Everything hard happens at the same time

Yesterday was the first day I've done laundry in 2 weeks. That was getting a little scary. And, I haven't gotten the time to grocery shop since two Mondays ago!! Needless to say we're starving. We haven't blogged, we haven't emailed, I haven't made appointments with doctors. Why this lapse in responsibility? Everything hard happens at the same time!

Two Mondays ago, my grandmother got really sick and has been in and out of the ICU since. She got pneumonia from her congestive heart failure. I've been trying to catch up since then. She's fortunately doing better, and should fully recover after a they perform a stint operation, thank God. But but story goes on!

Rob's great-grandmother passed the same day that my grandmother got sick, so the stress has been up on his family's side too. Unfortunately no one got to go down and visit for her funeral, it was a small private ceremony. And the story goes on...

Last Monday I discovered that my 18 year old prodigal sister was not going to come home from California in time to start college in less than one week. She's turning down a $40,000 scholarship to her first choice school. I spent the week at my mom's house trying to receive a phone call from her to try and change her mind because we have no way to reach her. She never called. And the story goes on...

This Monday Rob's very-soon-to-be-18-year-old sister came home from work feeling sick, only to suddenly need to be rushed to the emergency room and have her appendix removed!! They got to it before it ruptured, praise God, but she's been in a lot of pain the past few days, both before and after the surgery. Rob and I have spent the last few days at his mom's house helping to take care of his 4 youngest siblings. This is where I got my laundry done yesterday. Thanks, Mary! (My mother in law). Rob's sister, Ginny, is recovering well and should be home later today.

This is not a complaint. It is more a reflection, with awe, at the amount of stress that one family can withstand in a short period of time. Rob has seen me acting like a basket case this week, especially the day I found out about my sister. I have held Rob while he cried over the loss of his great-grandmother, a very strong and independent woman. And we have both gracefully and non-argumentatively tossed our carefully and diligently constructed budget to the wind to go out to eat almost everyday that a family member wasn't feeding us. We've also fought very little, and made time to connect and talk to each other almost every night before going to bed. We have somehow managed to get through this, and God willing we'll be on the other side oft his mountain shortly.

Oh yeah, I forgot to mention Rob's car has been in the shop for the past two days. That's just the cherry on the sundae!