Bobby's dad passed away unexpectedly Tuesday, October 20th. We were unfortunately unable to make it up to South Bend in time, but were able to spend almost an entire week up in South Bend for Bobby to help the family make plans and take care of all that needs to be done in an event like this.
The kids and I stayed at my parents house while Bobby stayed at his mom's house with his sister and her family from Maryland. Our kids had a difficult time adjusting at first with a different routine, but by the end of our week up north, they had adjusted to sleep for the most part. I was unsure how the kids would do being at the funeral home all day long and had intentions of staying for a bit, then taking them back to my parents' house, but they did really well. It helped that all of their cousins were there, too. They spent a lot of time on electronic devices, but it kept them from running around and being stir crazy for the most part. There was an open casket viewing, which Natalie and her cousin Jaxon would often go up to see their grandpa and did not seem scared. I'm not entirely sure what was going through Natalie or Aubrey's head, but I'm pretty sure they thought he was sleeping. Aubrey in fact asked why grandpa wasn't coming with us when we left. We tried to explain to them that grandpa was in Heaven, and with the teachings they've learned in church, I think they kind of get it, but of course not entirely. They have already experienced a couple of funerals so I'm sure that helped with the comfort level.
Since the entire family was there for the funeral, Bobby's mom wanted some updated family pictures. Talk about stressful...lots of people to get looking at the camera all at once and of course my girls were the worst behaved! Ugh! It's unfortunate that we didn't do these while Bobby's dad was still alive because he would have loved being a part of these, but makes me all the more want to continue to have updated photos of our family.
It was great to see Bobby's cousin's from St. Louis, just unfortunate it's been 4 years!
We had such great support from our friends, family, and church during this time! Since all of this happened so quickly, I literally packed for myself and all 3 kids in 10 minutes while Bobby packed for himself. We basically just threw random clothes and the essentials in a bag so that we could get on the road as quickly as possible, but unfortunately didn't make it in time. Our friends were awesome enough to FaceTime with me to find things in our house to bring up in time for the funeral so we didn't have to buy a new wardrobe and make the kids' lives a little easier while we were away. Then, made the 7 hour round trip up to South Bend from Terre Haute to deliver our stuff! We can never thank them or my family enough for everything they did to make our unexpected, emotional trip a little easier!
Life is so fast and can change in an instant! We often forget just how precious our time with family and friends can be when we all have a million activities fighting for our attention. I know our lives will continue to get busier as our kids grow bigger, but I hope we are still able to take the time for all the important things like God, family, and friends because all the 'stuff' in this life really doesn't matter at the end!
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