Texas or Bust

Our first day of travel to our new home and state!
Southern California was HOT!

We wondered if this was our truck and how funny it would be if we had just waved at our driver.  That was until we saw literally hundreds of U Pack trailers be hauled east out of California!

We found a fun little shop while waiting for our dinner table in Williams, Arizona.
Next stop: Grand Canyon!

"The heavens declare the glory of God and the firmament showeth His handiwork" (Psalm 8)
All I could think about at this amazing display of God's creative power was Psalm 8 followed with "WOW."

We set out for our new home and the next step in this journey we call life on Monday, June 5, 2023 after telling our California community goodbye with not a few tears.  We spent almost exactly four and one half years in California, my home state and hometown in Northern California.  They were good years, full of much joy and much hardness but over it all, full of grace and mercy.  Our support group loved on us, supported us through many months of unemployment, many tears as we transitioned from Latin to North America life, searched for and found the church community we needed...the list is endless.

We miss them dreadfully.  My family who loved on us, included us in those special events like weddings, baptisms, Thanksgiving celebrations, 4th of July BBQs, birthdays, swim days and just the sweetness of a call or text "Hey, want to come over for dinner this weekend?"  Many, many family nights with the few immediate family members life in our hometown.  My brother and sister-in-law loved on us and went out of their way to minister to us in a myriad of ways.  When our home had been boxed and trailered out of the state, they invited us to live with them for our final 10 days in California. To finally, but certainly not least, our Christ Community Church family who were in a nutshell, Jesus' hands and feet to us for two beautiful, amazing years.  We love you all and words cannot express our gratitude for the servant leadership, the meals, the prayers, the hours logged helping us pack and move not once, but twice in 9 months.  The list is endless.

 When God calls, it is wise and good to go but that does not negate the pain of goodbyes and separation.  We have felt that pain keenly but through this entire process (and maybe one day I will share how God moved in divine ways to get our family to Texas) have had an overwhelming sense of PEACE.  Of His gentle spirit whispering, "This is the way, walk in it." 

We so enjoyed the Grand Canyon, our one and only planned stop on our planned three day trip to Southern Texas.  What we didn't know is that it would be our only uneventful, quiet, pleasant two days of travel and sight-seeing.  As the sovereign plan of God would have it, we planned well our trip and HE directed our steps. 

As we loaded up to head out of the Grand Canyon about 1:30pm on Tuesday, June 6, 2023, Everson asked me if I would drive as he wasn't feeling well.  He hadn't been feeling well for several weeks, but if you know our family at all, you know with his genetic illness, he often battles days and weeks of truly not feeling great.  So I wasn't overly concerned and said, of course, I would be glad to drive.  I was exhausted from weeks of packing up our home with husband already in Texas, but my desire to get to our new home would keep me going!  We drove almost four hours and as we entered Gallup, New Mexico, I told Everson I needed to stop and we should get a hotel for the night.  He didn't feel well at all by dinner time, so the children and I found take out close by and we ate in our hotel room.  With our room reeking of Panda Express we all fell into bed weary and ready for some good rest.

My husband woke me at around midnight after a very restless few hours, in which we neither one slept much, with the words I hate to hear and will never grow accustomed to, "Jama, you need to take me to the ER."  Only this time, we were in a strange and very small city, I had no idea where the closest ER was, my two children were sound asleep and I was already operating in exhaustion mode.  But up we all go and after midnight, I am driving around trying to get him to the hospital as his pain gets worse and worse in what would be come the fastest and deepest Sickle Cell crisis of our marriage yet.  

Gallup, New Mexico boasts of exactly two small hospitals.  One across the road from the other, one serves all ethnic groups, one serves only the tribal groups that surround the area.  As fate would have it, I chose the one that looked like it was open at 1am and it would be the tribal hospital.  By 2pm the next day, Wednesday, June 7th, we were informed that even though they hadn't been able to get Everson's oxygen levels up or pain under control, they had to move him out as he isn't Native American.  If there wasn't a room available across the road, they would recommend medical airlift to Alburquerque, New Mexico.  They are too remote to transport by ambulance and medical airplane flights are their only option.  There was no room at the other hospital and we decided against the possible enormous cost of airlifting him two hours away.  He asked me to drive him and so the attending doctor gave him as strong and as much of pain meds as he could and off we went.  It was the longest and scariest drive of my life.  His oxygen levels were frighteningly low but he said he felt okay so keep going.  The children slept in complete exhaustion the whole trip and Everson tried to stay awake while I drove, praying the entire way like never before in my life.

Twenty miles out from the medical center who already had a bed waiting for him, Everson's pain meds wore off.  I have always tried to protect my children from seeing their father at his worst in pain crises that mark his life, but there was no way around this one.  As his excruciating pain intensified, so did their fear and his cries.  I just tried to keep driving calmly through my own tears.  We made it and he arrived in very bad shape.  I will spare you the details here, but today, looking back, I am grateful of two things: God's amazing calm for me in the middle of the storm and God's protection over my husband's life.

For the next five days Alburquerque, New Mexico became our home.  A very nice, clean and beautiful medical center became my husband's home, while hotels, eating out and trying to pass hours of waiting became the name of the game for the children and I.  I am so incredibly grateful for the medical staff at Presbyterian Rust Medical Center in Rio Rancho.  Everson had amazing nurses and doctors.  God sent a doctor that was from Houston, where he said he had treated hundreds of SCA patients.  He chuckled and said, "We don't see many here of course, because the altitude is higher than Denver!"  He finally got the medical care he needed but it would take five very long days to get him to a place he could be discharged and we would continue our journey east and then south. 

I will include a few pictures here before closing.  This entry is so very long already and there is so much more to share.  How God provided everything we needed at exactly the moment we needed it on this journey.  How God's people came around us, even from hundreds and even thousands of miles away.  How I felt wrapped up in His love while so very much alone, far away from those who would have given almost anything to hug me and walk this path with my children and I.  How we pray that through it all, He got and is getting and will get the Glory due His name!

Gallup, NM-thank God we had a box of his precious legos in our super overpacked car!  They were a god-send during our days of waiting.

The children did incredibly well staying quiet and occupied.

Dear friends from California sent us funds to use for some fun activities for the children while daddy was in the hospital.  This was a wonderful 2 hours of exercise.

We even got a few good naps in.  I am so grateful for the hospital rules that allowed us to be with Everson 24/7 if we wanted to be.  

Have a blessed Wednesday!
Jama