Wow ... A Serious Illness, A Severed Toe And An Indiana Funeral ... What A Whirlwind

So... just to wrap my mind around and record a few things...

Oxygen started at 6:45 p.m. Wednesday night with pre-service prayer as always. I felt like I was having some hard core time with Jesus. Just a few minutes after praying for the kids, ministry and MC students, I think I figured out why....

Ten minutes after service started, at 7:30 p.m, I was pulled out. A friend let me know that one of the kids, who has captured my heart, has a life-threating illness that she will have to live with the rest of her, probably shortened, life. I won't go into details, but big time serious and big time heavy. As I went back into worship, looking at the backs of the heads of my middle school kids, tears came at the thought of the junk some of hem have to go through, some of it of their own doing, most of it not.

Well, after worship, we went to the MC apartments to have a pool party to celebrate the end of the year with the MC students instead of our normal 02 Small Group Night. I am not there 5 minutes when...
Rey says: "Judy, I need you to come here."
Me: "Sure Rey, what's up?"
Rey: "Al cut his toe off."
Me: "Like his toenail, right?"
Rey: "No, his toe."
Me: "Are you serious?"
Rey: "Yes."
Me: "Where is he?"
Rey: "Over here."
Me: After taking a look at it, "Yep, he sure did. Let's get you to the hospital buddy. How did you do that?"
Al: "It got slammed in the bathroom door."
Me: "Where is the toe?"
Al: "In my sock."
Me: "Where's the sock?"
Someone gets Al's sock for him.
Al: "Shoot, it's not there."
Me: "Ok, let's look for your toe."
Desi: "Judy, is that it?" (pointing to this silly putty look piece on the floor)
Me: (after flipping the silly putty over and seeing a toenail) "Yep, that's it."
I gather it up and we head to the hospital.

Rey gets Al in the wheelchair (Al is calm as a cucumber and finds looking at his foot interesting). I hand Logan the toe. They go inside to get checked in while I get the bloody tissue out of my car. I crack up to find that someone had given him a feminine pad to absorb the blood (the blood wasn't actual bad, nothing compared to a head wound). My junior higher self thought that was brilliant and creative, but still giggled about the whole thing. Mental note, it worked much better than tissue.

Al's parents (who are amazing) get there. We hang another hour and they let us know it's cool if we want to go back to the party since the kids are staying overnight. Normally, I wouldn't leave, but considering what the other kids saw, thought that was best.

I go get morning food for the girls, drop it off. Find the girls are doing great. Call Andrew and find the boys are great too. I call Al's mom to see how he is doing and his little sister answers (she's probably around 9).
Me: "Noelle, is your mom there?"
Noelle: "No, she's in the hospital room with Al, but I can go get her."
Me: (Thinking she is probably busy) "No, that's ok. How is your brother?"
Noelle: "He's good. They got the toe all cleaned up and sewed it back on. But then the nurse pushed too hard on it and it popped off."
Me: (Thinking she doesn't have the story right, but find out the next day she did) "That's not good."
Noelle: "Do, you want me to get my mom?"
Me: "No, she's probably busy with your brother. Just tell her I'm thinking about and praying for Al. I'll call back in the morning."
Noelle: "Ok"
We hang up

I hang with the girls until 1 a.m., then say my goodbyes and go back to the apartment to grab my bag to head out to Indiana. Bob (and Karen...some of the most amazing friends in the universe), lost his dad this week. It's been a long couple of weeks for them and I want to show up to the funeral. I couldn't get any flights in that would get me there on time, so we get creative. Mike loads Scott's car up with the stuff he has to take home at the end of the week. Since they will have three vehicles in Atlanta with their parents coming down for graduation, I offer to drive one of the cars home a couple days early. Other than Loretta and Chris, no one knew I was coming. The way Scott's car shakes when you break, I wasn't sure if or when I'd make it.

I get on the road and 1:45 a.m. and need to be in Indiana and showered by 1 p.m. It's an 11 hour drive and I have had no sleep. I drive and make it to Kentucky but have to sleep for a few ... 27 minutes to be exact, of which I jolt awake ever 9 minutes because I think I'm still driving and fell asleep at the wheel.

I get to Indiana at 12:45 p.m. and to the funeral home around 1:45 p.m ... stay for the rest of the viewing, service and dinner afterward. We leave around 7:45 p.m., go and buy me a dress for the graduation ceremony, drop off Scott's car, drop off baby Sarah (who has been chillin with us for a couple of hours) and head to my sisters.

I go to bed at midnight and get up an hour later to drive to Indy to hit the airport to be back in Atlanta by 10:45 a.m.

Some people have said, "Why did you make the drive? That's insane."

My response, "When I left Indiana, I had to decide what relationships I wasn't willing to give up. While there are a few others I try very hard to keep, there are five families that I think God placed in my life to do 'life and death' with. The McFarlands are one of those five families that I will do everything I can to be at the key moments in their lives ... marriages of kids, death of key family members, etc. That's why."

Even after explaining, they have a bewildered look on their face.

While I don't know if I was fully present ALL DAY yesterday because there were moments I could feel my emotional and physical exhaustion from head to toe ... I know I tried.