Decompression?

23 May Decompression?

At the end of what I am considering our “first week” without Jonathan, all seems to be well. While Jonathan has been gone for 8 weeks now, I think of this as our first week because even though he was in Oregon for 5 weeks and now has been in Utah for 3 weeks, for those first 7 weeks, our life was still quite consumed by all of this.

Between daily phone calls with him, family therapy a couple time a week, two long road trips, calls and appointments with the school district and county and then our trip last to Utah for Parent Weekend last week, this truly was the first week where most of life did not revolve around his situation.

Many have asked how he is doing. After our first family therapy session by Skype video and our first weekly phone call, it sounds like things are going well so far. He did not harp on coming home and had no real complaints other than missing home. We know that will change the longer he is there and the more he may fight the reasons for being there. But overall, it sound like he is settling in, and we’re relieved with that so far.

Many have asked how we are doing. We appreciate that as well. We really do get the feeling that it is going to take a while to figure that out. Colleen and I feel the need for some decompression, which happens pretty slowly when we’re at home. We both work and family life continues and things need to be done around the house and Josh’s schedule still hums….you get the drift. Life goes on, and that’s the reality.

We do have an upcoming getaway. Back in January, we booked an Alaskan cruise for June 9-19 out of San Francisco to celebrate our 25th anniversary. I bought the insurance in case we needed to cancel, primarily because we had no idea where we would be with Jonathan. Then, once things began to happen, and we needed to move before the school district and county got on board (necessitating taking a LOT of financial risk on our part for a while), we considered cancelling. However, I found out that canceling for “non-medical emergency” reasons would mean we would only recover 75% in future cruise credit. That made it a moot point to cancel, so we will go and use the time to decompress as needed.

And, we will use the next few weeks before the trip to continue to process all that’s happened and enjoy what unfolds. Much of my travel has been curtailed over the last couple years as Jonathan has been too unstable to leave home safely. Some of that will pick up as he is safe in Utah.

Next week, right after church, I’ll fly out to Columbus, Ohio for our annual Foursquare Convention, an event I’ve missed the last two years. I’ll be there until late night Friday, June 3. It will be good to reconnect with some peers and enjoy the travel as well.

That’s all for now! I’ll be back soon, hopefully with some regular life and leadership stuff!