John and Christine's Adventures: October 19th through October 25th

October 19^th through October 25^th: Monday we got up
early and drove to Chicago to catch our flight back to Salt Lake City. We had such a nice trip with Badger and we are so proud of him. It was wonderful to be in the temple together and do important ordinances for our ancestors. He was so easy to travel with and we enjoyed our little trip with him. Tuesday we went to the temple and did initiatory for an hour and then went to the baptistery and did about 15 names each. I just finished the decendency search on a second line and now I have over 2000 names reserved. I have to do a lot of checking and adding sources, but I am sure I have enough names to last for our 3 years in Guatemala. Mom finally got her blood work done so she can get her prescription for her statin. We both now only have the one cholesterol pill we have to take each day. We feel lucky to be in good health. Wednesday I went to get my crown put on and it was the wrong color so they will have to redo it and I will have to go back tomorrow. Mom went to the doctor with Kirstin to help with the kids. She found out that she has a little protein in her urine and her blood pressure is getting too high, so they are going to induce her on this Friday. Yeah, this little guy will get here before we have to leave. Thursday I had success with the dentist and I am good to go. We met John and his wife, Jill; Kate, and her husband Bryce; and Charlotte, and her husband Alex, in the Salt Lake temple and did a sealing session with some of the family names I have recently found. It was too bad James and Kirstin could not make it, but Kirstin was told to take it easy and of course Ginny and Sam are in Pasadena. But it was nice to be together in the temple and afterward we went for ice cream. We will certainly miss these types of get-togethers. After ice cream, mom went to James’ to sleep so she could take care of Rigby and Emme when their parents left for the hospital in the morning. Friday I came down with a cold and so I stayed home and did genealogy all day long. Mom tended James’ kids. The delivery did not go as planned and about midnight they delivered baby Campbell by cesarean section. Campbell arrived at 8lbs 11ozs and 21 ½ inches long. He had difficulty breathing so he had to go to the NICU. They say he will be fine once he gets over his breathing problems. Kirstin is doing well, but still has the pain and recovery from the incision to deal with. We are so grateful to have these sweet grand-children in our lives and we appreciate what their mothers go through to bring them to this earth.

New baby Campbell, our 16th grand-child.

Saturday, I met mom at the hospital and we had a quick visit with Kirstin and James and then headed to Tooele for our last chance to watch one of Badger’s football games. We went to lunch with Badger and his dad after the game. We made another trip in to the hospital in the afternoon. Mom got to go into the NICU and see Campbell. My cold is keeping me at a safe distance.

Kirstin and Campbell

Badger getting ready to go into the game.

Sunday we got up and drove into Salt Lake and went to the Primary program in Kate’s ward. It was so cute and fun to watch her two boys in the sing and say their parts. Then we drove to Bountiful and went to the Primary program in our ward. Once again it was fun to see our grandkids perform. I had just enough time to get the roast on between meetings. We all gathered at John’s for our last Sunday dinner together. Kirstin is still in the hospital, so her family did not join us, but we had a great time with the rest of the crew. We will miss being able to get together for Sunday dinners, but they will soldier on without us and get together once a month. We are so glad that they will do that and as Kate said, they don’t do it for us, they do it because they like each other. That is all the better.

Mom and John finishing the dishes from dinner.

This is the last post from the US. Next week it will come to you from Guatemala. We can’t wait to get there and get to work. We are so blessed and honored with this new assignment. We are still pinching ourselves and wondering, “why me?”. Here are all our grandchildren that we are going to miss so much.