Road to Peace's Placement

 At last there is time enough to write a bit.  And overall it is positive news.  We got into SC at Peters on June 7, and were quickly on the road to get Peace in FL.  I was sick most of the trip and time in FL but it was not to the extent that we could not pack up her belongings and head north after 4 days. (After a fun lunch with Shelly Rabe, student from Dakar Academy.)  Rick did a masterful job of fitting into the back of our Dodge Caravan a small coffin size cedar chest, my mom's huge rocking chair and innumerable boxes of Peace's life, besides the 3 of us. We spent 2 days in SC for Peace to see her nieces and nephew, and 2 days in PA to see Purity.  Then we drove the 3 hours over to Pittsburg to connect with friends from Senegal days, Jay Sappington, who had cared for our RV for the winter.  This portion was arranged by a friend from Zambia days, Jean Snyder, so we could get our Caravan and RV PA inspected.  What fun visiting with these friends. Paul flew down from MA to drive the RV to his house and we made the long trek up here. 

The point for me of much of the summer is to facilitate Peace's placement, moving her from FL to MA.  This is no minor thing: to change funding streams for people with handicapps from one state to another.  We were advised to take her to an ER and make an end run around the system that way.  After 9 hours in the ER, we admitted defeat and left. However, yesterday, we were sent an angel.  We went to the Worcester Family Health Center to try to get Peace a doctor to verify her need of services. The director of the staff was called on to try to solve our unique needs and he came through big time.  He directly changed Peace from FL medicaid to MA Mass Health so there was no wait period. He listed the facility as her address, because she has no address in MA.  He helped link her federal medicare to the medicaid, and set up a doctor's appointment which she attended later that day.  The day before we had finally identified a skilled nursing care facility where Peace will need to be for 90 days as they assess need, and had visited there. Peace's FL caregivers had worked for a year and the last 6 months concertedly to get answers from a nursing home. We had repeatedly been told that everything was full and bursting at the seams.  Well this nursing facility is working with us....at last....to find placement.  As of last night I have confidence that we will be able to make this happen within the short time frame that we have.  I cannot tell you the load off our shoulders.  Next week we will hopefully put all the pieces together and Peace can start her 90 days.  It has been a joy to be with family, but the weight of getting these things accomplished has been heavy.  I knew the Lord would do it, but such joy to see the accomplishment of our hope. Please continue to pray that the last pieces fall into place, so that we are assured Peace's continued placement.