Back on the Farm

We made it this morning at the bright (not) and early (very) hour of 5:40. Since I got up at 5am to be able to pack all of my stuff and watch Boy while Beautiful finished getting ready, I didn’t fare too well on the drive, but you’ll learn more about that later. Patience, my readers.

On Monday, I took Boy to “Nana’s” house for five hours or so to rest and work on whatever I wanted, so I re-designed this site and felt pretty productive. Beautiful got everything packed and a number of things into the car, but then everything fell apart for leaving on Monday evening.

In the end, we had to make our most difficult and painful decision of our lives – to put Boy in respite care. Respite care is another foster family who takes in other foster families’ kids for up to 12 days… so the other parents get some… respite. We decided that, while it’s selfish in the short-term to hand him off to others, it is better for him long-term to have us rested and for me to be able to grieve next week. We’ve found ourselves not as able to be as patient with him or each other as we were months ago, so this should right that.

Turns out, he’s having fun playing with new toys and being with other kids. Nana will pick him up tomorrow and everyone is coming to our house (because it’s an approved house) to play with him and keep him grounded that he’s not abandoned and nothing is changing long-term. We just had to go on a trip. We’ll be sure to FaceTime with them.

Since we had everything taken out of us through the whole parental permission foul-up of late 2012, by the time we passed Chattanooga, I was so exhausted it was time to pull into a Cracker Barrel to take a nap. I ended up sleeping from just past 8pm to 9:45. We got up, realized they were closing in 15 minutes, and went in to use the facilities and look around the country store to wake up. We found the perfect t-shirt for him, but we held off since we’re in farm country now. I dropped a pin on the map so we can find that store location again on the way back if we’re empty-handed.

I had to take another nap (after several un-called-for rest area breaks to walk) past Cinci and a final walk break just before Columbus. I barely got us here, but I did.

The sore throat that I started to get a hint of Tuesday morning was full-bore by lunchtime and has persisted since. Our theory is that Boy got me sick about 2 or 3 weeks ago, but I had so much adrenaline getting projects done, landing new projects for deposits, and coordinating what to do with 15 contingency plans that everything finally caught up with me.

Now Beautiful has a fever and sore throat.

Visitation is tomorrow and the funeral is Friday morning.

Then we can really let our guard down and recover.