April was a busy month ... obviously as there were no blogs posted all month! Obed flew with some friends to Egypt to film a speaker ... he was gone almost 2weeks. But while he was over there we found out his father was not doing too well physically. He had an enlarged heart and liver, which was cutting off his esophagus ... so he'd lost a lot of weight. He was also accumulating fluid in his lungs from pneumonia. Obed and I were able to email back and forth for the first few days since he had a laptop with him ... so he found out what was going on with his dad and had weighed the possibility of coming home early so we could go be with his family ... He decided to come back early from the trip when we got a call from his sister saying that his dad had just gone in for a heart surgery (a Perry Cardio Window) to remove the water from his heart. We finally flew down to TX and were still in the airport getting out luggage. I called Obed's sister to let her know we'd arrived safely and were about to get on the road for the hour drive to his house. She said, "Oh good, you'll probably get here about the same time as dad. The hospital just called and he's been released." We spent the next two and half weeks taking his mom and dad to his check up appointments and fixing all the little jobs that needed doing around the house ... including building a bathroom! His dad had started the project but had gotten tired, and kept feeling more and more tired. The bathroom was a fun project, I felt like I was on HGTV ... my favorite shows! We did the insulation, dry wall, painting, and plumbing. We built a wall to separate the bathroom from the bedroom and put in a pocket door. The most fun part for me was going shopping to buy the pedestal sink, toilet, and all the fixtures. Obed and I picked out matching silver and white ceramic fixtures and painted the walls a nice apple green shade. Obed's dad seemed to be recovering fairly well. He had lost a lot of weigh and looked so frail sitting between the couch pillows and he still tired easily the first week. By the end of the second week he was much more alert and perked up when his 6month old granddaughter was coo-ing at him. That was cute watching him making faces with her! I enjoyed the time we spent with Obed's family. I didn't know them as well as I do now - we had never had the opportunity to spend time together before. I think the family is closer after this experience. The day before we flew home all the family came over and we did family pictures. It was a beautiful day ...

Doby as "Crazy Dog"