Tuesday's Update From Regionals

Still no photos, sorry. It's been a rough day here. I could feel your prayers and thank you for them. Kali did an awesome job today with her speeches. Now we are waiting to see if she advances to semi-finals. She felt really positive about her delivery and thought the judges received her speech well. I judged a couple rounds of speech, which I enjoyed immensely.

This afternoon I received a call from my son that the hospital was trying to find an immediate family member for my father-in-law, someone who could make a decision on emergency surgery. Some of you know Papa has been in bad health, his wife died and was buried last week. Long story short - Papa's heart stopped this afternoon. The doctors put him on two medications that have his heart beating and his blood pressure at an acceptable level until Mark and Sandy can get there to tell Papa good-bye. It took us almost 4 hours to find Mark to tell him. Mark, Jason, Sandy and her husband Dale, and Nicole should all be converging on the hospital at this time to check on Papa. And here Kali and I sit just outside of Atlanta. I have made arrangements for Kali to be able to remain here at regionals and then to make her way home. I don't know yet when I will be leaving to head home. I have responsibilities here as well. Please pray for our family.

One of our debate moms got a phone call at the same time (we were both in my car) telling her that her grandmother had just had a stroke. She is 93 years old. Then one of our debaters got hurt this afternoon. He tripped over a rock and banged his head into a tree. He got a deep laceration on his forehead - about 2" wide. Don't you just know he got all cleaned up then went right on in to his next speech round! That's a true speech and debater for you!

Continue to pray for us! We need it at this time. Thank you for all your prayers so far and for the loving comments. You are so appreciated!