A Major Life Change for Mom

Yesterday my mom, Rita, suffered a stroke while attending church. She's got some paralysis on her left side, though some recovery from that has already been noted by the docs.

This changes everything, of course. While we'd been in the process of looking for assisted living for her, now we need services that go beyond what we'd imagined and planned for. The stroke seems to have profoundly worsened her short-term memory. Last night she didn't really know where she was (in the hospital). Tonight she's forgotten that she had a stroke. I basically had to remind her of everything that has happened to her.

We're praying that these effects will subside, and that we'll be able to find a place for Mom that is to her liking, and can meet her needs. The prayers of our friends and family are solicited and appreciated.

We had the smoothest trip!

I'm telling ya, if ya gotta evacuate for a hurricane, do it the way we did it for Rita. We had very little traffic going down to Portlans last Thursday, and had very little coming back up TX 35 last night.

We got home around midnight. The house looks good, though we do have some water in the master bathroom (unrelated to the storm, ironically!) So I'll probably have to pull up a little carpet and deal with that. All in all, though, things have gone very well for us. God is good.

The space center and USA are closed today, so it's a day off. Looks like it's back to work tomorrow!

We decided to stay over another night. Attended church this morning at Fishers of the Family Lutheran Church here in Portland. A small, friendly church. In the It's a Small World Department, the pastor, Rev. Zach McIntosh, is a classmate of Rev. Troy Schmidt, a pastor at Gloria Dei (our home congregation.)

We'll wait until evening to head back home, hoping for cooler temps and less traffic.

Word from neighbors who stayed behind in Friendswood is that our neighborhood came through Rita just fine. Some wind damage to fences, but no visible damage to the house itself. Hooray!

Power is curently out, but it sounds like CenterPoint is already out repairing downed lines and blown transformers. Assuming power is restored and gas and groceries are available, we could conceivably go home tonight. If not, then we'll see what tomorrow brings.

Sure 'nuff, we're in Portland, TX with friends. Portland is a suburb of Corpus Christi. Our friends have 4 kids at home, including 7 year-old triplet boys, so as you might imagine, it's a bit no the frenetic side! But these are dear friends, and despite the storm, it's great to see them and spend time with them.

We're spending a lot of time watching the Weather Channel. I also helped them setup a wireless network, so we can now monitor Houston TV stations via their webcasts.

It's looking more and more like east Texas and western Louisiana are going to get the brunt of the storm.

We emptied out our fridge before we left, and brought a lot of the frozen food with us. Should be plenty to serve the 13 people we now have in this house!

Well, we get to experience our first hurricane!

Or more correctly, we get to NOT experience our first hurricane, as we are not going to hang around to see just how nasty Rita can be.

We'll evacuate to parts unknown (likely south, given the traffic!) within the day.

2005 has been mostly uneventful thus far, which is actually a nice change of pace.

This past week Patrick turned 18. It's official: we are old. ;)

We're wrestling mightily with getting my Mom moved into an assisted living facility. Her condition has deteriorated the past few months, and it's time for her to be in a place where she can have help. She's got a good attitude about this; she doesn't want to move out of her apartment, but fully understands why it is necessary. There are lots of hurdles to clear, mostly financial, but it's time to do something. Have any recommendations or advice? Email me!