Thursday, January 8, 2009

Home at Last

On the afternoon of Friday, 11/28 (the day after Thanksgiving), we pulled up to our driveway, clicked the garage door opener, drove in, and shut off the engine. Stacey and I had been through quite a week, and could not wait to see our kids.

No sooner had we stepped out of the car than my son Colin (6) and daughter Ellie (3) ran out grinning, excited to see mom and dad. After a short greeting, Colin asked if he could see the scar on the back of my head. He took a quick look and, apparently satisfied, ran back into the house. I'm not sure what I was being judged on, but it seems I passed.

We exhaustedly walked into the house and plonked down on the couch. My sister-in-law Jill, who had been watching the kids, looked worn out but was smiling. My mom, who had arrived the day before from Oregon to help us out for the week, also looked worn out but was smiling. Our kids, who had likely been running around non-stop for going on 190 hours (minus sleep), were running around non-stop, smiling. Aaaah, home at last.

Now I've been taking many opportunities to thank people, and there's no need to stop now. I'll take this one to thank Jill. For eight long, hard, challenging days she held down the fort, the better part of which was spent nursing a head cold intent on taking over her entire body.

Holding down the fort included taking our two kids and Jill's own daughter Grace (6) on multiple errands outside the house. Staying home would have been completely acceptable, as anyone with children can attest to the fact that the levels of human sanity decrease exponentially as one increases the number of children being watched. Yet she did it, and ne'er was there a complaint.

Let me mention my brother-in-law (and conveniently, Jill's husband) Richard, who drove back and forth from Sonora to Davis multiple times to help out and to take care of errands around the house that he knew we wouldn't be able to get to for weeks. Unfortunately the last item on my list -- repainting the exterior -- wasn't done. It's okay Richard, I've moved on.

And of course, my mom, who in addition to being responsible for half of my genetic code, had taken off almost the entire month of December to help us out as much as we needed. She moved in with us for the entire first week, which allowed Stacey to ease back into "normal life" sans help from me and put up with my admittedly grouchy moments, which were probably plentiful the first week back.

(EDITOR'S NOTE: The following paragraph contains graphic emotion, and may not be suitable for all audiences.)

Really, so many people pulled together in so many different ways to help. I realize (often with reminders from those closest to me) that at times I'm not the easiest person in the world to do favors for. So to everyone who helped me get through this challenging time -- in both big ways and small -- please know that I'm very, very appreciative. From the bottom of my heart, thank you.


Coming up Next: Onward and Upward