Hilton Head Day 3

 The girls and I made a special outing to the beach at 6:00 a.m. to watch the sun rise.

Our morning at the condo went slower than we had hoped (more snuggles, less efficiency), so we didn't make it to Savannah by 11:00 a.m. for a tour I wanted to attend. The drive to Savannah was also extended because this travel is hard on Thomas and he gets sick. Our family is just accustomed now that a one-hour drive can easily take two.

In Savannah, we ate a picnic lunch in the park by the Cathedral . . . and by picnic lunch, I mean such that as can be created without any knives to spread the peanut butter and jelly on bread or spoons to eat the yogurt. (Thanks, Mama. Great job.)

The Flannery O'Connor museum in her childhood home was going to be closing while we were at Mass, and I'd already missed the tours, but Chris still encouraged me to take the 15 minutes we had to zip through the home. What a joy! It was very special to me.

The older kids teased me mercilessly (as only fellow bookworms can) for buying a new and different Flannery O'Connor collection I did not own. They know I own her various short stories individually and an entire collection of her works in another edition. I retorted that I don't own this one, and by buying it at her childhood home, I also obtained a gold embossed sticker showing its provenance!

We attended the Latin Mass at the Cathedral where God gave me a special consolation. My 14-year-old had stepped into the narthex where a woman approached him, asking, "Is your mother Katherine L----?" It turns out she lives in Maryland and was also vacationing in Savannah and she has been following our story online for nine months . . . and still prays for us. When my son slipped back into Mass to whisper this information to me (and later she and I conversed!), I felt like it was a reminder that, while we parents are anxious about possible future surgery for Thomas and how his GI system will recover with or without surgery, God isn't done with us yet. There are people all over the country and some all over the world who are praying for Thomas. With God on our team, we might not know how it will work out, but we can rest assured that God loves Thomas more than us and he will do what is best for Thomas.

Italian dinner at a restaurant . . . family movie night (both Annie and American Tail) . . . and those yummy Yasso Greek yogurt bars for dessert (highly recommended)!