Monday, June 4, 2012

Part One of an Update on US! :)

I have been worse than terrible at blogging, and life has changed for our family so much in the past couple of months! I feel like I need to do a little journaling about what has been going on before I forget too many more details. Lets see...where to start?

Matt had been in Kuwait for 7 months & then he was sent with a small group to Afghanistan where they would spend a couple of months working on a special mission that I wasn't allowed to know about. I went from being able to Skype with him as often as I wanted to only being able to Skype once every few weeks. To help the time go by we decided to make a visit to UT, so my Dad flew out & drove the kids and I back for a 2 week visit.

While I was in UT for a couple of weeks visiting my family I found out that my sister-in-law had just been diagnosed with a type of cancer in one of her eyes. I was so saddened to find this out & wondered how soon Matt would find out since he was in Afghanistan at the time.  A few days later the kids and I returned to KS and found out that things for my sister-in-law had gotten worse.  Upon further testing it was discovered that the cancer had spread to her liver, was at a stage 4, and was considered terminal.  (I don't know much about cancer diagnosis, but I knew this meant it was bad)  Thanks to the Internet Matt was able to find out about his sister just a few days after I did.

Being back in KS distracted my from the recent bad news, due to the fact that we were officially in "tornado season", and although many of my friends in Wichita assured me that nothing ever happens I still couldn't shake my terror of the unknown.  The kids and I started sleeping in the unfinished basement every night, just so that I would be able to sleep.  That was the hardest part of living in KS for me. A few days after being home I got an email from Matt. He thought maybe he would be allowed to come home on Red Cross leave after realizing the severity of his sister's cancer. I didn't get my hopes up at the idea because I figured that any family emergency that warranted him coming home for leave would have to involve one of our kids or myself. I agreed that it would be great if it happened, but didn't think anything more of it.

A day or two later the weather was warm and sunny and the possibility of a tornado was the furthest thing from my mind. The kids and I were out front with the next door neighbors enjoying the summer-like weather when the tornado sirens sounded on base.  I looked at my neighbor and asked, "What is that?" It was the first time I had actually heard the base sirens and wasn't sure if I believed what I was hearing. He confirmed my fears and said yes, those are the sirens.  We both assumed that it must be some sort of drill because the sky was blue with friendly looking puffy white clouds.  Moments later the commanders wife, who lived a few houses down, came speeding up and stopped at the curb next to us. She called out, "this is NOT A DRILL. A tornado has been spotted 5 miles from here!" We all hurried in the house and my adrenaline was pumping so hard I felt like my veins were filled acid! I won't go into detail about all that happened next because it turned out to be a false alarm & what was thought to be a tornado was actually a cold air funnel.  Although I was relieved that it wasn't a tornado I was still really shaken by it & my nerves were shot.  I didn't think I could stand living in KS during tornado season for one more day! (I know it sounds extreme, but I was so afraid!!)

I don't remember for sure how many days had passed since the false tornado alarm, but one afternoon I noticed that I had a missed call from a number I didn't recognize on my phone.  I also had a voicemail, and was almost in disbelief as I listened to the message from Matt telling me that he wouldn't be able to contact me for the next 3 or 4 days because he had been approved for red cross leave and was on his way HOME!


To be continued.....





3 comments:

  1. I'm so glad you've started blogging and updating us on how things are going for you. I've been thinking about you forever and hoping that all was well. So happy for you that Matt is home but so sad about his sister. I hope she is doing better.

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  2. I to Just checked the other day to see if I missed an update! Prayers are with you!! XOXO

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  3. Oh my Leslie! Really girl, you are AMAZING! How does the story end?

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