The Nitty Gritty of Funerals and visitors

9.18.13 (I don't even remember what part this is because its getting ridiculous)

         The afternoon of the 18th is pretty much a drug haze to me. I had a button to push for my epidural whenever I had pain, and I can remember snippets of people coming in to talk to us.

          There was a chaplain that was attached to a unit in Fort Worth, and Alex's good friend Rob who is his superior in El Paso had made several calls to this female chaplain basically telling her to get her rear over to the hospital to see us. It kind of made me smile to think of Rob busting somebody's butt over the phone and telling her to get there NOW. She was sweet, and she helped Alex do a lot of the nitty-gritty that I was just too drugged up to think about let alone help with. Not to mention that I slept a lot that afternoon.

        The nurses had given us a list of the funeral homes in the area and had circled ones that were close in Plano. Of course, we had absolutely no clue who to pick because we aren't originally from the area and had never buried anyone here (and had never planned to). Alex came into my part of the massive suite we were in in the late afternoon and told me he liked the Distinctive Life Funeral Home because the lady who had picked up the phone had actually talked to him like a human instead of just diving into the business aspects of burying our daughter. This blows me away that Alex could call a funeral home and say, "My daughter passed away and I need to know about funeral arrangements" and people could be so cold as to just dive in to the business side of it. The lady at Distintive Life is named Kenney, and she was an absolute God sent to us. Alex arranged for her to come see us the morning of the 19th, and we'll get to that in a minute.

         On the night of the 18th, my parents went back to our house to let my cousin in (who had arrived that morning after Kaitlyn had been taken away), and to meet my Aunt Mary and Uncle Kenney who were driving in from Houston to be with us. My friend Kristin came to see us that night, and she brought Tiffs Treats, which were a total bummer because I was stuck on a liquid diet still at this point or I would have gone face-down in those suckers and not come up for air.

        One of my favorite doctors came by to see us that evening, as well. He said that he had just finished up a case, otherwise he would have come earlier. He has six kids of his own, and he has been a big influence on my professional career. It meant a lot to me that he came by the day that Kaitlyn passed and held our hands and said that he was praying for us. Later, some of his office staff told me that he was proud that he was able to visit without having a break down, but that as soon as he got outside our door he started crying for us. Just knowing people care is seriously one of the best comforts we could ask for, and we were blessed to be surrounded by people who took the time to come show us how much we mean to them.