Noah got a little sick right before I left, so he stayed home from school and hung out with Pepper.
At Hinsdale Covenant Church doing a U-Turn event
Concert at German Valley Christian Reformed Church
Sunday morning at Broadway Covenant Church
This is so typical of Donna’s personality! Right after having her head shaved and trying a new wig when the cancer came back last year.
Things have been pretty crazy here settling in with Noah. Originally, we thought we were going to be able to travel over Christmas to bring him home, so I said yes to a few events in April thinking that we would have been home many months by then. If you’ve kept up with my blog, though, you know that we had several delays due to paperwork and Chinese holidays, etc., that meant we couldn’t go to China until March. We got home just four weeks before I was scheduled for some events in IL. I didn’t want to leave Noah, but fortunately, things were going well, and we thought, well, at least this way he will know what our life really looks like around here.
When I’m gone, my husband, Nathan is always here, and the kids are very used to relying on both of us and whichever of us happens to be home at the time! Nathan travels for work too, so we switch off a lot. We’ve realized that Noah really needs to know the plan, and if we tell him ahead of time what is happening, he will deal with it much better. I started telling him a week before I left that I would be leaving for 3 days and he would see me Friday morning and then I would be home Sunday night after he went to bed so I would see him Monday morning. He didn’t like it, but he took it pretty well. On Friday morning, he was following me around while I packed, though, saying, “You no go. I very sad. I no like you go three days. You no go.” It hurt my heart! I told him that I had only two weekends I had to be gone this spring, and then I wasn’t going anywhere this summer at all (we have had to leave so many months open because we really have no idea what will happen with his heart surgery). That seemed to help.
The trip itself was a blast, though, even though it was exhausting. My assistant/ booking person/ gal Friday extraordinaire, Donna came with me on this one because we were going back to her hometown and she had people to see! I haven’t gotten nearly enough time with Donna lately because as many of you know, her cancer has come back with a vengeance and she’s been stuck in and out of the hospital and in treatments. So this was especially dear time to have with her. Plus, she’s hilarious and a lot of fun! We had a girls’ roadtrip and if the minivan had been convertible we would’ve had the top down the whole time (someone needs to invent this minivan, that would be hysterical!!!).
We got into Chicago Friday night late and then headed to Hinsdale Covenant Church on Saturday morning for their annual women’s spring luncheon. At least, that’s where we intended to go. So, we got there, unloaded the van, and started looking for people. The church was open and set up, but there was no one there. We finally called the coordinator, Heidi, and asked where they all were. She said, “We’re here. Where are you?” I said, “I’m in the sanctuary, where are you?” She said, “Okay, let me walk there. Okay, I’m there. Where are you?” It was at this point that I wondered if I’d looked closely enough at the sign. I walked outside quickly and realized, um, we’re at Hinsdale United Methodist Church, just down the street from Hinsdale Covenant. And how do you say to the woman who booked you, “Um, sorry, can you forget this call? Let’s just pretend this never happened, shall we?”
Donna and I were laughing so hard. We tried to pack the van up super quickly before anyone asked why we were unloading cases at their church! And as we headed out the parking lot, we saw the pastor coming out and we were like, “Peel out!” I didn’t want to share my stupidity with anyone else. So I’ll just tell all of you. 🙂
Wonderful morning with Hinsdale – what a fabulous group of ladies! And it turns out that Heidi has a great sense of humor, which was helpful!
After the event, Donna and I drove about 2 hours to her hometown of Freeport and I did a concert that night at German Valley Christian Reformed Church (not to be confused with German Valley United Methodist Church, ha!) and I actually went to the right church! Donna’s extended family turned out when they heard she was in town – they were way more excited to see her than me! So she had a little impromptu family reunion afterwards at the Culvers. We got to stay with her good friends, Kim and Steve, too and they were just lovely to be with again.
The next morning we got up and drove into Rockford and I did the morning service at Broadway Covenant there. The pastor there came from a church in Springfield, MA and had me in several times while he was there, so it was so fun to see where he’d moved. This may have been the friendliest church service I have ever attended in my whole life, and that is saying something! We had a great time that morning, and even made Donna try Thai food afterwards which was a bit of a miracle.
Such a fun weekend, and particularly special as it was time with my Donna. I can’t wait to get back out that way, and I was so happy to get home and hug my kiddos and my hubby!