Rudy’s Incredible Journey

There actually may be light at the end of the tunnel!!!  After 6 days of non-stop effort and a round of buzz cuts for the boys, we may be nearing the end of our lice infestation.  I’m sure praying it’s so…this has been a draining week on all levels and we have VBS at our church next week with all of us volunteering in various roles so we need to be free and clear!

Life definitely took a detour this week but we managed to pack in a great deal nonetheless (with heads covered, of course!). Ha Ha  We took a break from all that was happening at home for a few hours on Wednesday and enjoyed the annual BBQ feast at the Rescue Mission for the homeless guests.  We were blessed with  mild weather so everyone felt comfortable hanging out all afternoon (unlike years past when guests would eat and run in search of shade), a great mix of amplified tunes led to some spontaneous dancing in the parking lot and all genuinely felt relaxed and happy.  I heard from a couple of guests how nice it was to feel welcomed at a public 4th of July event for a change!  I’m so grateful the staff and residents at the Rescue Mission can provide that kind of loving experience to the homeless in our community.  On Thursday night we enjoyed having the women who are graduating from the Rescue Mission Recovery Program tonight over for dinner…like last week when we hosted the men, we were in awe of these women and their courage in their recovery journey.  Tonight is graduation so we have a big evening ahead of us!  Lots of hope happening at SBRM this week, for sure! 🙂  And, it’s all been a helpful reminder for me to keep my troubles in proper perspective.

As for Rudy, well, he has been somewhat neglected this week…all the kids were great at stepping in and helping with Rudy when Rolf and I just couldn’t (including an incident involving a very messy, runny diaper that I won’t elaborate on right now but it was epic) but he definitely was forced to stay in his little “kiddie corral” a good bit of the week.  Why does Rudy have a kiddie corral, you ask?  Oh, well that would be because of the incident that happened last week before we were hit with the whole lice situation…when Olivia, Rudy and I returned home one afternoon from our mid-day shuttle run pick-ups.

I gave Rudy his afternoon feed, meds, changed his diaper,etc and set him up with Olivia to watch a little t.v. and chill while I tried to get some paperwork done in my room.  Because it was a hot day, I left the garage door open to get a little cross breeze through my room as I always do on hot days and, ahhhh, all was quiet and settled in the house of Geyling.  Now, I admit, I was remiss not to check on the kids for an hour but all was quiet and I assumed the kids fell asleep after a long day at their various summer activities.  Well, you know what happens when one assumes, right?

Olivia came to my room white as a ghost and said “Mom, there was a knock at the front door, I opened it and…”.  When she paused, I immediately went into “stranger danger” mode wondering what in the world could have left her somewhat traumatized.  “It was Rudy, Mom!!!”  What?  How could it be Rudy?  We both ran to the living room where she left him to find him detached from his oxygen, dirty and battered on the backs of his thighs and legs!  We then traced his steps and discovered that he had bottom-scooted down the hall toward my room, got down the step into the garage, unplugged himself from the oxygen halfway through the garage and out the door he went (much like he did the day we cleaned out the garage but this time we weren’t out there with him!!!)  From the looks of his legs and diaper, his incredible journey included a little jaunt on the asphalt as well as time spent in our front yard as evidenced by the prickly balls that were stuck to his diaper!!!  Thanks be to God, he had the presence of mind when he was done exploring to bottom-scoot back up the incline to our front door and knock loud enough for Olivia to hear him!!!  Needless to say, we promptly got Rudy cleaned up and got the house closed up completely grateful the incident was something we could laugh at once our hearts stopped pounding.  Rudy was happy as a lark and very proud of himself, of course.

I’ve done the toddler thing three times before, I should know better but it was beyond my imagination that Rudy could do what he did to begin with and then do it so quietly that I wouldn’t hear him grunt as he worked his way down the step (which, by the way, is just a few feet from where I was) or cackle as he glided across the garage floor as he does when he’s excited!  Good grief.  This boy is READY to MOVE and expand his world!!!

Well, it looks like Rudy’s incredible journey may take flight sometime this winter.  We’ve been in a process with the Make-A-Wish Foundation for a few months now discussing an opportunity to take the family to “Give Kids The World” – a resort in Florida designed specifically for kids with life-threatening illnesses and their families.  A friend of mine went last year with her niece and said she couldn’t stop thinking of Rudy the whole time she was there.  How sweet! I haven’t wanted to get my hopes up too high because a lot could happen between now and January when we hope to go but the article linked below was published in a local paper this week mentioning our trip and requesting frequent flyer mile donations!  It really got us excited!  Check it out!!!

Noozhawk article

We are humbled and totally honored that the Make-A-Wish Foundation is even considering granting Rudy and our family a wish for a fun, memory making trip that is safe for Rudy!  The staff and volunteers we’ve talked to have been amazing …so sensitive and caring and fun.  Boy, this week sure has been filled with a wide range of extreme emotions!  The bottom line is…God is good, all the time…in the good times and the bad!!!  Bless you friends…especially those living in all the hot spots and fire spots across the country…I’ve been praying for you too!  Love and hugs…