It is with a heavy heart that I return and write this blog post. After an extremely brief battle with cancer, that we were aware of anyway, my father-in-law, the patriarch of the family went home to glory. It was a long 6 weeks of daily hospital visits, and over night stays with Dad in his last days, through to long days and nights planning a funeral no of us wanted to ever have to attend. Now we are left to pick up the pieces, and find ways to remember and honour him every day.
Although we rejoice that he is now in heaven, the loss will be felt for a long time to come. I stand by my advice I gave my husband from the first day his Dad went to the hospital, you will never regret the time you spend with your family. Some of our needs are more urgent than others, and we missed him very much over the weeks while he took the time to be with his Dad. My girls are still re-adjusting to having Daddy back at home some evenings without having to go to the hospital to see him.
Anya learned to crawl while Grandpa was in the hospital. That made hospital visits very difficult as she now wanted to go and explore everything, but I certainly wasn't letting her out of her stroller to do it. Just today she got her top two front teeth! Life certainly doesn't stand still for one minute in this household. I like how she's gotten both sets of teeth in twos; I'm already curious to find out if they will be replaced by adult teeth in the same fashion.
Hailey & Kaia finished out their school year in a flurry of school parties and field trips. Some were damped by all the rain we seemed to be "blessed" with in June. We almost felt like we should consider having a small boat close by in case we were going to float away... but it didn't get quite that bad; but was also just warm enough to grow an extremely unavoidably healthy crop of mosquitos. Seriously, you couldn't even go outside during the hottest part of the day without getting eatten alive through your clothes!
We were blessed to have a short window of time to shower love on Kendale's Dad, knowing how sick he was. Not everyone gets that opportunity. We often allow "life" to get in the way of things/people that really matter to you. Make those important people in your life feel important. Give them your time, your heart and your ear; even an extra squeeze now and again.
