Living With Mom and Dad

This is so much like life when the kids were little that I have to remind myself - they're your parents! So often I want to write down what they say but, at the end of the day, I'm usually too tired to do so. Sound familiar? Here are a few snapshots from the first 9 days of living together:

Mom (hollering to Dad in the bathroom) "Bob, I need you to give me your ears!"

Dad (this morning at 7:30) "Are we going anywhere?" "No Dad, where did you think we were going?" "I thought I needed to go to school, but I graduated didn't I?"

Me (when I came into the bedroom and found mom hogging most of the bed and snuggled up to Dad) "Dad, you need to tell Mom to move over so you don't fall out of the bed again." Dad - "but I like it when she's close to me."

Mom had a rough day today and was upset about how confused she gets. When she's upset she tends to blame Dad for everything and anything. I'm so glad I can run interference and redirect her. He's so sweet and doting on her but she often misses it. It's almost as if she's gotten stuck in a few bad experiences from the first couple of years from their marriage. She brings up things that happened when Mark or Adie were babies. When I get impatient with either of them I ask God to help me learn what I'm supposed to learn from this whole experience. Today I kept going back to how hard it must be to lose your sense of control and the ability to order your life. Often when Mom is going to do something (like get dressed) she just gets stuck and doesn't know the next step to take. I just keep reminding her that I'm here to help - she doesn't have to remember. Still, she's been in control her whole life. That's a whole lot like me and so I'm learning to let go of control now and then maybe it won't be so hard later!

So why am I doing this? I love hearing how happy our daughters are in college and so glad that this enables that. I am deeply satisfied to know that Dad has an advocate when Mom gets unreasonable and that I can calm her down when she gets panicky. I really love being able to tackle projects around the house that I've had to put off for so long as well as make nourishing meals for everyone and be here when Ben gets home from school. All of this is just icing on the cake for the real reason that I'm caring for my parents. I know that I'm called to do this and that God is using this for my growth. I made a commitment to "just do what God wants" several years ago and I'm certain that this is what He wants. Obedience, in this case, has many blessings attached to it and that's what keeps me going when I start to think about the challenges ahead. God will give me the grace to do this, one day at a time. We made it through another day.