How Plans Go Awry

 

The Plan:

Dash away for an adult extended weekend in Pennsylvania

with our traveling buddies, Terry and Shari.

Return from said weekend,

and in one day unpack, wash clothes, and repack.

Then Tiana and I were to take up residence in southern California

in order to help my brother's family after his kidney donation surgery.
After returning from that, we had tossed around the idea of a trip to the
Pacific Northwest over Thanksgiving.
It was to be a very busy month
but the good kind of "very busy."

 

Reality:

The weekend in PA went great.

Travel was smooth; nothing went wrong.

Nothing that we knew of anyways.

 Our trip home was smooth despite a tight schedule.

There was a bit of unsettled feeling in some but that was attributed to the

flying, busy days, and crazy PA roads.

We returned home to our kids and I prepared to hit the road again.

 

On Monday, Terry ended up home from work sick.

Rudy felt great but had a sensitive stomach and continued to work.

Tiana and I headed down south having a great time

while we shared food and drink.

Our treat was taking care of a baby for a few days.

A very cute baby.

And we did take care of the baby...
until the stomach flu hit me hard in the middle of one night.

 While we were able to resume baby care,
things continued to spiral downward for me
until I eventually ended up in urgent care attached to an IV drip.

My stay at David's extended an additional week as I was unable to get home.
Despite my symptoms remaining, I was able to drive north to meet Wesley
who had traveled south on Amtrak.  He drove us home.
I slowly recuperated at home and regained my strength
so that this week I am finally back to a normal schedule.

In the midst of me being sick away from home,
Rudy spent a week sick at home.
To say the least, a trip over Thanksgiving was no longer considered.
Rest and recuperation were all that could be handled.

So, now we are in December and I feel like I have lost the
past three weeks.
School schedules, bedtime schedules, housekeeping schedules
have to be reestablished, which is not the easiest to do when
things have been allowed to lapse.

Despite all this, we are so thankful for a variety of blessings.
We are so glad the stomach problems did not hit while we were flying.
That would have been beyond miserable.
My prayer while down south was that the baby would not get sick,
that David's family would stay well,
and that my parents (who were headed to Africa) would not get sick.
Everyone stayed healthy,
 Praise the Lord!!