An unexpected trip to Texas~by Beth

After the conference ended, we grabbed some dinner, late, at the Golden Arches with Nathan. The plan was that we would take Nathan back to the South Campus where he was staying and also drop off Caleb and Zachary to spend the night. In the morning all three would ride back on the ALERT vans back to ALERT and the boys would work base support for a little more than three weeks. Just as we arrived at the South Campus at dusk I got a call that my aunt in TX had passed away. So, we got the boys off, got the other children ready for travel and said our goodbyes. While filling up the van with gas Jonathan and I began to discuss whether it would be possible to go to Texas for the funeral that would be the following Tuesday, 4 days later. Since Jon did not have to be to work until Friday we figured we could swing it. So, at 11:30pm we started out, not for Florida, but for Texas. We called Nathan to check with him about staying at ALERT which was fine. His sister-in-law works in conferences at ALERT so she arranged our housing on campus. Around 2:30am we pulled over to rest at a rest stop somewhere in Illinois. David got out to use the restroom and looked at the map of where we were but he must have been too sleepy to realize that Illinois was not on the way home to Florida. Later in the morning the children woke up and began to wonder where we were. Charity, in particular, kept asking where we were, where we were going, etc. I tried to give vague answers like "We're going south". Before we got to the Texas sign she had figured that we were not going home. They erupted in cheers when they realized that we would visit family in Texas. We kept our visit a secret from Katie. She had been asking us to visit practically every month. She had also suggested that we send Stephen with the two boys coming to ALERT and he could fly home with them. So, when we arrived we went to her apartment and had Stephen knock on the door. Because she and Stacey (our DIL's sister) had been painting all day in over 100 degree heat and had just gotten back and showered, they were pretty tired. So, Katie yelled "Come in." Stephen turned the knob and I had him walk in and she squealed with delight. The whole time we were there was delightful. We got to help Nathan on two rooms they were fixing up in their apartment and celebrate Katie's birthday a couple days early. On Tuesday we drove over to Ft Worth for the funeral and had a special time with all my Dad's relatives. I got a shot of the remaining three siblings of my grandparents. They have lost two siblings now. Dad is the one in the center. Though it was a very long trip home, it was well worth going.