Long Weekends.

Ugh. This past weekend was so incredibly long. Not in the "ooh! Three days off!" kind of long... we're talking the emotionally draining, "is it still Saturday," gosh-I'd-like-to-sleep-now kind of long.

Hunky Husband and I went back to our hometown for the weekend. We're blessed that both of our families live in the same town and that we get to see both sets of parents any weekend we head back "home." Primarily, we went "home" to pick up our new-to-us car (yay!). There were lots of things that were much, much less happy, though.

Zeke's dear, sweet, wonderful grandmother has been in the hospital since before Christmas. She's stable now, so they're moving her to a nursing home today. Zeke and I helped pack and clean her Independent Living apartment (where she's been living for ten years). It was incredibly heartbreaking. She won't be able to take all of her things with her, so we had to start divvying up her furniture, dishes, and keepsakes. It just felt wrong to be going through her things like that. She's still with us, but she is way too weak to do any of this herself.

Just seeing her was hard. Last time Zeke and I visited her, she was still alert enough to tell us that she was uncomfortable or that she had a nice nurse that morning. Now, she sleeps most of the time, waking up briefly to smile at us or respond when you tell her you love her. It's hard. She's been such a vibrant and wonderful woman, someone with such a gentle strength, for so long... this is like seeing a shell of her. To make matters worse, she's in such discomfort. She's ready to leave this earth and go be home with the One who created her, the One she's been serving all her life. When Zeke told Grandma that he hopes she feels better, she said, "No. I'm just miserable."

After a long morning, we went to see my family. One of my sisters has really struggled in adulthood... getting pregnant out of wedlock by a man who didn't get to see the baby for six months because he was in jail, bouncing from job to job, living in horrifying conditions with her "friends"... she's been in my prayers for a long time, even though we don't get along very well at all. She came to visit and attend a retreat here at camp a week ago, and she's been dating a nice guy (very unlike her). I had high hopes that things were getting better, that we could finally have a relationship, that she was starting to make good decisions.

Then, my mom told Zeke and I that my sister had found a credit card in the dressing room at Walmart and had committed fraud by using it for three days. To buy Christmas presents and diapers. She told my mom about all this the day before she left to come to visit me. Basically, everything about our fun weekend together was a lie. She's now committed a felony, and even though the police aren't planning on pressing the full charges, this will be on her record and she could possibly lose custody of my nephew if this ever gets dug up by his sleazeball father.

Ugh. Long weekend. All the emotional stress took its toll on me, too... I had a sore throat for a couple of days, but it's now a full-blown bad cold that's really knocking me out.

What is there to do but pray? Pray that Grandma will find comfort, that my sister will get her head out of her behind before it's too late.