Day Twelve: Home

Home. Rarely does such a simple word conjure up a wider range of emotions. I can only think of a few others myself: love, daddy, pie. But, we are home now and I can barely describe the kaleidoscope of feelings I had during the day. It was great to step off the plane and take a deep breath of that cold crisp mountain air. It was exciting to see my brother Josh when he picked us up from the airport. And it was overwhelmingly joyous to open the door and finally hug our girls after so many days away. It was fantastic to look at Krissy today and really appreciate how healthy she looks. I'd even be so bold as to say she was radiant today. If her treatments were to end today, it would be the best $18,000 I've ever spent.


However, just because we are home doesn't mean that there aren't stories to tell from Oasis. Oh ho, far from it! I wrote a song about it, want to hear it? Here it goes. (No clue how that popped into my head just now after so many years)

If we flashback to seventeen hours ago then you would have seen our day start much too early with the nurses hooking Krissy up for the first of her four IV drips for the morning. She went through her two vitamin K and vitamin C treatments before 10:00 and we were able to clean up, pack and try to make our rounds of goodbyes before leaving at 11:00. I think we got to everyone except for Lee, seems he had a rough night and was still resting. We also didn't get to personally say goodbye to Sharon. She had a fever last night and they think the port she had placed in her artery a few days ago may be infected. She was feeling awful this morning and wasn't up for seeing anyone. We left our well wishes with Jenny and were rushed off to a waiting van and then taken to the airport.

We were accompanied on our journey across the border by Kelly and her mom Cara. I haven't written much about these two simply because we didn't see them outside of meals and they weren't overly sociable. After the van ride, I understand why. To put it simply, they are annoying. Well, at least Kelly is, Cara is much older and has a right to be crotchety. The entire ride back Kelly was asking such idiotic questions of our driver such as "Do you think if our car got smashed at the border insurance would cover it?" Or "Does anyone really buy the food these street vendors are selling?" I'm not sure, perhaps you should take a survey. The kicker came after sitting in line at the border for about thirty minutes. There were many street vendors selling religious items, most featuring Our Lady of Guadalupe. This is Mexico after all. After watching them walk by our window a few times she asks "So who is this religious lady I keep seeing? This Rosarita lady on all of the blankets, I'm seeing her a lot" I thought our driver was going to have an embolism, he turned around and gasped "THE VIRGIN!" Krissy helped him out and identified the mysterious religious lady to our clueless Kelly. The icing on the cake was when she turned to us and asked "So do you guys know who Esperanza was? I kept seeing notes about the Amigos de Esperanza at the hospital but I never saw her." As politely as she was capable, Krissy told her this means hope in Spanish and this was the ministry Bruce and Vicky belonged to. I said a silent prayer to God for strength to keep my mouth shut before I got into trouble. Thankfully we crossed the border ten minutes later and she kept busy with her cell phone.

Once we arrived at the airport we were greeted by our cousins Voni and Leisse. It was so nice for them to meet us before we headed home and we sat down for lunch at Chili's. We retold most of our tales over the first "normal" meal since we left. I ate the chicken with fries and found it's just not as tasty as it used to be and I can't eat as much anymore. This is a good thing, hopefully Oasis has helped us to make a life change in diet and both Krissy and I can continue down the right path. After we ate the girls saw us off to the security checkpoint and we made our way towards the flight home. I hope someday we can come back and stay with them in San Diego, it's an awesome town. And their company is pretty great too.

The flight home was uneventful and actually took less time than we expected. We were back in Denver by 6:20 and Josh hurried over to pick us up. We talked it up on the way home and before I knew it I had both Cori and Camryn in my arms and we were surrounded by our family again. Within minutes we fell back into the routine and Cam had me chasing her all over the house, while Cori excitedly showed me the book she's reading. Debi made us an awesome dinner of beans, chili and potatoes and I enjoyed a plate while we all talked and caught up. I don't even know how to thank Cesa, Josh, Debi and Bennie for taking care of our girls these past two weeks. It means so much to know they were in the best hands possible and had everything they needed while we were gone. Someday I'll figure out how to repay them. Maybe with a nice Rosarita blanket.

I also want to say thank you to everyone who has kept up with us through this blog over the past twelve days. I've been writing here on and off for almost two years but never felt I had anything to say that would matter to anyone but me and Krissy. I love Krissy and can't imagine a life without her, so this was one way I hoped to capture the experience for both of us no matter where the road leads. It's rewarding to know so many people came here and shared our journey over these past few weeks and posted such wonderful thoughts and prayers. I hope some of you came away with something unique from these little updates, whether it be knowledge you wouldn't have had otherwise, inspiration gained through the amazing strength and will Krissy possesses, or maybe just a few laughs. Either way, thank you for coming with us to Oasis and I hope you stick around to see what other adventures we stumble upon or what other randomness may fall out of my brain now that we're back to thinner air.

So, I'm off to cuddle with Krissy and Camryn, she had to sleep with us tonight. Tomorrow's a new day, thank you God. G'night!