This Christmas, I had decided to drive up to Tulsa from Dallas to spend time with my sister who’s health is declining at the age of 37. My original plan was to drive up with my daughter on December 23, but when I found out that my sister could possibly have to have surgery, I decided to leave a day early and be there for her.
My sister has been battling type 1 diabetes since she was 12, and has been on dialysis since September of 2007 after being told by her doctor that she had 6 months to a year to live unless she gets a kidney and pancreas transplant. After being put on a list to wait for a transplant, she had been called about 4 times to get ready to receive the organ, later to be let down because of either the organs not being well enough, or other circumstances. She has two children; a 13 year old son and a 7 year old daughter, and they have been totally informed and educated about the condition of their mother, so at their age, they know what to do if something goes wrong with her.
I surprised my sister on Tuesday evening, and offered to take her to her surgery appointment early the next morning. The procedure that she had to have done was due to a shifted catheter which caused her to not be able to drain the toxins from her body through the dialysis she has been doing since 2007.
The surgery went well, and she was brought home by her Mother In Law. I was here with my nephew and daughter, and did things around the house to help out during her recovery.
My husband was planning on joining us up here after he got off of work on Christmas Eve, but we got hit hard with an unexpected Blizzard (which was the first severe Blizzard in Tulsa this year). He started to make the drive, but was going about 20 mph on the freeway on lots of black ice and snow, plus blizzard conditions, so he made the decision to turn around and not make the trip because it was just not safe.
I was very sad because it was our daughters’ first Christmas, and he was going to miss it, but I felt better about him being safe and not stranded on the side of the freeway like tons of other people had experienced!
My sister had also had a very large Holiday dinner planned, and a gift giving party with our family that lives out here. Well, because of this horrible snow storm, that fell through, so it was turning out to be a little disappointing for a few of us. We were grateful though that everyone was safe, and not putting themselves in danger by driving on the treacherous road conditions.
I called my husband to wish him a Merry Christmas at around noon, and told him that I was sad that he was going to miss our daughters’ first Christmas, but I promised that when I return home after taking care of my sister while her husband is out of town for a while, that we would open presents and celebrate as a family then. That phone call was about noon, and he said that he was just hanging out and not doing much.
My sister, her husband, my nephew, my daughter and I opened the few presents that we had, and just hung out around the house all day and were going to make plans to see Avatar at a local theatre at around 8pm after we finished our Christmas dinner, but my brother-in-law told me that he didn’t have a good feeling about leaving the house in the conditions that the roads were in, so we decided to see the movie another day.
I got a call from my husband a little while after that, and was very excited to hear from him, since it had been all day since the last time we had spoken. He asked me if I could do him a huge favor, and not knowing what he meant by that, being that he was in Texas and I was in Oklahoma, I was quite interested in hearing what kind of favor he wanted. He said, ” Can you open the door, cause it’s freezing out here!”. I could not believe what he was saying, and I looked out the door of my sisters’ house, and saw him standing on the doorsteps!
I had the biggest smile on my face, and could not believe that he had driven up in such horrible weather to see us! He said it took him 8.5 hours (normally it would take 4) and he did it so he would not miss his daughters’ very first Christmas!
It was the nicest surprise EVER! I was sad to see him go after one hour of being up here where we got to open gifts and he was able to eat some Holiday dinner. He then had to leave because he had to work the next day at 10am, and I made him call me when he got home so I knew he made it safely; that was at 4:45 am!
He is a wonderful Husband and Father! I could not ask for more, and I have never seen anyone that dedicated to show how important spending time with his family was.
We decided not to do gifts this year; because money for most of us is pretty tight, and we know that spending time with our loved ones during this time is priceless, and much more valuable than anything that you can buy.
So what was the best part of your Holiday this year? Was there anything that was a surprise that you will never forget?
