12/18-1/7: Grief, Celebrations, and Rest

As I mentioned in my last post my December was not filled with all joy and rest. My grandpa was diagnosed with ALS (Lou Gehrig's Disease) prior to departing on this trip, so I knew my time with him was limited. This is why we stopped in Colorado as many times as we could early on in the trip. Beginning in early December, my grandpa took a turn for the worse, and we began to realize that our time with him was perhaps shorter than we all thought. On the evening of December 15 while we were watching Shrek with our hosts, my mom called to inform me that the end was near. She was going to be flying to Colorado that Saturday (it was Tuesday) to be with her parents. Upon hearing more details, I had a strong suspicion that he would not last even that long. When I woke up the next morning, I knew my grandpa had entered Heaven...and my mom's texts from the middle of the night confirmed that he, indeed, had met God face to face. ALS may have taken his earthly life, but through faith in Jesus Christ, this disease became only the method that brought him Home at the age of 79. He was and is greatly missed by his entire family.

I flew to Colorado two days later to be there for the funeral and spend some much needed family time before I flew to Washington. God graciously timed this so that I could make a "triangle" of flights, and I was on a break from the trip/close enough to fly relatively easily. The funeral was a beautiful celebration of a the wonderful man who was always willing to help anyone, loved all without qualifications, told incredible stories, and knew more random facts than anyone else I know.

After a few days in Colorado, I flew to Washington, a few days later than originally planned. I spent almost all of my time with my family and cancelled most of my previous plans. I listened to worship music frequently. I did a puzzle with my mom. I talked with my dad. I pressed into the hope of Christmas, that my God came to this earth as a baby in order to die on a cross and pay my sins so I can enter Heaven, and one day see my Grandpa again. Christmas had never been so raw and real to me before. The fluff that sometimes Christmas was stripped away. Instead I was focused on the reason that Christmas is celebrated...Christ.

Dear friends rallied around my family during this time and provided us with food so that my mom could take time to grieve instead of having to figure out food. They loved us well.

Christmas itself was a bittersweet day. Our time opening presents together was wonderful. It felt normal and just the way it should be. The rest of the day had its ups and downs, but it was a day with family. We carried on our tradition of watching movies and eating snacks.

Alyssa traveled with her dad to see her family in Oregon. It was her first Christmas without her mom which was filled with a similar bittersweet yet real quality to the holiday. She enjoyed getting to meet family she hadn't before and sharing our trip with people were excited to hear about it. It was different, and the loss of her mom was obvious, but it was also filled with a new sense of hope that she hadn't experienced before.

After our times in different Northwest states for Christmas, we both returned to California for another couple weeks of rest. Again, it was a season of normalcy yet laced with grief and mixed with hope.

For New Year's Eve we were invited to celebrate with our hosts, Megan and Bryan, and their friends. We played different games and watched more of the New York NYE broadcast than I have before. ;) It was laid back and exactly what Alyssa and I needed!

In what seemed a blink of an eye, we were back on the road again.