Ashley, Haley and I stayed up late doing what normal teenagers do in this great little city of Richland, Washington when there is nothing else to do and when nothing else is open...we go to Walmart. We didn't buy anything but food this time. We had already TP'd someone the night before so we didn't need anything but food.
We went back to my house. And since mom and the kids were gone (Hollaaaa!) to Tacoma for Jonahs golf camp, we didn't have to worry about the noise on that end of the house. So we started a movie that me and Haley had never seen. John Tucker Must Die. We had all kinds of food. Our oven had a bunch of crap on the inside of it that was burnt from previous things so whatever we tried to cook, the oven started smoking like no other. So me and Haley "manned our positions" and we fanned the air around the smoke detector so we wouldn't wake up Dan, who is the lightest sleeper you'll ever know, and the alarm never went off! Pro status. So we started the movie and it was a good night so far and at around 2:35-ish in the morning, Haley left because she had to work at like 8am. So after me and Ashley locked up and cleaned up our food mess(kind of, not really), we sat down, got all comfy and started the movie again. And at 2:42am I got a phone call that I'll never forget.
"Ashley it's Uncle Luke. Hey I need you to go watch the kids at our house. Melissa had to be rushed to the ER. I know it's in the middle of the night..."(something I can't remember because my mind was racing.) "Our neighbor Jamie is there with the kids so she'll be there once you get there. Can you do that?"
"Yeah... no problem..."
"Can you make it? Do you have enough gas?"
"Uhhhhh yeah! I have enough!"
"Okay Jamie will be there, the kids are all sleeping. Drive safe. Don't speed."
"Okay...I won't."
At this point I'm just starting to have an idea of what's happening and started to freak out and panic.
"Are you sure you have enough gas?"
"Yeah...I do. I think I have enough to get out there....I'm not sure."
"Well meet me at ER parking lot, I'll give you some gas money."
"Okay...."
"You good? You got that?"
"Yeah..."
"Okay thanks Ashley. Bye."
"Bye."
In that 1 minute 8 second phone call there was so much to take in. I knew right from when I saw the name "Uncle Luke" on my caller ID, that something was wrong.
So after I hung up I looked at Ashley but I didn't say anything. So she said, "What just happened?! Who was that?!"
"Ohhhhh my god. Oh my god. Something is wrong. I have to go out to the Tannehills to watch the kids. Something is wrong with Aunt Melissa."
(Everything I'm writing sounds so calm...read it like you're completely freaking out. Read it like you just heard your uncle, who never gets scared, talk like he's never been so scared in his life. Read it like one of your most favorite people in the whole world just got rushed to the Emergency Room and you don't know if her or her baby is alive or not. Read it like that.)
"Ashley you have to come with me. Will you?"
"Yeah, okay lets go."
We grabbed our purses, put on our flip flops and headed out the door. On the way there I was freaking out. Still in shock. My mind was racing. As any good friend would do, Ashley tried to calm me down saying stuff like, "You know maybe she just had the baby early. Maybe he was ready to come out. She's probably fine. Don't freak out. You don't even know what's going on yet."
We pulled up to the ER at the exact same time Uncle Luke did. We got out, he gave me a ten dollar bill and said, "Thank you for doing this. And listen...don't go into our room. Just close the door and don't go in there. There's blood all over the bathroom. We don't want the kids seeing it. Don't go in there. There's a lot of blood."
"Okay. I won't go in there."
"Thanks again. Don't speed. Drive safe. Just go the speed limit."
He must know me well because there was nothing I wanted to do more than just get there as fast as I could. But I obeyed and I didn't speed. I swear it took 1,000 times longer to get out there than usual. The kids' parents weren't home and if I wasn't there, to be honest, I didn't want anyone else to be. When we got there, Jamie was there sitting on the couch. She cleaned up all the blood and everything was good there at the house. We talked about how much she knew and how much we knew. But we both hardly knew anything. I don't remember much about the next day. We all just kind of hung out. We went for a walk. I got a crap load of phone calls and texts and facebook messages from people saying that they would love to help. The neighboors were incredible. We got a huuuge box of food from Costco, and bags and bags of groceries these past few days. And endless amounts of dinners from people from church. And more texts and phone calls and facebook messages of encouragement. Our church came together so quickly and willingly.
We were just taking it literally every hour at a time. We didn't know what was going on. We didn't know what was going to happen next. We didn't know what happened to Aunt Melissa or the baby. A couple days later Uncle Luke and Aunt Melissa came to the house to get some stuff. They were going to Seattle where their new baby boy was. And they didn't know how long they would be gone. Aunt Melissa said that her best friend Jenny will be there tomorrow.
Me? Not great at meeting people. Kind of scared of them to be honest. Me and Ashley talked and were really hoping that we would get along with Jenny. We assumed that she would be nice because, well Aunt Melissa wouldn't be friends with a jerk...so I was pretty sure it would be okay, but still. I had never met her. I guess she was at my house for a while while I was in Mexico. I had always heard of her, but never met her. So it's late at night. Probably 11-ish. Me and Ashley saw the headlights in the window. I went and opened the door thinking she would be right there and ready to come in. No. She was still sitting in her car. She was on the phone. And there I was standing probably looking awkward in the doorway. But she kills the potentially awkward moment and said "Hi Ashley I'll be right in!" I said okay and I closed the door. I turn to Ashley and said, "She's nice. I like her." Ashley laughs and says, "All she said was Hi! You don't know yet!" But I was confident. "Well....her voice sounds nice." Turns out there's a reason why her and Aunt Melissa are friends. It makes sense. They are both the nicest people on the planet. We would stay up until 2am just talking. We would have to say..."Okay we have to go to bed." to end our conversations. We talked about how Uncle Luke and Aunt Melissa met. We shared other fun stories. And I got to know Jenny a little bit. It was nice. We talked about how hard this is to know what's going on with one of our favorite families in the world. It was nice to know that someone else felt the same way and that I wasn't alone. She'll ask if I'm doing okay and I feel comfortable saying exactly how I feel whether it's yes or no. (Which is usually hard for me to do. I'll just say "Yeah i'm fine!") I told her exactly how I felt. I told her about the first day I cried about this whole thing and usually I don't tell anyone that. I don't cry often, but this was hard! Every time I talked to Aunt Melissa I couldn't help but cry! I don't know what it was. But it made it 100 times easier with Jenny there! She's so fun. We did a ton of fun stuff with the kids! There was a time when Roman was gone to my house to play with my brother and sister. And Lily and Annie were gone to play at a friends. But I wanted nothing more than for them to be home with us! It felt so weird! I knew they were all super safe and sound. But I still wanted them under the same roof. Even though it was quieter at the house...I felt calmer when they were all together.
So now I'm in Tacoma. I'm so ready to meet this baby boy at Childrens! And I'm excited for the rest of the week and weekend! We're gonna hit up Seattle and do a bunch of fun things. :)
Keep praying!
