Coming Home

I arrived back at my house at approximately 2:00 AM on Saturday, February 8. Later that morning, I officiated a funeral for a family member of one of our church members. Following the funeral, I checked my phone and had a text that Michael was doing much better and being discharged. For less than 24 hours, we would have the entire family together under one roof.

The next few hours were spent picking up my younger three children from my parents and getting the house more presentable. We had quite literally dropped everything to get Michael to Ann Arbor a week and half earlier, so the younger kids and I worked on getting things picked up a little bit.

I was out attempting to pick up a prescription for Michael when He and Sarah arrived back at home. Pharmacy issues are becoming a thing for us. Michael’s insurance can be a stickler about approving medications, and with the number of drugs that he is on, his insurance wouldn’t approve it all without first causing a few needless holdups. Some of these holdups were never adequately resolved but fortunately, did not cause major health issues for Michael.

About an hour after Michael and Sarah got home, my mother and father-in-law and my sister-in-law arrived and brought with them one of our dogs and her five, one-week-old puppies. We had made the decision to breed Ava long before we had any idea that Michael had leukemia. She was already past her due date when we rushed Michael to Ann Arbor. My in-laws very graciously agreed to pick her up and let her have the puppies at their house. They have bred their dog a number of times and have plenty of experience in this area.
I ran out to get a Walmart pickup and get our other dog Buddy from some friends who were watching him. For a few hours, we had nine people and seven dogs under one roof.

After my in-laws had left, the kids were in bed, and the house was finally quiet, I held Sarah in my arms as she wept on my shoulder. Bringing Michael home had made things more real for her. For the past week and half, it had been like we were living in a really bad dream. But bringing Michael home brought the weight of our new reality crashing down on her, and it absolutely broke her heart. We prayed together once again and committed Michael to the Lord’s care. But my heart aches for Sarah. In the eighteen and half years we have been married, I have never seen her this heart broken. Dear God, please heal her broken heart!