Another new experience

Well, I continue to have new experiences and challenges with miss R. We've been struggling over getting her into a good routine with her bowels. It seems to be feast or famine for her going on her own. I was told to increase her senekot each day but nothing changed. Well, on Monday R asked me to put something in the garbage can that is near where she is most of the time. Lo and behold, there were 3 orange pills in the garbage!!!!!! I haven't had to deal with something like that since I caught a 5 year old daycare child hiding spoonfuls of yogurt under the toy shelves. I just commented that that was why the senekot wasn't working. I now stand over her while she takes her pills.

Life continues to be interesting with her. But it's also good. I enjoy seeing her blossom and take pride in what she does. She's planning to make a special surprise dinner for her caregiver and her boyfriend on Friday.

I still don't know how long she'll be here. The ministry is trying to put her into a medical group home for financial reasons. Another section of the ministry may fund her care here. Clearly she's better off here than in a medical setting.

Update from here

It's been ages since I posted an update here. Life is very busy with R in the house. Her care is very intense so there is little extra time each day. She is very limitted as to how much she can sit in her wheelchair each day. I try to make sure we do as much as possible together during those times. She loves to craft so we do a fair amount of that.

I'm finding that I quite enjoy having an older more alert person to care for. It's funny how after both Kayda and Trevor died I thought I knew what/who I needed or wanted. Trevor wasn't who I'd wanted but he was the exact right child for me. R wasn't who I had in mind as to who was most appropriate for me to care for either but she's exactly the perfect person for me right now.

I still expect to get C but don't know when. Right now R's care is too intense for me to care for anyone else. I've said I can't take anyone else until she no longer needs the wound vac. It's a royal pain to deal with.

There are definitely challenges that I haven't had to deal with before behaviour wise. So far God seems to give me the wisdom for each challenge when I need it. She's really very good. She just doesn't have a good sense as to what needs to be done to keep herself healthy. She's had 19 years of not having proper routines, it's going to take a long time to build them. I hope she's here long enough to build some skills in how to keep herself healthy. I don't know how long she'll be here. She and her mom have decided that it will be at least until her wound is healed-several months. We're hoping by that time they'll agree to the decompression surgery she needs and will leave her here until she's recovered from that. Perhaps then they'll realize she's better off staying here long term. Right now I'm grateful for each day she's here.

She keeps me laughing.