TransIowa Follow Up

This has been quite the interesting 2+ weeks since I announced I was withdrawing from TransIowa V6.

I posted that on a Sunday and the Monday/Tuesday of that week we had some doctors come and look at my father because we were going to be leaving him home alone for 10+ days. Tuesday I spent in Kansas City for the day working and it was determined that he needed to be placed in a rehabilitation nursing home to work some issues out.

He had a huge bowel obstruction and was not able to have a normal bowel movement and was not taking his Parkinson medication and so he was locking up and was unable to live properly on his own.

Wednesday afternoon he was approved for immediate placement into Father Baker Manor but it was under the conditions that if he did not improve or improved drastically to the point of self-sufficiency he would be discharged with 24 hours of notice. We were scheduled to leave on Friday for Colorado so that trip got put off for now.

There was still a possibility of Iowa happening (if I had not withdrawn) and life went on as normal as could be. The following week the kids were on spring break so I took Tuesday off and we took a some friends to Erie, PA for Chick-Fil-A and a fun time in Presque Isle State Park. We checked on dad daily and my wife received a phone call Thursday that my father had progressed to self-sufficiency and was being discharged Friday after lunch.

For Iowa I would have had to be in Grinnell, IA by 6:00pm for the meet and greet and official race meeting.

We picked him up and got him settled back at home on Friday. Saturday was not a good day because I thought about where I would be in Iowa at certain times and I was just not in a good spot. I crashed early Saturday night and then I woke up around 10:30pm and went to hang out with my daughter and watched some of Lion King 2 for some reason - LOL.

Around 11:00pm I ask for her IPod touch and did some TransIowa research. I found out that the race was canceled 80 miles or so in because of weather and 6 people where in North English, IA at the finish line - A malt shop that the owner was so nice to keep open and feed the finishers!

What does all this mean - there were some questions about what type of God would not want me to participate in TransIowa. I don't believe God didn't want me to participate - I believe God knew what was coming down the line and the best thing for the RD and everyone else involved was for me to pull the plug so we could move on in another direction for this year.

It sucked - I will be the first to admit it. It really sucked. I am still very disappointed but I also appreciate how God opened the way for stress to be reduced so that the real stress of everything else hitting at once was manageable.

The God I serve is a loving God and one that wants us to enjoy life - He knew something that I had no idea was about to happen and he prepared me for it. For that I will be forever thankful!