At long last

We are home.
Vacation, for the most part, was exactly what we had hoped for. The weather was beautiful, and the family time was priceless! We had a blast--especially Jack. Bo even took me out to the Bluebird, where we had our rehearsal dinner, to celebrate our anniversary!

Last Thursday, though, we did get some news that changed the course of our vacation. As most of you know, we were scheduled to return on this past Sunday afternoon (the 20th). However, on Thursday the 17th, we received a phone call that Bo's aunt Linda had passed away. She was only 58; her daughter Krista found her on her kitchen floor on Thursday morning. Krista had gone to check on Linda after Linda has failed to show up for work. There has yet to be a determination of the cause of death; that could take up to 6-8 weeks.

Linda (and her daughter Krista) was a lover of Christ. She loved Jesus with everything she had--she was in this world, but not of it. She often wished aloud that the Lord would come and get her--and He did. Linda had been going through a lot of struggles over the last few years, and I think God finally decided she'd had enough and took her to be with Him. I have no doubt that Linda is having the absolute time of her life right now!!!

I think it is so awesome that even people who barely knew Linda knew that she loved Jesus. She was an awesome witness and she really allowed the Lord to love people through her. She made a huge mark on many peoples' lives, and she will be greatly missed.

Please pray for her whole family, especially her daughter Krista, son-in-law Wes, and granddaughter Morgan. This is all gut-wrenchingly difficult for them.

So after receiving that news, we made arrangements to attend the funeral in Louisiana. We had flown out of San Antonio on the 12th, so we took our return flight back there on the 20th. Then we checked back in with Southwest Airlines, and flew to Houston, and then to New Orleans. We were traveling for about 15 hours total on Sunday (after driving 4 hours on Saturday). We finally fell asleep on the pull-out couch in Bo's parents' suite at the Holiday Inn at about midnight that night.

On Monday, we went to the florist to pick out flowers for Linda's memorial service. Then we went shopping because Bo, Jack, and I literally had nothing to wear. We had packed for 8 days of beach vacationing, so we were out of clean clothes, period. Monday night was the wake from 5-9.

On Tuesday we had to move out of our hotel because they were booked, so we had to pack everything up Tuesday morning. Then we went to eat breakfast, and then we went to the funeral. We were at the funeral from 11 am-6 pm.

On Wednesday (our anniversary) we got up early, ate breakfast, and hit the road with Bo's parents. All 5 of us (Randy, Kathy, Bo, Me, and Jack) squeezed into Kathy's car with all of our luggage for the 5 hour trip to Deer Park. When we arrived in Deer Park, Randy and Kathy went to buy a mattress (their guest bed was given away) while we did laundry so that we would be able to NOT stink. Then we went out to dinner.

This morning we got up at 5:30 to catch a 7:35 am flight from Houston to San Antonio. Then we drove from San Antonio to Austin, and now we are finally home.

It has been a very exhausting and emotional week. But I am 100% certain that if Linda could speak to us right now, she would tell us to quit being sad and celebrate the fact that she is partying with Jesus!

On that note, which gives all of us believing friends and family members and incredible amount of hope and joy, I will be posting photos of our vacation soon.