Well… I’d say last night went okay. Not perfect, but okay. I wasn’t feeling great with Ramona in the van so we decided to put her crate outside. Brett put her doggy coat on and wrapped her up in two big beach towels to keep her warm. He also wrapped her crate up to protect her from the wind. I felt bad for her but she was fine. She didn’t protest at all. I slept well after we put her outside and woke up feeling strong enough to do the laundry.
I had extra laundry to do today too because we were saying goodbye to my family (Ramona is staying!)and I really wanted to be able to hug them. To minimize cross-contamination, we both needed an extra clean outfit to change into after the hugs.
I also filled four Arrowhead bottles so that we could rinse our hair and skin before getting back into the van. It still seems crazy that all of this is necessary just to hug my family but it really does make a big difference. You can think of it sort of like a severe peanut allergy. It only takes a very tiny amount of biotoxin contamination to trigger symptoms in my hypersensitive body.
We met my family by the side of the not-so-busy road again this evening and spent time together from a distance. We watched the night hawks and talked. Then we sang and prayed together. When it was time to say goodbye we all hugged each other. Finally!
There were a lot of tears! It was especially sad to say goodbye since the visit was so much harder than any of us expected. They were here for a full two weeks and we only got to spend a small fraction of that time together. Even though I was grateful for the time we had, I couldn’t help feeling a little bit like I let them down.
After saying goodbye I ran to the van to decontaminate. I was starting to feel it, mainly as increased pain. But it was worth it! No doubt about that!
By the way, Brett and I made a beautiful PDF of my favorite resources for suffering souls. I created the content and he made it look fancy with his superduper graphic design skills. It’s available for free to my email subscribers. Click here to sign up and receive 5 Resources for the Suffering Soul.
4 Comments
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June 30, 2017 at 6:56 amAww… This made me cry, but I’m *so* glad you got to hug your family again. And even though you couldn’t see them that much, it’s great you got to visit with them some! I’m sure they enjoyed every minute of being with you.
June 30, 2017 at 9:56 amJust reading this now, I’m so glad you got to spend some time with your family, even if it wasn’t as much as you wanted to! Just so you know, Ana, I read all of your posts, even if I get behind, I go back and make sure I’ve read them all, because I find some blessing or strength in each of these. 🙂
July 4, 2017 at 10:08 pm❤️ I know it was difficult to say goodbye. Praying for comfort.
July 6, 2017 at 9:55 pm