Grandmothers

Last Friday I drove to Wichita, Kansas. My grandmother on my mom's side is very sick, and my sister, mom, and I thought it would be a good idea to all travel to see her. My sister came from Idaho, my mom from Dallas, and I from Abilene. I was only able to see my grandma for one day on Saturday, but it was a great visit! She was alert and in good spirits. I think she was using as much energy as she could on being a good hostess for us. I had to leave on Sunday to get home for work the next day, but my sister and mom stayed behind a few more days. They said she was pretty tired the rest of the week. It is possible that it was the last visit I will have with my grandmother before she passes away, so while it's selfish to say I'm glad that it was a very peaceful and good one. Really I'm glad for her sake that it was a good visit, because I want her to be surrounded by good memories as long as she's around.
On Monday night my grandmother on my father's side, along with her daughter, drove in from New Mexico. They live in Iowa, and are making a bit of a cross country car trip to visit family and friends in the surrounding states. This is the first time they have been able to come through the Abilene area, so they were kind enough to grace us with their presence Monday evening. We ate out with my in laws who live in Abilene, and it was the first time my grandma and her daughter got to meet my in laws. Matt and I have our bed and used to have a futon, but we don't have the futon anymore. We gave our bed to my grandmother and her daughter, and I planned on Matt and I just sleeping on our couch and loveseat. Matt was pretty insistent that we borrow a blow up bed from his parents, so Monday night at about 1opm we were trying to blow up a bed with an inflator that was going dead from not being charged. It was quite a sight (and sound) trying to use that thing. We managed to get it blown up, but it was so uncomfortable! It was possibly one of the three most uncomfortable sleeping situations I've ever been in. Add to the discomfort our dog Bane next to us on the floor eating a rawhide chewtoy at 11:30pm and you've got stuff that only the best of dreams are made of....We barely got any sleep, but all I can do is look back on it and laugh.
Last night Matt's grandparents came in from Graham, so we got to eat dinner and hang out with them. It's always nice catching up with them, they're really sweet and super encouraging.
So this might be a record, I've seen three grandmothers in just over a week. I normally only see them about once every other year, but now I've seen each of them within a year. I think God is bringing us together with as much family as possible before we go to Australia...but maybe for energy's sake He'll spread the visits out a little more next time!