Dallas/Tulsa Trip/Ben

Steve and returned from our trip tonight. I had planned to blog tommorrow morning after a nice night sleep about the trip, but plans changed a bit. It's almost Midnight and I'm still awake.

Thursday: The day started out pretty early because I had a contact appointment at 9:30. After the appt. we took of for Chicago to meet up with Damian. Damian was going to drive us to the airport and use our car for the weekend. The planes went off and landed without issues and mostly on-time too. We had an hour lay-over in Atlanta then headed off to DFW. We got into Dallas in the evening so we went straight to our hotel and went to sleep.

Friday: Friday morning we woke up early again to start our drive to Tulsa, OK. It was a 5 hour drive from Dallas to Tulsa. We had a good time in Tulsa. I think Liz was very happy to see us. Ben's family (all of them) we all in town all at once. There was about 19 people in her one-bedroom apartment at one point Friday night. He has a great family. We sat around singing praise and worship songs. Ben seemed like he was doing well. He was in good spirits and seemed to be feeling alright. We spent the night at Liz's Friday night.

Saturday: Saturday, we got up and Steve made us a great breakfast. It was funny that he did too because Liz said Friday that she hasn't made a meal in about 2 weeks. We hung out with the family a little more. Then we drove back to Dallas to meet "Mommy and Daddy Steinbach" and Amy for dinner. We went to Spring Creek barbeque which is the great barbecue resturant ever. After dinner, we went back to the Steinbach's and showed them wedding photos and chatted. Then we headed back to the hotel and went to sleep.

Sunday: Sunday morning we got up and met the Steinbachs for church. I forgot to warn Steve that their church was really charismatic so it was fun to see his reaction. The people there are really nice though. Church started with breakfast and 8:30, then Sunday School, then the church service that ended around 1pm. They were finishing up there Missions Week. It was interested. The speaker was a missionary from Africa and he was very passionate about his work. Later that night the church was having a Missions Banquet so we went to that too. They were serving barbeque and it was good.

Monday: Monday morning we had to meet our flight at 7:15 in the morning. They were both good flights. We had a layover in Atlanta again. This layover was almost 3 hours long. We arrived in Chicago to meet Damian at about 2:00. After a quick dinner with Damian, we drove back to South Bend.

I was going to talk about how nice the weather was in Texas and First Class flying but it just doesn't seem that important now. We didnt get to sit in First-Class but the flights between Dallas and Atlanta had a First-Class section on them. It really didn't look all that exciting but it may be cool to try once.

We were about to go to sleep on Monday night when "Daddy" Steinbach called Steve's cell phone. He informed us that Ben had passed away at 8:15pm Monday night. It still seems so sureal to me. I can't believe he is really gone. We just saw him on Saturday. Steve made him breakfast and he looked great when we left. I'm really glad now that we took the time to make the trip down there.

Liz told me Monday that he went quietly and peacefully. She said his family was all in the room at the time and they were singing praise songs and praying. I imagine that it looked a bit like Friday when we were there.

At least we know now that Ben is now up in Heaven dancing with Jesus. He is no longer in pain. Even though I wish he was still here, I can take comfort in knowing he is truly happy right now.

I know that God has a purpose in this so we will just have to wait and see what that is.

Please keep Liz and Ben's families in your prayers, as well as all their friends.

Liz Hostetler

7819 S Wheeling Ave, Apt 44L

Tulsa, OK 74136-8626

(918) 488-0775

Here is her contact info in Tulsa if you want to get a hold of her.

Benjamin Hostetler: February 13, 1980 - March 3, 2008