Day #57 Travel Day ~ Last Stop Albuquerque

The hospitality and wheels here in Tomball, Texas, have been extraordinary!

All good, but it is already time to move on to my last stop.




Let's refresh our memories on the real story. Albuquerque was going to be my first trip of the fall. In my August 3 post, Preparations for the Journey, I shared my original thinking. I was going to make the cross country drive to CA with Tom and stay for a couple of weeks for my summer adventure, fly back to NY, buy a car and THEN fly to Albuquerque for a visit that I had been promising for years in the fall, arriving on time for the balloon festival in October.

Day #15 post shared memories of the first time I met my friend, Christine, in Oppenheim, Germany where she was born and raised. I knocked on her door. (Chris reminded me that what I had shared before was incorrect. I was still 8.5 months pregnant for Nate when I knocked on the door.) Tom was in hand and just 17 months old. I asked if she spoke English. She opened her door and her heart. 

After leaving Germany in 1985 we have only been physically together a handful of times, but it doesn't matter. We catch up on the phone and it seems like we have never been apart. 

Her oldest son, Erik, was born just eight months after Nate. I had a baby shower for her. (The German Fraus thought the American custom of having a shower BEFORE the baby came was just plain foolish.) We were at Erik's Christening. 

I started a cross stitch to commemorate his birth, but didn't finish it for more than 20 years, carrying it around in a thin yellow box that got tattered over the years always intending to finish it. (More on this later.)

In late October of 2006 I met Chris and the family in Washington, DC at the...

These are some of the photos that I took on that visit in 2005.

Christine, Deven, Anneka

                                    Just a sassy, cute Anneka!

Chris and Gordy

Anneka and MK

Forever friends

While these pictures look like happy times, they were actually a small effort to snatch a few hours of respite away from Ekik's bedside.

This part is always hard to write or talk about. Brace yourself. 

Erik was an infantry soldier serving a second tour in Iraq. He fell to sniper fire, armor piercing weaponry, that went in one side of his helmet, through his brain and out the other side of the helmet. He went from this...

to this in an instant and many lives changed forever.

Deven at Erik's bedside

This story has a happy ending. Remember - every day is a gift.

So on day #57 I am welcomed into the Schei home in Rio Rancho, NM. 

Fleetwood and Gordy

Anneka, Fleetwood and Chris

And Erik waiting with smiles, kisses and a clear, spoken "Morning" for me on Thursday. He has defied the odds for surviving and continuing to improve seven years after a traumatic brain injury.

After a family dinner on Wednesday I was invited to attend a special meeting organizing volunteers to work a booth during the Balloon Fiesta. I want every reader of my posts to take time to learn about the Wounded Warrior Project, a vital lifeline for vets, families and care givers.

http://www.woundedwarriorproject.org/

Organizer, Mary, on right helps volunteers sign up.

Chris chats with a woman from the Veteran's Administration.

Twelve year old Anneka sports the project T-shirt. She is a worker bee, committed to helping as both, YES BOTH, of her brothers are wounded warriors. (I will tell you Deven's story later.)

Literature and PR trinkets. The Wounded Warrior pin is already my favorite. Note the lady in purple on the brochure. That is the same Mary named above. She speaks around the country. Consider her for your civic organizations. Veterans awareness is a theme for the current year of Rotary District 1750 in New York State. I suspect there are many others.

And this morning I found the note Anneka left for me before she went off to school for the day. A simple gesture, so thoughtful and welcoming. I love my life.

 
God is good. All the time. God is good.