Life as a Yowler

This week has been such a mix of up and down emotions. Sunday evening(the night before our week at Disney) we got word that one of our best friends’ home burned and they lost almost everything. They were all safe, thank God. But there were some close calls getting the kids out of the house and I’ve been so emotional just thinking of that. My heart just hurts for them. Outside of a death, I think a fire would be the worst thing for a family to deal with.

Tuesday, we got word that Brandon’s dad, Bill, was in a bad car accident. He was rushed to the ER. They did some tests on him. The tests showed he had a stroke. Further testing showed he has masses on his pancreas and liver. He’s been in and out of the hopstial for the last two weeks with blood clots in his lungs. Bill is still waiting for some further testing, then to meet with a specialist to receive a diagnosis. We are just scared and praying so hard. Our kids have been overhearing a lot of hard conversations and Joah(our oldest) especially is very concerned.

We did four days of Disney right in a row. This is always good, but SO exhausting. For the most part our kids did great. We had a few bad attitudes and meltdowns. But nothing that some snacks couldn’t fix. We love Disney. We couldn’t believe the amounts of people this time though. Our first two days, Magic Kingdom and Hollywood Studios, were absolutely swamped. We couldn’t do much of anything without waiting an hour. The second two days, Animal Kingdom and Epcot, were much more laid back. We did almost every single ride and attraction at those two places.

I mentioned earlier that we bought a vehicle while being on the road. The new vehicle has been giving us trouble already I’m afraid. We’ve been left stranded twice where it won’t start,even with a jump from someone. We had it towed to a Buick dealership in Orlando. They thought they had it fixed. Brandon left Disney early last night and ubered to the dealership to pick the car up. It was completely dead. The manager felt terrible and said it’s going to be top priority today because there’s obviously needed some further investigating. Meanwhile our other vehicle, our van, got a flat tire while sitting parked yesterday. We are supposed to leave Orlando today. Brandon is currently working on getting that tire fixed. If the new car can’t be fixed in time, we are going to have to leave it and have Brandon fly back later to get it. The van is the vehicle we tow and that needs new tires for us to be able to fix it. So poor Brandon has been dealing with detail after detail and stress after stress with these two vehicles. He handles this all way better than I do.

Like I said this week has been such a mix of emotions. I wouldn’t trade the memories we made at Disney. Honestly being there this week was a good distraction for us all. But my heart is back home where so many things are going on right now. My heart feels so heavy. I’ve done so much praying and surrendering things that are outside of my control. I’m trying to trust God and worry less, but this is a constant struggle for me. Sometimes it’s hard to see God’s plan in hard life circumstances. I don’t doubt His goodness and I don’t doubt His sovereignty. But in my human nature, I can’t grasp it at times. Like I said, I am working on surrendering things outside of my control and trusting that He will handle all of my burdens and struggles. While this week has NOT been about me(it’s been about my friends and my father in law), they are heavy on my mind because I love and care for them. I am doing the only thing I can do, which is pray.