The Preparation Process

WOW!  Right now means, "Way Over Worked!"  What have I got myself into?  Do I really know what is all involved in caring for my Dad?  What about all the preparation and money that it will take for me to get there?  Again, so many questions and things to do -- where do I start???  The JOB (Just Over Broke) what is going to happen to that?  How am I going to pay for everything and have income coming in? 

Despite all the questions and uncertainty of what is about to happen, I do have peace in the decision I made.  Why?  How?  You Serious?  Do you know what you are doing?  Look at the economy.  If you don't have a job, what are you going to do?  What about the life you have developed in Texas?  Your friends?  Your church?

If you read my other blog Crossroads, I talked about "faith."  It is an extremely important part of my Christian walk and whom I believe and trust in.  To others it may appear that I am making a wrong decision; however, I knew in my heart that it was God that was sending me into a new season in my life.  One that I would never have chosen, yet one that I know I was meant to do.

Now the planning starts.  What do I do first?  How do I do it?  Do I have to do it by myself?  Who will help me?  How will I get it all done in time?  And how do I stop being pulled in all directions with my family?  And most importantly, what about the money??  Yeah, don't I wish it grew on a tree!

In order to start the process, I have to have "my house" in order.  That literally means giving away, packing for storage, and throwing away the non-essentials that no one else would want. As I go through my 3 bedroom 2 bath 2 car garage, I truly begin to understand how much I have and how much I really shouldn't have.  Does that make sense?  There are items that I never used, some I used a little, and some that I will never, ever use.  Why did I purchase all this "stuff?"  And why do I have so much that I have to have 100+ boxes in order to keep it all?  I have had to repent over and over because I feel it is too much for one person to have. Guilt and condemnation is washing over me.  Which of these will win?

Now that I have gotten that out of my system, I need my home to represent a great appearance on both the inside and the outside.  There goes my yellow, turquoise, green, red, and pink colors I had painted 5 1/2 years ago.  It needs to become more modern and appeal to everyone.  I think a neutral color of a light shade chocolate brown in every room will do.  How soon will I be able to get the guys to paint?  How long will it take?  Can they start now?  I have become somewhat impatient to my friend and co-worker, Phil DiPinto.  He is trying his best to work around my schedule and the guys schedule so they can keep painting if jobs come in on their end AND I can get my house painted so I can get it rented.
 
It seems all I'm doing is packing and buying more boxes and plastic containers and bubble wrap.  Just when I think I have enough, I find that I don't.  That means back to the store -- my weekends are getting very busy and my evenings are all booked up with packing.  I am doing my best to get to New York so that my sister will be able to go back home and not lose her job.  She was able to take a month off for a Leave of Absence.  Not something I can do working for a small company.  I had offered them ways in which I could still do the work from a remote location but that was not an option with them.

Faith.  I absolutely need you now.  Do I continue on my course of where God was leading me without a JOB?  Wisdom.  Time to meet with an elder who is so much wiser than I am to give me counsel.  Linda Marrone is the BEST!  She went through everything I gave to her and she tried to think of a third option.  Sometimes there is no Plan C -- only A & B.  She asked me where my peace was before all this other stuff happened and I said, "to move and be with my father."  That is where I need to go back to -- not what is happening in the moment but to where I knew I needed to be.  Sometimes other things will come at you to attempt to sidetrack you into going back to what you were doing when you instead need to chart a new course and move ahead! 

Where would I be without my family of choice?  When push comes to shove, it just shows you who you can count on in a time of crisis.  If it wasn't for Sherry Stroope, Lisa Spurgin, Connie Baeumel and Jandra Wright, I'm not so sure I would have gotten everything packed up in time!  Especially my neighbor and good friend Sherry!  At the end when I had so much to pack, she was over nearly every day helping me.  Even after I moved, I still had stuff in my garage she moved out and put my trash out.  All these girls really helped me get er done!  And Tori Shields, she saved me hours of clean up time -- she and her Mom paid for a housekeeper to come and clean my house!  Now that was a blessing!

When it was moving time, a few of the Mighty Men from the church, which was headed up by Jonathan Cook, took everything out of my house, loaded it on a truck and put it in storage.  They made two trips and pretty much got everything done in about 3 hours.  Kudos also to David Romo and Keith Kratochvil.

There have been several times that I felt like crying because I was so overwhelmed and didn't know how I was going to get everything done.  (Maybe I did once or twice).  Should I try to sell some things first and put the rest in storage?  How would I get everything sold?  Do I have to drag everything outside and hold an Estate Sale?  Should I have people come into my house and walk through it?  I was still working full-time and packing things up in the evening and trying to get it all done.

Once you start working on something that is going to change your whole life, there is so much involved that sometimes family and friends don't understand.  To me there was so much uncertainty and questions.  Should I put everything in storage or bring it with me?  How long will I be gone?  Yes, I'm going to rent out my house and my intention is to move back to Texas.  There were too many "buts" and I couldn't let the but this and but that get in the way.  And, my sister only had 30 days that she could take off from work.  I wanted to wait until the end of July before moving so that meant her waiting until the beginning of July to get Dad out of the nursing home.  That would mean I would have a better chance to having my house rented and a contract signed before I left.  I wanted an order to things.  Let's face it -- many times that just does not happen!

I understand the concern that Darlene had.  We both felt that he wouldn't last much longer in the nursing home.  He didn't have the will to live in that environment.  He wasn't reading or watching TV let alone eating, walking, going to the bathroom or dressing himself.  He was depressed.  He was crying.  He wasn't enjoying life.  He wanted to be home!