Welcome Kyra Irene!

The past couple of days have been pretty hectic.  I went down to Gerra's in Austin to help her out while she gave birth to my 13th (I think? Losing count!) grandchild, Kyra Irene Murray, named after Irene.  Pico and Marley (my two Pekingese) and I headed down there Wednesday and she was born at 11:23 pm.  We've been bunked up at Gerra's and doing whatever we can to make her life a little easier right now.

We had several signs from Irene Weduesday.  Gerra asked for some signs and when she turned on the television one of the teams on Family Feud was named "Howell", which is Irene's maiden name.  Then on another show there was the name "Kyra" all lit up and blinged out.  Her friend Amy, who was there the whole time, said she had been talking to Irene a lot and was relying on her help about when to drive to Austin and what to do and when.

For myself, I've been utterly amazed at how well things have gone as far as getting around in Austin, finding places, dealing with traffic, not getting lost, dealing with lack of sleep and my usual routine and comforts of home, and also being able to not get totally wiped out because of all the driving.  I haven't gotten lost a single time - and no, I don't have a smart phone, smartypants.  No GPS either. I had a couple of printed-out maps and would look up the locations on my I pad when I had wi-fi, but there's a big difference between that and actually driving around someplace like Austin. I felt totally guided and helped the whole time.

Irene has been been really close and I've felt that connection strongly even though I was totally thrown out of my routine and was only able to meditate for short times here and there.  I think that the worst part of it was my being worried about Pico and Marley being in an unfamiliar place, away from home, while I was spending so much time at the hospital.  Marley can get pretty scared when things don't follow routine, and I wondered if he though that being at Gerra's represented a permanent change in our lives.

The thought occurred to me, though, that they will be so, so happy when we get back home - and then I realized it was like leaving the Astral and coming here; going home will be as delightful and as familiar as when Marley gets home. It almost makes it worth it just to experience that joy at being back home.

This morning when I woke up Irene was playing our first "our song" in my head.  That just filled me up with a sense of connection to her and it's so great to be able to have that no matter where we are or what is going on.  I don't even fear crashing any more even during hectic, out-of-routine times.  That's such a relief and I am so grateful for how far we've come.