Planning for the Future

It has been over a year since my last posting here, and for many reasons.  Shortly after my last post I lost a very dear friend in a horribly tragic accident and for a time, my focus was shifted on that loss.  He was a great boss, and citizen of this earth but mostly he was my friend.  Over a year later and thinking of loosing him still brings me to tears.  He was a blessing to me and my family and I believe that he continues to watch over us all.

Then in the spring of this year I lost my Dad.  The dementia was getting harder to deal with, but ultimately cancer took his life.  He is with my Mom and I am sure he is much happier.   So, needless to say, if you have followed my blog, you know that this situation resulted in many more conflicts with my sister.  I feel so sorry for her and the bitterness that she carries with her every day.  It must be polluting her soul.  I could not think of living my life surrounded with so much negativity.  I am here if she ever chooses to reach out but I do not hold out much hope for that, so I pray that she does have people in her life that she can find comfort and happiness with.

But for the rest of us, life continues to move forward.  Everyone is where they are supposed to be.  I have since changed jobs because I could not stay after my boss was gone.  My husband is working and doing well. The kids are all done with high school, the youngest one graduated this past June and is heading into the military while the others two are finding success in college and in life.

I continue to attend our local support/advocacy meetings here locally and doing what I can to help.  I still reply to e-mail and comments on my blog and try to help in any way I can.  But I am not sure there is more to add to this blog without boring everyone to tears with the wonderful "normal" that our lives are now.  We still have issues with probation and the hoops from the justice system but they seem so insignificant from where we were a few years ago.

I have, however been putting some thought into where to go now, and what I could offer.  One of the things that comes to mind is rebuilding our lives.  Everything from finding a new home, making new friends to rebuilding our financial nest egg and retirement.  Everything was wiped out and now we have to start all over again to get to a place that we can still retire and enjoy our lives and families.  I never wanted to be a person who had to work forever because we did not have enough money to retire, but now everything we had is gone.  Slowly, however we are trying to rebuild and maybe that is something I could share with everyone.  So many people have unexpected things come up, or wait too late before they start planing for the future that I think it is something that a large percentage of the population could relate to.  I will keep you all updated.