Wrestling...

I am DETERMINED to stay current and possibly make progress on back blogging so I must stay with it.....

Thursday, I spent the entire day once again discussing "issues" with a lawyer, the state, and Dad's care coordinator. I hear of others who find this process painless and quick, and I just don't know WHY we are having so many issues. I submitted the trust back in June 2024.  The state and our lawyer have now discussed their miscommunications directly, a template was finally sent to the lawyer, he filled it out USING THEIR TEMPLATE,  Dad and I did the signature and notary thing AGAIN and for the 4th time I registered this trust with the court and sent it to the state. I can only assume it will fly through the process now that it's their own template being used. Our lawyer asked for a template the first time they rejected the trust he created.  I find it ironic the things they required be changed in March are NOT on the template...but what can I say?  OK - this probably makes little sense to anyone, and I don't plan to go into more details at this point - just know I spent another whole day doing things I have done and submitted several times before. LOL We are on a quest to get the best situation we can for dad. 

While I wrestled with bureaucracy - Michael wrestled with installing a new water heater as the old one finally went out. Michael has had a new one waiting in the garage for 3 years. The heater is up on a stand...At one point Michael called me out to help him "walk the new heater onto the stand." We finally reached a point where he (with his fractured discs) and me (always a wimp) needed to lift the thing onto the stand.  It wasn't long into the process I began a mental checklist... "Stacia is in Japan, Allie won't be home until 7:30, Nolan and Alex are working, Izaak has shoulder issues...and I called Cory!"  Their dinner was in the oven, but he agreed to come over after they ate. We set the heater back down on the pile of boards we'd assembled, grabbed dad and went out to eat.

CoRielle made it to our house before we did. Charles came running as I got out of the car yelling, "Bachan, where's YayYa (Stacia)? She's in Apan!"  Arielle and the kids' visiting was a bonus to calling Cory! It all worked out great. Danny bought that sword with his "OWN MONEY." 

Charles and Danny

Ellie is drawn to fuzzy blankets

Benny - 7yo

Allie and Arielle

Cory & Michael 

GG & Charles

Ellie & Bachan

In the midst of this craziness, I saw I had a text from Stacia. The things she had set up for communication weren't working but texting was and then I clicked the video camera, and we were able to do a google video call. I can only assume because our text is google it can be web based...as neither of us has international minutes on our plans. LOL 

It was SOOO good for all of us to be able to see Stacia. Charles asked her if she knew she was in "Apan."  Stacia had a rough start to the trip. She arrived with a bug she picked up somewhere on the 20 hour trip.  I do think I'll just capture her Facebook posts and add them to the blog. We had been unprepared for the emotions which would hit being back in Japan. It's good to hear from others who have gone back that they had the same reaction. Japan was a meaningful time in all of our lives. It's worth a bit of wrestling with emotions and grief to return. 

This morning, we woke up to discover we've either been enjoying a false spring or this was the shortest summer on record. To be fair it is typical to have 3 - 5 feet of snow in our yard at Easter so we are still well into spring....