Temporarily Homeless

Dad's in Intensive Care, but he's improving. He's way more coherent than before, and he's smiling and cracking jokes. The doctors are also really positive about his condition; they're just getting his lungs strong again and getting his Bi-pap machine to the point where he gets a good sleep at night and then doesn't need it during the day. I can't begin to tell you what all we were fearing, yesterday afternoon. When I talked to Mom on the phone last night, I could tell that she was much more relaxed.

And then I flew home. When I got here, I burst into tears, telling Chris about all the hospitals and how small Dad looked and everything I was fearing, and he told me that we needed to find a place to sleep for the next week. Maybe two, if the cabinets need replacing.

And that's when I really lost it. I can't remember ever crying that hard. Or letting myself cry that hard. I'm still tired from it.

Now, we already have some possibilities. Our landlords are finding out from the insurance adjustor if their insurance will cover a hotel for us. If not, some friends of ours have offered to take us in (Vic and Barb). I actually could sleep after finding that out. (We got to sleep here last night, but now today insurance people are coming and packing up our whole house and putting it into a storage container.) You really take your encouragement where you can find it, after that. Nice landlords who let me use their computer (and then tell me that their wireless is unsecured, and so I should just use theirs for now, since ours is out of commission) and do everything else for us, including giving us hugs. My own bed to sleep in. Finding my old teddy bear and giving her a good hug (at times like these, I needed my teddy bear). Hugs from Chris. Laughing. Peanut butter chips. Discovering that I hadn't left my Bible bag on the floor, in the first time in forever, but had set it on our bed at the last minute before we left. (My giant Bible and my songbook are not ruined.)

And it's funny what you end up treasuring, when you're looking at having your whole home packed up for a week or two. After I threw all our clothes into suitcases, I started going through and finding the specific home comforts I wanted. My teddy bear. My Bodum teapot, and specific teas. My own pillows and blankets. My Batman cape.

Now I have to quickly shower and go to school. I'm getting my allergy shot and then teaching a class. I was going to tell my prof that I couldn't, but the insurance people won't be here until late morning, and I think it'll be good for me to get out for a while. And I'll be the bad TA and keep my cell phone on, just in case.

(I was thinking about posting last night, but all it would have said was "I have no home for the next week. And my Daddy's in the hospital.)