I started to think that I should just get it done. I had first thought to give myself up to a year to get the details worked out. After visiting his grave - I knew I needed to get it done sooner. I was grateful I had someone that had offered/agreed/committed to help financially with this specific purchase.
I had thought to look into other companies for the product. The cemetery is about an hour away from our house. (Another story - but, definitely for another time.) The other companies I had in mind were closer to the cemetery than our home. The thought was to go in for information and possible ordering when I was down in the area. I didn't necessarily want to drive down just to visit the companies on site. (I had looked at websites but they didn't have the information I needed for a specific order. I was going to need to go in.) The occasions that got me close by ended up not working out for me to get things done and I would end up going back home without accomplishing the task. It was partly logistics and partly not wanting to deal with it when I was there. It might be that one has to be emotionally in the right place to order a headstone for a loved one (and oneself).
I was checking details from the original pre-order that we did with the mortuary one night. I was thinking about the fact that it seemed to cost a little more than the other places did - by this time a sister-in-law had called both of the places I had in mind and had gotten a basic quote or two. She shared the information with me and that's when I realized that the other places would be less expensive for seemingly the same product. I was trying to figure out scheduling and when I could get to the locations to find out more information and place an order. While I was looking at the order sheet a thought came to me..."just get it done"... I think Layne was tired of my back and forth lack of action taken. I knew he wanted the task accomplished and that I should just go with the original company because that's what would be the easiest and what we had already planned. I called the next day to make an appointment with the sales gal that I had been introduced to when at the mortuary taking care of funeral details. I was thinking the appointment was going to be at the location I had gone to before. It was actually about a 25-30 minute drive. That was more than I'd hoped for - but, I still ended up being fine with it. I was just happy to be moving forward. I went to the appointment, made decisions, and left feeling really good. One thing I was pleased with was that according to the information I had - what I ordered was a little less than what I remembered the quote being from one of the other companies - and there was even a bigger difference for the other company. I remembered leaving and thinking that I knew for sure that the original order we did was definitely more. I attempted a dignified response when being shown the price and knowing it was significantly less then what I recall the number to be on the original order. I witnessed a little miracle. I just felt very blessed. I was so grateful that things worked out the way they did. Everything just fell into place. I kept trying to make it work the way I thought it was supposed to work. When I just decided to go a certain route it all worked out just as needed.
(End note: I mentioned a pre-order a couple of times. If an order is put together before the person dies - there's a better deal because you planned ahead. The order we did originally was thought to be at a little bit of a discount. Thus, part of the reason I wasn't expecting the cost to be half to two-thirds the number that I had in my head.)