the most stressful week ahead....

I just hung up with my dad and he had some very bad news.

Next week promised to be one ot the most stressful weeks of my whole life, but today I received additional news that makes it perhaps the most stressful ever.   If I had anti anxiety  medicine I would probably we taking one right now!

During this week.....we are  deliverying all paperwork closing the sale of our appartment, renting a new place, I start a huge new project at work, we need to deliver the last papers from JM adoption and the rest for our second adoption and all of this this needs to be ready by Friday....The 18th is a holiday here and on the 19th of March we were to leave for Peru so all needs to be done before the holidays (Holy week and Easter are major vacation time here)

plus  my local napro doctor decided this cycle to change me to  Femara and do an U/S series  which start tomorrow  and continue all week

plus my DH has his annual physical which is a full morning and it  took months to book

and JM has the "evaluation"  to start pre kindergarten  in August  at the same school me and  my family have attended for 5 generations. Its a long story, but the school now is perhaps one of the most sought after in the whole city  and they have a mile long waiting list.   In the last years they have won all kind of achivements for education, yet have not grown their classes so demand is extremely high even in kindergarten. In order to be accepted now  they have a kind of eval with both parents so they can decide if the child is ready and also to check the fit to the school.   Classes are very,  very small so even if I am an alumni this eval will decide if JM is to join my former school.  Its crazy and I hate it, but at the same time I cannot avoid it.  The evaluation is this week on the 13th for one hour....Arghhhh!

 And today in addition to all of this.....  we just found out that my dads younger sister who has been battling a recurrence of breast cancer is now battling metastasis in the brain.  My dearest and most loved aunt.

The news that puts everything else in perspective and adds another dimension to the stress of the week.

So my mom and dad are struggling right now to find a flight to Germany so my dad can spend the next days with her saying his goodbyes, maybe even be there when she dies.   We do not know what to expect.

My dad talked today with my cousin who told him to come ASAP, after weeks of saying that both her and my aunt preferred he not come.

 A few weeks ago when we found out she was very sick from a bad reaction to chemo my dad had wanted to go to Germany, yet they stopped him.

They had found some spots of cancer in the lungs and was battling fluid there from the chemo and it seemed she had only a few days to live, yet she asked my dad not to come.  She wanted to be only with her daughters and husband.

An aunt and an uncle decided to disobey her and traveled to Germany and disaster ensued.  They traveled in the middle of a major snowstorm from a mid sized city to the hospital where my aunt was  (she is staying at an alternative medicine clinic in the middle of the Black Forest when not in the hospital for chemo) , getting stuck in the snow without adequate clothes, car, nothing.  My poor cousins had to rescue them while caring for my aunt.  (my dad has 6 brothers and sisters evenly divided between Germany and Mexico and an brother who died)

The last calls were very optimistic.   Her lungs and breasts were clear and it seemed she would be Ok.

But now this.  Brain cancer.

And now my aunt wants him to come (they are the closest of the 8) and my dad is planning to leave as early as he can. Tuesday is most probable.  Weather is much better now and my dad knows the area well so knows where to stay and how to move around.     My dad is horrible with hospitals and anything related to pain, but somehow he is finiding the strenght to travel and my mom is accompanying him.

To write that my parents are under tremendous stress would be an understatement.

So right now its a flurry of calls, emails struggling to find flights to a mid size city with only one day to do all and they have the added pressure they need to return to Mexico in less than a week.

The additional  issue right now is that my DH and I  had planned a trip to Peru leaving on the 19h.    My mom and dad had sent us an email inviting JM to their house and telling us to take a few days off since they would also be hosting my sisters children.   She is traveling to Asia with her DH and her children were coming to stay for 12 days.   This has never happened and my parents were ecstatic.

My parents were eager  to have the 3 grandchildren visiting and my mom even said it was easier for them than having JM alone since they could play with each other.   So my DH and I  took them up on the offer and planned a 11 day trip to Peru.  an anniversary gift and the last trip (we hope) before our second adoption.

But now this...

We do not know if we need to move our dates around or cancel our trip, if my mom and dad can return in time, etc.  and even if nothing moves my poor parents will arrive after this whirldwind trip  to 2 pre teens and a toddler.

My siblings and I are so worried for them.

So my parents are looking to some very tough weeks ahead. .....

I think them and I will need to take some sort of medicine to survive the stress of the next days!

Praying right now to St Anthony so my parents can find decent flights!

And praying for my aunt  and her family