Should I Pat or Should I Squeeze?

The road can be incredibly unforgiving when you have four children in tow. My husband and I packed our trusty eight-year-old Kia Sedona up and headed out. Not before my sister Kelly had called and made a last-ditch effort for us to make a swing by her house to get her.


Kelly lives in Missouri, and I live in Arkansas. It was going to be an extra six hours if we were going to get her. If you think a 20-hour trip with two early teens fussing and fighting sounds like a bad idea, take a 21 month old and a 3 1/2 year old, then add another 6 hours on top of that. After discussing it with my husband, we decided that we, regrettably, could not take the trip. My sister Kelly was deeply disappointed because that meant, that along with our other sister Lori, she couldn't make it.


Of course the first part of the trip went smoothly. We were planning to drive the whole trip in one night. Originally, we were going to drive out the day before, but plans were changed and we had to do it all at once. By the time we hit Birmingham (4 am), we decided we had to stop at a Walmart parking lot and try to close our eyes. At about the time the sun was rising, we set off again.


When we got to Georgia, my sleepiness became giddiness. I was getting very excited to meet my sister for the first time. I kept thinking of how she had gotten there the day before me, and of how I had missed the initial meeting. Abby had gotten there around midnight on Thursday/Friday. Cathy arrived on Friday afternoon, and since the reunion was on Saturday, I'd be arriving just about the same time the rest of the families would arrive.


In the van, I kept my eye on the clock. I had wanted to arrive a little ahead of time since I had been in the car so long. I began to imagine how things were going to go when I got there. Who would come out to greet me? I wondered, "How did Abby get greeted?"


I then began to wonder about hugs. When Connie greeted her at the airport, I wonder what kind of hug she gave Abby? Then, How about Mom? How did Mom and her hug? And, Cathy? How did she hug her?


I wondered if the hugs were big. I wondered if the hugs were small. Were the hugs genuine? Were they made up out of duty? I wondered what kind of hug would I give her?


Along with my obsession over hugs, I began to think of our mother. I imagined what her meeting was like with Abby. Did they cry? Did the hold each other forever? How did it go?


As we got closer, I began to cry many hot tears and well, I even let out a few heavy sobs.


By the time I got there, I wasn't sure if I was ready or not. I began to get a little panicky over the whole thing.


We pulled up and parked the car. I looked around the property (quite a spread with horses/animals, two homes) for people. Sure enough, by the time I opened my door, I could see her. I could see Abby, there was no denying her. She walked purposely up to the car like a soldier on a mission.


When grabbed on to each other, there were no thoughts of what kind of hug I was going to give her. We embraced like two best friends who had not seen each other for many, many years. We hugged like couple in love, who had been separated by years of war. We hugged for hurt. We hugged for love. We hugged. And we hugged. Tears flowing like rain. We hugged.