We spent the weekend with my little sister, Kendra and her family. It was a wild ride from the moment we set foot in Tennessee. To tell this story, I will not paint some people in the best light, including myself. However, this doesn't reflect how much I truly love each of them and know that they are doing the absolute best they can with the situations they find themselves in.
Thursday morning, we woke up at 3:45 AM to catch our 5:30 flight to Tennessee. We had packed completely the night before and put our suitcases in the car. I woke the boys up, they brushed their teeth then sleepily got in the car. We breezed through the airport, bought some goodies, and then boarded the plane. We had uneventful flights mostly because I had chosen a flight that stopped in Dallas to pick up more passengers. We waited on the flight which was glorious. We just moved forward once all the passengers deplaned.
We landed early at 10:25 AM in Nashville. I had been texting Kendra and Mike letting them know when we would arrive. We had bought our plane tickets back in June and spent months planning our route. The boys were extremely excited to spend the first day at the indoor water park near The Great Smokey Mountain National Park. I hadn't heard from Kendra as we made our way to Nashville. I assumed she had a lot going on and would pick us up by 11:00. She finally answered about 10 minutes after we landed. She said she was running late. So, the boys and I made our way to the food court in the airport. We ordered some lunch and ate. I saw that her house was about 20 minutes from the airport and I looked up an Uber. It was about $20 dollars to take an Uber to her house, so I texted her and Mike asking if we should take an Uber instead of waiting for her to pick us up. Mike said Kendra was almost ready and she would be headed our way soon. By this time it was nearly 11:40 so we had been waiting an hour.
Kendra finally texted saying she was on her way but she had to make a quick stop. I gathered up the boys stuff and we made our way to passenger pick up. We were outside by noon hoping for a quick pick up. Alas, that was no so. After texting Kendra a few times and getting no response, we sat out side waiting and freezing. I had brought a blanket and we all wrapped up in the blanket waiting. Kendra finally arrived at 1:00. We waited nearly two and half hours. I had to do a pivot in my brain so that I was not upset about waiting so long. My self talk has been strong lately and I was able to shift my mood and enjoy the next three hours as we made our way to Gatlinburg to swim at the indoor water park. I wish I could say this was an uneventful drive, but it was not. We stopped to get gas and I met Kendra's foster children for the first time. They were both very wary of me and instantly didn't want to do anything I asked of them. Then, while driving, James laughed so hard he barfed all over the 12 passenger van. It took us 30 minutes to find a place to stop and clean it up.
We finaly arrived at the indoor water park and the kids were all so happy! We checked in and changed our clothes then headed to swim. It was so fun! Edward and Nolen both rode the wave rider and we went down all the water slides! We laughed, ate dinner, and played in the wave pool. Kendra and I even made our way to the hot tub! It was awesome.
The water park closed at 8PM eastern standard time which was a bit earlier than we wanted but we made our way back up to the hotel room and get ready for bed. I had planned on doing a kayak adventure Friday in Kentucky but hadn't booked it yet, so I looked it up to see if it was still available. As the kids were getting ready for bed, Blaine began being a bit of a pill. He was going around telling everyone he was above his parents rules. They had both asked him to change out of his swimsuit and to get ready for bed. He was NOT going to do that. He then started saying he was going to call 911. I, honestly, wasn't paying very close attention because I was trying to get my boys ready for bed. We had a hide away bed and I hadn't yet pulled it down because some of the kids were still wet and I didn't want them on my bed. We had turned on a movie and Blaine was told he couldn't watch it until he was ready for bed. Again, he wasn't going to do that.
Then Blaine went into the other room, picked up the phone and called 911. He told the operator that he was going to kill himself. Then he hung up. Then the phone rang and he pulled the phone out of the jack so that it wouldn't ring again. I had no idea this happened until I heard the phone ring and heard him pull the phone out of the jack. I knew then that the hotel staff would for sure come up to our room. Ten minutes later, the police came to our hotel room. Yep. It was awful. All the kids were falling asleep when the knock came. Blaine instantly knew they were there for him. Kendra answered the door and talked to them with Blaine screaming all the while. They police told Blaine that he needed to go to the hospital to be evaluated. He threw a giant tantrum until he was taken down to an ambulance and taken to the hospital. Before this crazy event, Edward and Mike headed to the grocery store to get some food and games. Kendra lost her car keys, didn't know her social security number, and couldn't focus on what hospital her son was taken to. I texted Mike letting him know that Blaine had been taken away. He was in shock along with Kendra. All the kids were up and in the room with me watching a movie and waiting for the police to leave. I helped Kendra remember her social security number and find her keys. It was chaotic to say the least.
By the time I found Kendra's keys, Mike had returned from the grocery store with Edward. I put all the kids in bed so that Kendra and Mike could head to the hospital. After a bit of brain wracking we figured out what hospital the police had told Kendra about. We all fell asleep waiting and praying for them to return. It was overly tense for two hours until they walked in the door. Mike came in but Kendra and Blaine spent another hour in the hall way talking about what he had done and what the consequences were for his behavior. By this time, I had decided I didn't want Blaine on the rest of the trip. He is explosive and no one has any control of him. He has no control over himself. He is a hazard to everyone around him and none of us are equipped to handle him at this point. Going to the hospital was the best thing for him.
The next morning, we cancelled our plans to kayak and we just let the kids enjoy the water park again. Edward really wanted to do the cave kayak so I felt terrible making this decision; however, it was necessary. We left the hotel around noon and drove up to the Great Smokey Mountain National Park. We made our way to the North Carolina/Tennessee line. It was so snowy! I wasn't really expecting any snow because we couldn't see any snow from down below. We had planned to hike the Appalacian trail; however, it was muddy and covered in snow.
After a lot of thought and convincing, Kendra decided it was best for all the boys to go with Mike to a wrestling tournament while we drove up to Kentucky for Nolen's national cross country meet. This was the best decision in my opinion. Blaine was too much for the two of us to handle. Plus, Nolen needed a good nights sleep in order to run his best race for nationals. I know Kendra didn't want to leave any of her children behind but this was best for us. In my opinion, Blaine needs some serious therapy and he needs someone who is trained to handle his outbursts. I am not trained but I can see he needs a lot more help than any of us can give him with the skills we have right now. After we went to the visitor center we parted ways. The sunset on the way to Kentucky was glorious. We even stopped at a Buckey's to get dinner. It was hilariously awesome.
We had a pretty uneventful night in Louisville, which was just what Nolen needed after a night of chaos. We woke up and had a nice breakfast then headed to the race. We missed the walk through and all of the race day excitement but we still had a great time. Nolen ran as fast as he could. He even ran a 6:05 for his first mile. Unfortunately, every single boy in that race ran faster than a 6:05. Nolen came in 455 out of 458. He ran his fastest time of the season and pushed himself so hard. The other boys who won ran a 4:55 minute mile!! It was incredible to watch that many boys run that fast. Nolen's time was an 18:34. He slowed down completely on the last mile but he was so proud of his first mile.
Kendra had dropped us off at the race so that she could take her girls to a movie. The movie got out as Nolen's race had started. We had planned on meeting at a cave after the race so I kept checking the Uber app to know when to request an Uber. At first, the Uber said it was 6 minutes away, so I didn't click on it. Then I check as Nolen was half way through the race and it said it was 30 minutes away!!! So I ordered our Uber and once Nolen finished his race we made our way to meet the Uber.
Our Uber ride to the cave was a complete disaster. It took the drive more than 30 minutes to get to us, then she got lost driving to the cave. She didn't speak English so she couldn't read the signs that said we had to go a certain way to get to the cave. We got caught in some twinkle lights line and then drove around a neighborhood for 20 minutes. By the time we got to the cave, we only had one hour to do he zip lines. It was fun!! I think this was one of my favorite parts of the trip. It tested me a little to get over my small fear of heights and I really had to trust myself because I hooked myself up to each zip line and then jumped. Fun and challenging.
We left the cave and made our way to Mammoth Cave National Park. But before we left Louisville, I made Kendra drive us into Indiana so we could cross another state off our list. The kids loved repeating “Kentucky, Kentucky, Kentucky, INDIANA!” As we drove over the bridge twice. Then we drove to a tiny town outside mammoth cave. This was the best accommodations of the trip. HA! Please note sarcasm. We drove an hour and half through tornadoes and down pours to arrive at our bunk house. It was literally just bunk beds. No bathrooms. No showers. The bathrooms were in another building across the parking lot. We trudged out in the rain to get ready for bed. We played a fun game Mike purchased the night of the 911 call. It was so fun.
Sunday morning we woke up early and headed to Mammoth Cave. Mike met back up with us with the boys in tow. They had fun at a wrestling tournament the day before. We hopped on a bus then down to the cave. It was incredible underneath the earth. Edward and Nolen could have spent all day exploring the cave; however, Blaine had another plan. Someone must have looked at him wrong because he went completely berserk. Luckily, we were at the end of the tour so we made our way back to the bus. Not luckily, because Blaine got on the bus and screamed at the top of his lungs saying "Let me go" for 15 minutes while throwing himself all around the bus banging his head against the window. The embarrassment caused Kendra to want to be more nurturing and Mike to be more tough. Neither choice made a single bit of difference in Blaine's fit. Nolen put his head down and began crying because it was unbearable to listen to. Both parents had been pitted against each other. It was hard to watch him manipulate them with his outburst. He wanted more attention. Once we got off the bus we had to walk through soapy water to stop the spread of White Nose disease in bats. We had to take Blaine's shoes off and walk them through. Mike took him to the car while the rest of us bought something at the gift shop and went to the opening of mammoth cave.
Oh, if only this was the end of the story. It is not. We drove to get lunch at a fun Diner near the cave with out incident. Then we drove back to Nashville where Kendra and Mike live. We arrived at Kendra's house and I cleaned out the van and helped clean up the house. Kendra left to pick up another foster child while the rest of us cleaned up the house. A tornado had blown through Nashville the night before, so Mike put together a dinner for all the families that were effected. We took the dogs on a walk, then went to help feed the people of Nashville. We saw a famous Mormon actor, Satan, at the dinner. It was awesome. I helped Kendra clean out her fridge then we played some games and went to bed. Mike had nicely made me a bed to sleep in but must have used some of Blaine's peed sheets so I slept in urine the night before we left. I woke up at 4AM and Kendra drove us to the airport so we could fly home Monday morning. We took the same flight home and sat on the plane in Houston as more passengers got on the plane. Once we landed, my dad picked us up and we came home. I walked right in and took the longest hottest shower of my life, relieved to be home.
I am so proud of Kendra and Mike for taking on children with serious issues. They are two of the nicest people on this planet. Their hands and hearts are full. They are doing the absolute best they can and I see now, any advice I offer is unhelpful. I have built a very quiet life here in Albuquerque and I have no idea how to help. I can only offer my love.
