Back home.

We're home again, 7 days and over 60 driving hours from when
we left on our unexpected trip back to Missouri.
Our week was a mostly sleepless whirlwind, to say the least.
After driving 24 hours straight, we made it to Missouri in time to see Ryan's mom released from the ICU and moved to a new hospital room.
When she arrived by helicopter in critical condition last Sunday, she had a small brain hematoma, broken pelvis, fractured lumbar and cervical vertebrate, a fractured clavicle and a handful of cuts and scrapes. Tuesday morning, she was out of surgery (they put a screw in her pelvis to hold the bones together) and able to speak to us when we came to visit.
Tuesday and Wednesday flew by with hours of planning and hospital visits.
Thursday night was the visitation for Ryan's dad and we spent 6 full hours in the receiving line.
Over 900 people came to express their condolences. 900.
Much of the 6 hour visitation is a blur of faces,
but there were some moments that very much struck home.
A woman from our church back in Missouri told us she had ridden with Ryan's parents a few weeks earlier, on the drive to his dad's induction into the 4th degree of the Knights of Columbus.
She didn't know his parents very well and she said she was worried about what they'd find to talk about during the 2 hour drive, until they started talking about Ryan and his siblings (there are 7 of them total, enough to fill hours of conversation). She told us that when she asked about Ryan and I, his dad spoke animatedly about the trip they made to see us right after we moved, back in January.
He told her that when Ryan accepted a job offer in California,
he hadn't been sure we were making a good decision,
but that after their visit, he was positive we made the right choice
and that he was excited to visit us again as soon as possible.
It was good (especially for Ryan, I know) to hear that his dad was proud of our decision, and we're so unbelievably thankful that they visited us when they did.
It's that sort of timing that seems too big to be just coincidence.

Unfortunately, Ryan's mom wasn't able to attend the visitation or funeral, but the funeral home was amazing. They were able to bring Ryan's dad to the hospital the morning of the visitation for Ryan's mom and the rest of our family to have a private viewing (and a good cry) together.
And we were able to set up Skype for the entirety of the ceremonies,
so she was able to see everything that was happening from her hospital room.
On Friday, just before we left Missouri, his mom was moved from the hospital to a rehabilitation center. She's made remarkable progress so far and should be released from rehab after a few weeks. She has a long road to recovery ahead of her but she has been in great spirits and she has an army of people loving and supporting her as she heals.
Thanks to all for your sweet words of support and for your thoughts and prayers! 
Driving back home through California this afternoon, the first thing we did was find the ocean.
There's just something about the vastness of it (and all of the creatures that you can't see swimming below the surface) that both frightens and impresses me.
It's able to calm me, terrify me, excite me and inspire me all at once
and I'm not sure how I survived 22 years of my life living so far away from it.
We're sad to be away from family, especially right now, but we still feel confident that this is where we're supposed to be.

And, on that note -
no pictures from this past weekend, but here are the photos I didn't post from our rainy drive up the coast last Saturday.