Road to Peace's placement.....real success this time.

 From January on, in Indonesia, I thought and prayed about what needed to be done this summer.  It just seemed insurmountable, particularly within my time frame. But every step that I had envisioned has just fallen into place.  We arrived to SC on June 7. On July 7 (one month) we completed the paper work for Peace's placement in a nursing home, where she has to be for 90 days for her to access her funding stream in her rmove from FL to MA.  Today, 3 weeks to the day after arriving in MA, Peace was placed in Fitchburg Rehab and Nursing Home.  As we waited the weekend between the finishing of the paperwork and her placement we were confident of the availablity of a room that had been promised from her arrival in MA....the only nursing home to respond at all to our repeated inquiry. Even though the responding admissions officer was fired 2 days after we met her, we were still assured that the room would be available. Confidently we called on Monday morning to confi...

Road to Peace's Placement...........Success, almost.

 The nurse assessor for the Ageing Services for North Central Massachusetts came to our RV today at noon.  She is the gatekeeper for nusing home placements. She gave me verbal assurance that she would give Peace approval for a 90 day skilled nursing care placement!!!!  Can't believe that we really are at an end of this road.  Why do we doubt? I had absolute confidence that God would take care of Peace, but I was never completely sure that this was the  route that He wanted to take.  I considered not writing this until she actually was in placement, because there are a few more steps that the agencies have to check, but the verbal assurance was given.  The admissions director for the actual nursing home (who is in corporate headquarters rather than local becasue they fired the admissions director who was the only person who answered any of our feelers to nursing homes, 2 days after I met her, ) Anyway, he has also given me verbal assurance that they hav...

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 frien...

Road to Peace's Placement

 48 hours from the time we left our apartment in Papua, until we arrivedat Peter's house in SC.  I've certainly had worse trips, but this trip was marked by the hordes of people.  Our flight arrived in Japan at the time that our next flight to Houston opened for boarding!  This diminuative Japanese lady pushed my wheelchair past every obstacle and to the head of every line and made it through customs, security check, and reticketing/negative covid check in half an hour.  Not to mention covering a great deal of ground.  Rick was pushing to get through so hard that he did not bother putting on his belt after security and carried it in his hand.  As we sat down on the plane he realized he did not have it!  (I was wondering what new adventures a beltless Rick might pose.)  Right before we departed, one of the airline hostesses walked the aisles with his belt asking if it were anyone's??  So we were spared wardrobe malfunctions.   I...

Farewell to Indonesia 2

 Well here we go.  At 9 this morning we leave our apartment for the last time to get our covid test.   We then board our 6 hour flight to Jakarta, overnight in the airport hotel (Can you imagine an airport hotel for $40 per night?....and much better than the baggage claim area where we usually spend our 11 hour layovers),  7 hour flight to Japan,  12 hour flight to Houston,  3 hour fight to SC.  Because of the International Date Line we arrive at Peter's house just 9 hours after we left Jakarta.  Can you imagine?  Our layovers after Jakarta are mercifully very short (pray we make connections).   And God just goes above and beyond with those small little perks.  For instance, a week ago we got an email from the local air carrier asking if we wanted to "bid" on an upgrade to business class.  I had never heard of such a thing, but after checking with our Indo friend online, he said it was not a scam.  So we scored a...

Prayer

  We need prayer.  On June 6 we leave Indonesia and (after many long hours) arrive in SC the night of June 7.  After a few days in SC with Peter and fam, we will go down to FL to pick up Peace. She needs to be closer to family and MA seems to be the best location and Paul and Alisha have graciously said they will be available to her.  However, the point is to find her another independent/assisted living situation such as she has had for the past 10 years or so  in FL.  The paperwork is clear and eventually it should work out, but there is this immediate interim period which has just been impossible to facilitate.  MA says Peace needs 90 days in a skilled nursing facility for assessment and then she can step down to an assisted living situation.There apparently is room in assisted living, but it has been IMPOSSIBLE to find a skilled nursing facility that will accept her for the 90 days.  They will not even answer the phone calls...