In between Justice’s first stay in a regular room at the hospital and her first surgery came the day for us to move. What a day it was. First off, we don’t just move, my family moves Marine Corp style. Everything was to be organized, packed, loaded, unloaded, cleaned and put away within 24 to 48 hours. My husband is an inactive Marine and as they say, once a Marine, always a Marine. Although I always come back and thank him for being so efficient, there are those moments where I think it’s going to kill me and this was one of them.
Levi had to work the day of the big move so the festivities couldn’t start until he got off work and drove the 60 miles back to the first house. Then, the move was on. I never dreamed I could multi-task so well. I had my 2 ½ year old busy and out of the way, boxes in one hand, a baby in the other with an apnea monitor and feeding pump strapped to my back. I had burp rags on every shoulder and treats in every pocket, just in case Cy got distracted and I had to bribe him. Bad parenting, maybe but I didn’t have time to consult an expert.
When we got to the new house, two things surprised me. First, the condition the house was left in and the second was how many kids came over to help us move in. These two things became the double edge sword of moving for me that day.
The condition of the house makes me laugh now that I’ve had 10 years to accept it. See, the people who owned the house before us weren’t out of it as of the afternoon we were to move in. My husband had stopped by to do a walk through on his way out of town that early afternoon and they were still there! They said they would be out soon and would do some more cleaning before they left. Levi told them not to worry about the cleaning; it didn’t look that bad at the time. However, by that evening when we got there it was trashed. They had taken light switch and outlet covers, showerheads, etc. You name it and it was gone. Except the bugs, they left us tons of bugs. There was no way Cy or Justice, who had just come off a respirator a month earlier, could live in this house. The exterminator was called ASAP and along with all the other things that I would have had to do with Justice’s care and the care of a 2 ½ year old, I was now shopping for outlet covers, showerheads, ceiling fans and deep cleaning. But the worst part was we were buying the house from a nurse. This day I completely understood the saying, never judge a book by its cover.
The part about moving that day that surprised me in a good way was all the kids who came over to greet us. They seemed to come from everywhere and were VERY comfortable around the place. I’m not sure how much time they had spent over at our house before it was ours but they seemed to be staking their claim to it that day. They were on the truck, in the house, in the basement, backyard, just plain everywhere. At first, I was a little worried because they were quite a few years older than my children were but that soon passed and over the years, I felt very close to them.
One neighbor girl became a respite provider for Justice when she became old enough. Another girl became like a sister to Justice and Cy. She came over every day. She would carry Justice all over the place and would never shy away when I was doing any kind of treatment to her; she always had to be right there beside her. She would fight with Cy and storm out of the room taking Justice with her only to return a few minutes later to start playing again. She showed Justice how to be normal. If Cy or Justice did something she didn’t like, she called them out on it just as she would any of her friends. She reminded us of what “normal” is supposed to be like. It’s so easy to forget when your child undergoes so much suffering to overlook bad behavior. You tend to forget what age appropriate is when you have nothing to compare it too. This little girl gave us all this and then some. She is so special to me. Now that she’s becoming a young woman, I couldn’t be happier of the person she was or is turning into. She is a beautiful person inside and out. She played such a big part in Justice’s first few years, I’m sure she will be mentioned in more stories.
Moving that day took great courage and tons of physical strength. We were moving to a new town where I had no family or friends to fall back on when the going got tough. My whole world was changing so quickly and it seemed as if so many things were going wrong but I when I look back now, I see the gold being purified in the fire. This move turned out to be the absolute best move our family could have made. We ended up with great neighbors, a wonderful school system (although there were some bumpy moments and I gave them a run for their money) and adequate medical care. It was never easy during this time but it became our home.
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