The Reyes Family Blog: Want to blog again, starting with Seth's Mission to Vancouver, Washington

Melanie was reading through the blog and I sat down next to her reminiscing. There are so many details about life that I forgot about and it was so fun to read about them. Like Moriah refusing to wear knee pads for volleyball and Melanie being soooo excited to lose her teeth and all the details about that event. Even just remembering the feelings I felt at events I participated it like canning and Independence Day celebrations, feelings not mentioned in the post but remembered while viewing the blog.

Anyway, I hope to blog and remember how important it is to journal life.

There is so much to catch up on. Like the last post mentioned that Seth was leaving for his mission in 2 weeks. Well, he is home now. He spent 4 months in the Tongan/Samoan ward and at one time doubling in another ward. He loved how he enjoyed the benefits of the Tongan ward because their boundaries extended beyond normal ward boundaries, therefore he was able to see more of Portland. I so enjoyed Mondays and anticipating his letter{email}. These days missionaries have mini i-pads and so he could send an email and my phone would beep and I would read it and could respond immediately. It was almost like texting. If he had time or a need he could respond back quickly. The Monday before Christmas I asked him to please tell me how Skyping on Christmas Day would work. He never really responded with an answer. So I was kind of left in the dark but he had my Skype name. Later that night I got an email indicating that he had hurt himself and that it was probably bad. But no details were given. I got a text later that night from a member telling me that he was on their couch on pain meds after having seen a doctor. The next day, Tuesday, I got a phone call from his Mission president asking me about insurance so he could get an MRI and x-ray. I never heard back that day so I was left in the dark. Wednesday at about 11:00 am I received a phone call from his mission president telling me that he was coming home that day at about 6 or 7 that evening. We were unprepared and still didn't really know what was wrong with him. We were told they thought it was a torn Achilles but it needed to be evaluated by a orthopedic surgeon. We hurriedly made a room for him to come home to. It was much more involved than it sounds. His room kind of turned into a "basement," the "I don't know where to put this right now so I'll put it in this room" room. So we had to clean the room out first. We also didn't realized we needed to take 2 cars to the airport so getting that all sorted delayed us in picking him up from the airport. We were late. Poor Seth. If he was expecting a big "Hello, Welcome Home" he didn't get it. He was sitting by the baggage claim and was cranky when we got there. He also didn't know that he was leaving that day and was told as the mission president was on his way to pick him up, so he had to hurriedly pack up. He bought a pair of crutches, so he had that to board the plane with. We tried to reserve a wheelchair pick up upon landing but we didn't have the details needed. We think the mission president requested one but maybe he got the name wrong. Because when Seth got off the plane, he was the last person off, because of his crutches/injury. There was someone there with a wheelchair and asked for Seth's name. The name the employeed had didn't match Seth's name. It was obviously meant for him, he was the last person off the plane and in crutches. But the employee walked away instead of offering to help. So Seth was left to make it to baggage claim by himself on crutches. It was an ordeal. Crutches hurt your armpits and are exhausting. Not to mention that he was still in pain. He had to take breaks. He would go a ways and then stop and lean against the wall. One of these times while taking a break and observant couple noticed him and asked him if he needed help. They flagged down one of the golf carts for him to ride. What nice people. I am sure Seth greatly appreciated it. Once in baggage claim we weren't there so he had to wait. I can see why he was grumpy. We did get 1 picture though, and went home.
The plus in all this is that he was home 2 days before Christmas which meant he was home for Christmas!!!! Who knew that when I was all worried about the Skyping details that it wouldn't matter, that he would be home for Christmas anyway. I didn't know, but it happened.

He eventually had surgery on his Achilles the first Monday in January, January 4, 2016.

He was injured playing basketball in the church on p-day. It happened in the final minutes of being able to play ball. He had the ball, and he passed it. He went to take a step after passing the ball and he just fell. He didn't know why he fell, He just knew that he fell and wondered why he hit the ground. He did hear the tendon break, though. But he said it felt like someone threw a baseball at his ankle really hard and couldn't figure out how, who or why someone would do that. Plus there was no ball. Everyone else was still playing basketball until they realized he was down. The stake president was a doctor and took a look at Seth. He suspected an achilles tear but wouldn't know unless the MRI & x-ray were done. After looking at that he knew enough to know Seth needed to go home.