“Papa” John Tolbert, Bryan’s sweet grandpa, passed away a little more than a month ago, and one of the quick decisions that had to be made in the hours following his death was who from our family would travel to Georgia to attend the funeral. Ari was out because of a busy, stressful week ahead of her at school, but Vivi and Tad both expressed a desire to go, and we thankfully found cheap tickets on Spirit Airlines so they could accompany BT.
As much as I dreaded having my kids gone from Tuesday to Sunday, and I was especially anxious about Vivi going, the quiet week with Ariana turned out to be a blessing. Our time together these past few days reminded me of the time, eleven years ago almost to the day, when she and I arrived in Texas.
Unlike my comfy bed that Ari and I snuggled in this past week as we watched an odd assortment of shows–Downton Abbey, Mall Cop, and the original Sabrina–our first night in Texas was spent on the floor of our new home in sleeping bags borrowed from my brother-in-law’s old mission companion. He, his wife, and their cute family were the closest thing we had to acquaintances in the area. The next morning, the movers arrived with our furniture and other household belongings, and the tremendous ice storm that shut down the Metroplex later that afternoon gave me a couple of days off work to unpack and settle in.
But things were far from settled. Every day that I had to drop my sweet two-year-old off at the huge, impersonal daycare instead of our wonderful Utah babysitter, I agonized over whether I had done the right thing by moving us here. Those were gut-wrenching times. Somehow, we survived each day and imperceptibly, the unknown eventually became familiar to us. In retrospect, although they were hard times, they are among my most treasured memories. I truly felt the Lord in my life as I leaned on Him as I never had before.
Likewise, the memories Ari and I made while the rest of the family was in Georgia are priceless, and hopefully it won’t take another out-of-town funeral to usher in some good Mom/Ari bonding.
