dropped off their Operation Christmas Child boxes and they both said they wanted to go to class. Lindsay went right in...they were getting things ready for their feast and Colby went upstairs all by himself. I had such a good feeling about being there. Everyone was so kind and gracious and treated the kids with such a sweet spirit. It made me realize in that moment what we had with our school family. I went on to help unload cookie dough. It was nice at that point to visit with friends while we worked. At 2:30 though it was time for the feast with Lindsay's class. I enjoyed being with her and it made her so happy to have me there. It was a sweet time. The kids basically ate a snack and watched a Thanksgiving movie. I enjoyed also visiting with all the preschool teachers. That afternoon we were super busy. We had to drop Allie off at the Vet and then come home prepare dinner and get kids ready for bed...on top of packing for a trip/funeral.