Hugs, lunch, and leaving

       After the service was over, we walked out into the lobby and I saw a friend of mine from Midland across the way with her little boy, Parker. Carly was the daughter of my mom's best friend in Midland, and she graduated a few years ahead of me from high school. Her mom was a constant in my life growing up, she was always around or I was always hearing stories of "CJ" from my mom. CJ went to be with Jesus two years ago, just about a month before Alex and I got married. One of the last things she said to my mom on her final admission to the hospital was, "I don't have time to get sick again, I'm getting ready for Amy's wedding." Anyways, I walked over to Carly (who is about 6 months pregnant with their second little boy) and hugged her tightly, and told her that I know her mom is taking care of Kaitlyn. She hugged back and assured me that her mom was spoiling her rotten in Heaven, and being sure she is meeting the rest of our loved ones who are there.

       Alex and I stood outside the main doors to the auditorium and hugged nearly (if not every) single person who came to support us that day. I think there were probably about 100 people there, and it surprised me how many people took time out of their day to come to the service for us. One of the amazing things about the service is that I have heard of quite a few people that loved the church and what John had said, and they are looking in to attending our church or just deepening or developing a relationship with Christ. I love hearing these stories and being apart of these conversations, it reminds me of a greater purpose.

      After the majority of people left, Alex and our family went back to the kids' area of the church where they had arranged a lunch for us. We sat and chatted with some of our close friends, and Alex and I sat at a table with two of his good friends who had driven all the way from El Paso the day before to be with us. When it got to be about 1 pm, I started getting really uncomfortable and that's when I realized I was an hour overdue on both of my pain meds. I started giving Alex the "Holy cow this is not going to get better without hauling it home and getting those pills in my body" look, and we quickly excused ourselves to make our way back to the car.

      As we were pulling out of the parking lot, Alex said to me, "Dang girl! You've got a lot of friends!!" which of course made me giggle. Then he said to me, "I feel like that was really good. Was that ok? Is it ok that we did that? Are you mad we did that?" in rapid fire before I could even answer any of his questions. I told him of course it was ok, and that I thought the service was perfect.

     We got home, and Alex's two friends from El Paso came over for a little while before they needed to head back. One of the guys is named Rob, and he holds a special place in my heart for being there so much for Alex and I. He's the one that called the local chaplain and told her in no uncertain terms to high tail it to the hospital to be with us. I was laying down on the bed waiting for my pain meds to kick in when Rob came busting in our room and starts with his sarcastic, "What is this laziness? Not even going to make me a sandwich when I come to your house or what?" which even now makes me start laughing. Rob went and shared some man time with Alex and their other friend, Jeremy, before I fell asleep on the bed for a few hours that afternoon.