Day Seventy-Four

Actual Date: Monday, June 7, 2010 BEACH DAY!!! Well first we had to make one pit stop at the Doctor's office. Brooke had been coughing and having a horrible running nose and watery eyes for the past week. Since she had had walking pneumonia before we left I was worried that it had not cleared up all the way. Luckily our awesome friend and nurse, Sarah , squeezed us in first thing in the morning with our favorite California Pediatrician. It was so good to see all girls again, minus Ana (missed you!). During my rough pregnancy with Ava and then the unexpected Parker pregnancy, I became close to all the doctors and nurses in my OBGYN's office and our Pediatrician's office which is right next door. Miss you guys! Anyways, Brooke was just suffering from allergies, which I hand kind of suspected but I wanted to be sure. So we got some new allergy medicine and headed to the beach!

Chris, Chelsea and the kids had already headed down there so once we got to Crystal Cove, they came up and helped me carry the kids and all the junk down to the beach. Everyone had a blast. Except for Parker. He cried almost the whole time. Later he had a little tummy bug so I'm guessing that is what was wrong. But the girls had a blast in the tide pools with Uncle Chris. Ava was so excited to tell me about the crab she saw. We packed up a little early to try to beat the rush hour drive home traffic.

Just as I was pulling into my Grandma's driveway I got a call from my Mom telling me that my Grandpa's home had just called her and they said that he was not doing to well and that they did not think he was going to make it through the night. So I quick got kids set up with my Grandma and took a shower. Then Chels and I headed over to pick my Mom up and we were on our way to go be with him.

I don't quite know that I was prepared for how he was. It was hard to see him in an unresponsive state. Especially since he was usually so full of life and smiles. We sat with him for a an hour or so and called family and let them tell him good bye over the phone. Although he did not speak, he had tears roll down his cheeks a few times so we knew he was there somewhere. After an hour or so his nurse came and said that he would probably benefit from some oxygen and orange juice. 30 min later he was doing much better. He was speaking, fragments of sentences at least, and he was more alert. And I was greatful that he said he wasn't in any pain. We stayed with him for a few more hours until we could tell he was getting tired. We did not want to wear him out too much so we told him we were going home but that we would be back in the morning to check on him. We prayed with him one more time and kissed him goodbye.

With the way he was looking now on the oxygen we felt confident that he was going to make it through the night. But the nurse warned us that this was the beginning of his body shutting down and that he could not go on like this much longer. He had a few weeks, maybe. It was tough news to hear but I'm also grateful that we were able to prepare ourselves a little. And I am also grateful that God allowed me to be there to be part of his last weeks on this earth and have those special last moments to say our final goodbyes.