The Surprise that Almost Didn't Happen

Editor's note: tonight's post is by Kol's oldest sister, Julianna!

This seems to be the week for new bloggers on here, since Kol's first blog post went up a few days ago, and now here I am. This is Julianna's first blog post!

So today was Kol's last treatment here in Tulsa. Last night, after he and Birgitte went to bed, Mom, Dad, Mari, and I decided we needed to celebrate it, so we sent dad to the Wal-Mart. He came back with balloons, streamers, a big 'Celebrate' banner, some dangling stars, and a Star Wars Lego set in a Lego Star Wars gift bag. Mari and I blew up twelve balloons and stuffed them on the top shelf in Mom's closet before we went to bed.

The plan was that we would all go to the clinic this morning, and just as we pulled into the hotel parking lot Mom would 'remember' that we had to go pick something up. Dad would send me and Mari in to 'clean' while they took the little ones shopping. We would decorate, and Dad would put the room key in the door upside down and rattle it to let us know when they were back. The plan seemed perfect.

Of course, nothing is perfect. Everything went well up until the end of the treatment, when the five of us kids went outside to the van while Mom and Dad stayed inside to talk. We ended up in a fight in the van, and it ended with Mari's fingers getting slammed in the door. I was worried the plan wouldn't work with her fingers hurting, but there were things that she could still do.

On the drive home, Kol started crying that he wanted to celebrate today, but that we had to pack instead. It was a good thing he didn't look behind him, because if he had, he would have seen me with a big smile on my face, trying not to laugh, and he would have known something was up. In the end, he and Mom decided on a celebratory french toast lunch, and the need for ingredients took out the need for Mom to remember to pick something up.

Mari and I took both key cards and went up to the room, put one in, and got a red light. We tried again, and got a red light. The other card didn't work either. We tried again, and again, and again. We couldn't get into our room. Finally I took the keys, left Mari and my purse by the room door, and headed down to the front desk. I glanced out the window on the stairs landing and saw that Mom and Dad hadn't left yet, so I ran down the stairs and got out to the van. They were still there because they wanted us to have a camera for when Kol walked in, and Dad had left to bring it to us just before I got outside. I gave Mom the cards and she went inside with them. It turned out that we had originally told the front desk we were checking out today, so our cards were programmed to only work until today. We got it figured out, and finally Mari and I started to decorate.

After all the problems we had getting this surprise to work, the amazing smile on Kol's face when he walked in was worth it.

We leave tomorrow, and will be home soon!