JUMP!

We've decided to take a half-blind leap of faith and move my mom into our house to be with Dad. I say half-blind, because we know some things, but not others.

For example, we know what kind of care my mom needs. We've been with her every day, sometimes all night and day, since this ordeal began. We know she can do nothing for herself. Nothing. She is not aware of her own safety. She can feed herself, but only if we cue her to do so. The rest ... total dependence upon others.

The one and only reason she hasn't been in either her own home or ours from the start is cost. Full-time (24-hour) private nursing care is expensive. It's way more than my parents have, we have, or Kim and Vince have. My parents' money won't last long with that kind of care, and then what do you do when it all runs out?

The strategy up until this point has been to assume full-time care for my mother will go on for years, and we have to make last what we have. My parents' long-term care policy has paid for what we've done so far; however, the policy will only pay $82.50 per day for what we are about to do.

That's where some of the blindness comes in. How long can we do this? I don't know. Kim and I are figuring out the finances (because that's her main responsibility, thank God). We have to decide what care to hire and for how long each day. The rest, I will do. The more I can do, the more money we save.

(It would really be awesome if I could successfully write and publish a couple of Great American Novels! (That's a joke.) And maybe I could get several more book editing gigs? And maybe that one book idea already in the proposal stage with the publisher will be successful? (No, it's not a novel; this one is quite practical.))

Aaaanyway ...

How well can I handle this, and for how long? I don't know that, either. That's another blind spot. All I do know is that I can do anything for 24 hours at a time. I also can do anything when I'm letting God drive. (I've certainly learned that lesson the hard way a few times.)

How well will Mom respond to this move? I don't know. (We think it's got to be better in a familiar environment with family and with Chloe.)

How will we get that ramp on the back porch built, in the space that we have? I don't know.


We do know the tiny wheelchair fits through our door spaces. That's good.

And, then, there's my dad's care. He's not going to recover. He will only deteriorate at a pace only God knows. The amount of care he will need is going to increase. We can only guess at this time how much he will need and when he will need it. Blind spot.

Obviously, we don't know important financial and practical factors. We also don't know how much time any of us have on this earth. So Kim, Vince, Dorsey and I are going to do what we believe is the right, loving thing to do at this time: We are putting my parents together again.

We are officially jumping off a cliff, half-blind ... but believing God is either going to catch us or give us wings.