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You might remember some posts I wrote last summer about moving from Florida to Illinois? There was a post about trying to find the perfect house - the house that would allow me to deceive myself into believing one or both of my big kids would move to Illinois to live with us.
Well we found the right house, the one with two extra rooms that could easily be turned into to bedrooms. Unfortunately, the big kids seem even less interested in moving to Chicago than ever before. -26F might have had something to do with that.
Shortly after we moved to Illinois, Maria Niles mentioned blogging about "modern tenement living". I loved that idea and I was thrilled with her blog post. I read every word and clicked every link. Several times. Yes, I was still living in my dream world where someday Chris and Michelle would want to live here with us but also because TW and I had begun to talk about moving her elderly mother and disabled sister here, so we could take care of them - or help them take care of themselves.
We were just talking about it. We knew we would do it, but we were planning to do it in the future - after we recovered from our own move, emotionally and financially. Apparently the universe had other plans.
TW's mom called the week before Thanksgiving to tell us they were being evicted from the home they had been renting. The owner was letting the house go into foreclosure and they'd have to be out of the house mid to end January. Ugh.
On Thanksgiving, they found out the owner wasn't sending the house to foreclosure because she found a buyer for it. They'd have to be out by December 31.
That gave us very little time to a) find the money to buy their plane tickets from Denver to Chicago (thank goodness, those are inexpensive!) b) find the money to fly TW from Chicago to Denver (ouch, those tickets are more expensive.) c) find the money to rent a u-Haul (sigh, why do those things cost so darn much money???) d) rearrange our homes and our lives to adjust to having two women in wheelchairs living with us until we can find them a home of their own. Did I also mention they're bringing a dog with them?
So here I am, alone in the house after taking TW to the airport for her flight to Denver and the big kids to the airport for their flight back to Florida. TW's mother and sister will arrive on Monday night. TW should arrive sometime on Tuesday.
I'll be moving furniture in and out of those extra bedrooms I thought would be used by my big kids. I'll be going grocery shopping for the foods TW's mom and sister like and can eat. And I'll be spending some time explaining to our old dog that this new dog won't hurt him - or our kids - and he should just CHILL the HECK out.
After that, the real work begins - the house hunting, the new doctors to visit, the PACE ParaTransit routes, the I don't even know what...
I have absolutely no idea how all of this is going to work out. I want to do whatever I can to make this transition easy on TW's mom and sister - and also on us and on our kids and our poor old dog. I am not sure how or what I can do that will just magically make it all easy and comfortable.
Bringing them here is the right decision but it's going to be one heck of a change - for all of us.
I'm in the market for some new and good caregiving blogs - not just caring for elderly, but for the disabled.
Here are the blogs I'm reading at the moment:
Minding Our Elders
NY Times: The New Old Age Blog
Care Giver Support
Do you blog these topics? Do you know people who do? Share your links, please. And if you have a story or tips to share... please, I'd love to hear from you.
~~Denise
Flamingo House Happenings
