This trip was emotional and yet inspiring. Shannon and I flew up to Sacramento to spend a week with my mom who was in the hospital. First of all, I'm so proud of the baby girl. She slept for the majority of the flight(s). I received so many compliments from total strangers about how good of a baby she is. An older couple, who were sitting in front of us even said "We didn't even know a baby was behind us". She was also flirting with the people around us and the flight attendants. She's going to be trouble later on.
We arrived in Sacramento where we found out that the airline lost Shannon's car seat. (Ugh!) But it actually was a blessing in the end because not only did they lone us one for a couple hours (it was onn the next flight in) but they also gave us a $50 voucher for a future flight. Shannon was so happy to see her Auntie Amanda at the airport. Amanda was also A LOT of help. Not only was Amanda still working her full time job and getting up early (because of east coast time) to have conference calls, she helped me with Shannon. Amanda is such a great multi-tasker, I on the otherhand am NOT!
Shannon helping Aunti Manda work
Manda holding Shannon, diaper bag while on her cell phone
Shannon was also so happy to spend time with Auntie Lyssa too! She enjoyed playing with grandma's baby roly poly ball.
This toy is soooo old but it still makes noise and is pretty special to see my baby girl enjoy playing with it. My mom's grandma bought this for my mom when she was a baby and I also played with it when I was young too.
We visited grandma in the hospital where she received the best medicine... time with her grandbaby! Shannon brought so much joy to her and my Dad as well as every nurse who came in the room. She even had the hospital Chaplain smiling (He was from Dublin and had the full blown Irish accent). This is one of my favorite pictures from this trip...
Right before this picture was taken, Shannon was laying calmly with my mom just gazing into her eyes and reaching for her face. Then my Dad came over and started playing peek a boo, making Shannon laugh so hard. I will always cherish this memory.
All in all, it was a bittersweet trip. I loved being able to be with my mom have her hold Shannon as much as possible. I will never forget being in the room with Shannon and my parents, when the Dr. came in and told us that the cancer in her lungs and liver and shrunk considerably... and literally breaking down in happiness. I loved being their as my Dad leaned over and kissed my Mom on her forehead and looked her in the eyes and said "You're a Stud!" I will always cherish giving my mom a foot rub and kissing her beautiful bald head good night. She is an amazing Mom and Grandmother and such a strong fighter throughout all of this. I'm so proud of my Mom and how she has stayed positive and mentally strong throughout all of this. She's an amazing woman and as my Dad says "Joe Frazier and Muhammad Ali have nothing on this beautiful woman!" My Dad posts updated on how she is doing, if you would like to get caught up or just find out about her battle you can go to this website:
(you can also sign up for email updates)
And to end this post, I felt like My Dad summed it up best on one of his post on Caring Bridge:
And so we prayed and I am asking you to pray.
We know now that if Lisa recovers from this disease it will only be because of Almighty God. After our prayer we talked about how awesome it would be for Lisa to be able to stand infront of every person that has prayed for her so she could give her testimony and proclaim the name of Christ. I talked about how we could travel up and down the west coast and bring a worship team with us and speak the truth of who God is and how He is our Rock and our Salvation.
But I also know that if God doesn't heal her, she gets to do this with an even mightier worship team if front of Almighty God Himself. And that...that will be glorious.
Colossians 1:3-6 "We always thank God, the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, when we pray for you, because we have heard of your faith in Christ Jesus and of the love you have for all God’s people— the faith and love that spring from the hope stored up for you in heaven and about which you have already heard in the true message of the gospel that has come to you. In the same way, the gospel is bearing fruit and growing throughout the whole world—just as it has been doing among you since the day you heard it and truly understood God’s grace."
Amen
