(Note- December 2013 we get the news that Jay's dad had fourth stage prostate cancer. He had surgery in February. He was recovering very good and off to a good start with a great look on several more years.) So on Thursday May 8th, we get a call from Washington, letting us know Jay's Dad was taken to the hospital in a very critical state. A few hours later while in church service we got an update call, letting us know the cancer had spread through his entire body. They let us know that his passing could just be days/any moment/any time. After church we went home to start packing. With help from my sister, we were on the road in 2 hours! We drove 22 hours before stopping to rest in Wyoming. We were at the hotel for a total of 6 hours....we finally arrived in WA early hours on Mother's Day (Sunday) after driving 18 hours. We covered around 2,500 miles in 40 hours with not one traffic jam! Amazing! All thanks to God for his grace and safe traveling mercy! How did the kids cope? We will just say, they are amazing travelers!
Things continued....He was turned over to hospice, a hospital bed and supplies were brought in and things continued to worsen. On every med you could think of for the pain, it was horrible. (God worked everything out with Jays work and was able to take FMLA so that we could be there to assist in any way!) All the Family came to say there good bye from far and near..Just a death feeling for about 5 weeks. Until one morning we awoke with the feeling of life! It was truly amazing! He started eating/pain drastically decreased/color changed/stopped taking most of his meds/gaining strength/wanting to go camping (in which we did!)/couldn't keep him in the bed or chair....God truly gave us a miracle! After around 7 weeks we felt the release to head back home. We took the long way around for the scenic view, which took a total of 6 days to cross the KY state line. We got to stop and see lots of sights along the way!
Here are some highlight pictures, mainly of our trip home! I will make it as short as possible, but I took over 1,000 pictures..I had a hard time picking from of them all.
Mom and Dad Wright on our camping trip near Ocean Shores, WA
We were in tears watching him take strolls around the campsite. He hardly had the strength to walk through the house weeks prior.
And you know Benjamin just had to hop in the basket every time the wheels rolled! lol!
After this picture Benjamin got tired of saying cheese. There are only a few pictures he is actually smiling in.
The weather in Washington is much different than it is here. Needless to say it was way to cold to spend a lot of time on the beach. I was glad to see a nice playground on the campsite, it sorta took the beach off the kids mind!
After two days of camping, we pack up and set out on our travel home. We traveled hours down the Oregon and California coastline. It was stunning! The coastline out there is again much different than the east coast. The rock formation is eye catching! I took tons and tons of pics.
I love sitting/listening and looking at the ocean! Such peace!
Our next amazing scenery was going through the Redwoods. Those trees were HUGE! I have never in my life seen anything to come up with it! It was beautiful!
The kids and I stood w/arms out wide, finger to finger and the tree was still much wider. Jay said he finally found something bigger than he! That was one time in his life he felt small! LOL!
The Golden Gate Bridge was amazing, but we were unable to get a complete snap shot for all the haze over the bay.
We toured Yosemite National Park! Beautiful weather made for a Gorgeous view! We also got to see lots of elk, and also a brown bear by the sidewalk.
While traveling through Nevada, we toured the Hoover Dam.
It was 103 degrees there in the desert. Talk about hot, but dry heat. We took lots of water but it didn't seem to do any good. LaDessa got very sick with the heat. Thankfully, she cooled off pretty quickly, and was soon ok.
One of the most unforgettable moments of our trip home had to be when we were driving through the desert in Nevada on a long/pitch black/spooky road in the middle of the night (so no picture), a FULL Grown COUGAR ran right out in front of us! Awesome/Cool/Amazing/Wow!!!..Jay was loudly repeating! LOL! I wish I had a recorder at that moment. Jay was beside himself! As the cougar turn to go back, Jay was trying to follow to shine the headlights on it. I was like, babe, watch were you are going! Men! It was very exciting.. people don't see that in the wild very often.
Next to our hotel one night in Arizona we saw the advertisement for a place called Bearizona. After checking it out, we just had to go. It was a drive through zoo, mainly housing bear!
There were lots of other types of animals, but our favorite had to be the Wolves and Bear (no zoom, just up close and personal). There were Bear from Cubs, Teens and full grown. While driving through the bear area, we were told to keep our windows rolled up and the doors had to be locked. It was a little spooky at times when they came close to the vehicle.
After leaving Bearizona, we took the famous Route 66 through the old towns, back to the hotel. I can now say, I have been on Route 66! Pretty neat!
Our next stop? Take a Guess??
The Grande Canyon! We stayed there for hours.
While there we got to see a group of Indians perform on the sidewalk. It was very neat! Later that day we traveled through lots of Indian reservations and stopped at one of there stores in Navajo Nations and got several pieces of hand made pottery! We were able to educate the kids a bit after meeting them at the Canyon.
After crossing several states while driving through the night (including a horrible storm in the Texas Panhandle), we finally made it to Branson, MO were we stayed for two days.
Branson was mainly for the kids. We road on the bumper boats/bumper cars/go carts! LaDessa was actually able to drive her first go cart this time. Did she wreck? No! But we won't say how close. She has to have a few blonde roots up there somewhere! LoL! She was proud of herself! And so was mommy and daddy!
And here is what JaHanna got to do most of the time! Ride Ride Ride on many strolls!
We had a blast in Branson! It was lots of fun! But our Ky home was calling us!
We will leave you with one last picture of our little girl! July 14th, she turned 9 months old and weighs around 17 pounds! Since we were gone she has grown by leaps and bounds and crawling everywhere! When we returned, we had to clean the 3-6 month clothes out of the closet and restock with 6-9, oh! and re-baby proof the house. Truly unbelievable! Tears! I'm so thankful for good health, with all of our children! It is a blessing!
Now for those of you that are wondering how Dad Wright is doing at the present time?? He is actually out with family camping again! Mom Wright says she can hardly keep him in! We are getting a little anxious about his next scan in a couple weeks and we are praying for another miracle! We ask that you join us in prayer! God has shown himself faithful thus far..there is no limit to what God can do!
