Don't mess with Texas!

Seriously.  Just don't.  We started our journey driving through the endless miles of Texas at night so we didn't get a good idea of what it looked like. But when my husband pulled the car over to make a midnight restroom break, he was confronted by our first Texan, a massive hairy tarantula.  That turned into a rather quick break and he fairly ran back to the safety of the car.  With ashen face he locked the door and drove off, I didn't know that spiders could open doors but could understand his caution as this was Texas after all.
You may wonder why we chose to drive from California to Massachusetts taking the southern route. Primarily, it was to avoid to heavy storms we would have encountered had we taken the straight route but also there was the reason of Andrew's brother.  Since I met Andrew he would occasionally bring up the fact that somewhere in the world he had a half brother.  It really troubled him that he didn't know his brother, to the point where he finally started to casually search for him.  Thanks to good old Facebook he found him while I was in the hospital with Jack.  When I saw the pictures I knew without a doubt that this was his brother.  Same build and facial structure, same eyes, it was uncanny.  This man could be my Andrew in ten years.  They made contact and even talked on the phone.  He and his family sounded like solid, honest people and when we realized we needed to make a cross country trip he invited us to stop at his house and rest a bit.  You don't really "stop" in at Texas, you drive for three days to the next town.  This state is just enormous.  We finally arrived at his house just outside of San Antonio and found that he and his wife, son and daughter were the kindest and most hospitable people you could ever hope to meet.  They took time out of their busy lives to take in strangers and even showed us the Alamo and other beautiful places in San Antonio.  It was moving to be blessed by them, I will never forget it.

I ought to backtrack a moment and mention briefly that through out my journey with Jack I have seen images and signs of butterflies every time a pivotal moment in our story happens.  God sends me reminders to expect a miracle for my little boy.  So when I walked into the room we were to stay in, I laughed out loud to see that it was covered in butterflies and a large framed picture with butterflies and a quote. "Life takes us to unexpected places… Love is what brings us home."
Life had taken us to a very unexpected place and we left their home feeling humbled by God's kindness.  He orchestrated this meeting and blessed our time with this family we didn't even know.  They were warm and kind and I will always feel blessed to be shown Texas by these good hearted people.

When their son took Israel, our oldest boy, to see the chickens my little William felt left out and came trotting out to join them.  Only too bad for him, he stood on a fire ant mound.  Apparently, although small the fire ants are fiercely aggressive and their stings burn like the dickens.  Poor sweet William was attacked and his legs became hamburger meat as those relentless little devils stung him mercilessly.  He came screaming up to the house while they continued to sting and I tore out to see what was wrong.  And with my super mom powers I had that boy naked and in the shower faster than you can say, "fire ants should go back to the pit where they belong".  A shower and some children's benadryl later, William was fine but his legs were red and swollen, completely covered in raised angry looking bumps.  Thank the good Lord they didn't make it further up his leg.  Other than that little incident, we had an awesome time.  But all things come to an eventual end. Our three fabulous days in Texas were over and it was time to face the road again.  As a side note, when we arrived in Massachusetts we promptly shipped two live lobsters over to them as a thanks for their hospitality.  Nothing says thank you like a sea bug.

Oh and I forgot to mention that it was also in Texas that we found out via email that the job opportunity that sounded pretty much like a  done deal was not such a done deal.  Now with no promise of work and pay, the trip took on another layer of faith building.  We were thankful that at least we had a place to stay once we got there.  A family not far from the hospital was put in contact with us (through a friend of a friend who knows these people) and they agreed to host us for a bit until we got on our feet.  That was a nice reassurance.

We were ready to see the sights again as we had a really nice break from the car that was so full that we couldn't even put our feet down.  Talk about claustrophobia. Our next stop was Arkansas to visit my Ozark family.  I had not seen my grandparents in over ten years and this was my only chance to introduce their great-grand kids to them.  So far our trip was broken up by stops to see family; first to Arizona to see my father-in-law at his summer home (it was really lucky that he happened to be there), then Andrew's brother's house in Texas and next to see my family.  These were like pit stops in a marathon.  Stop quickly, get refreshment and get back to the race.