Back in Illinois

So we were debating whether or not we should go to a cabin in central Minnesota for a few days starting on Sunday after church. We had been discussing it over the course Thursday through Saturday and finally came to the decision to not go to the cabin. We decided to go back to Illinois a few days earlier than we had planned. We both felt it was the right decision for us as a family to travel the 7 hours back to Illinois and have a few days of nothing planned before we head to a homeschooling conference all day Friday and Saturday. After church on Sunday we started packing up our stuff. In the evening we received a phone call from Jessie's mom. We have known that Jessie's grandpa (her dad's dad) is starting to go down hill in the past few months. He was now in a nursing home having my father-in-law visit him to help feed him every other day. Well in the last week he was having difficulty swallowing. On Sunday, they decided to stop giving him food. Even now as I write, Jessie is with her parents at the nursing home with the end in sight.

Before we left for Minnesota in March, we did visit it him. He was still up in his wheel chair smiling at times but his speech was incomprehensible. It was good for him to see the kids as well as the kids see him. So even if we had decided to go to a cabin for a few days, Sunday evening we would have been driving back and packing up to head back to Illinois to be with the family. I feel it was the Lord leading us to this decision of going home earlier than we had planned. 

Pray with us that God would use us to be an encouragement during this time of difficulty with losing a family member. This will also be the first death and funeral that our kids have experienced.