After 41 years of parenting we're slowing heading toward the no kids part of our lives. It's a happy (almost gleeful) time and yet a sad one. We've raised a lot of great kids, gotten four beautiful grandsons and had a lot of fun times, and a lot of horrible ones as well.
I'd do it again in a heartbeat.
Wendy is married to Jeff. Adam is married to Sandy. Meghan is married to Darren. Jon has a good job that he really likes and good friends. Amanda is living in a group home. Caitlyn is living in a group home. Matthew and Jennifer are working and will be applying for a group home soon.
Same for William. Just don't know how long he can continue to live with us old folks.
Emily and Danielle are attending the transitions academy and working part time (learning how to work at a job and keep it.) They'll both need to find a group home in the next couple of years. Jasmine lives in a group home. Robin NEEDS to be in a group home.
Ross will be graduating this year and will go to the Goodwill Transitions academy next year where he will learn how to take are of himself and work at a job. Jeremy will still be at Royal Palm School, but the good new is that they now feel that his behavior has improved that this year they will be taking him out for job training in the community. That was a surprise!
Jay, because he is in a wheelchair, will not be able to go to the Goodwill Transitions Academy because he cannot toilet himself. He's certainly smart enough and can learn a job, but they don't have the staff to take care of him there. He can, however, transfer to Royal Palm School and get job training.
We're thinking that we'll still have kids at home for another 2-3 years and then we're done!
Anticipating this new lifestyle I've started working again. Not at a job, really, but I've revived my corporation for doing real estate investments. I'm having a good time and anticipating some nice profits.
I work with a large CA investor company and I find houses in short sale for them to buy for all cash. I also work with a small legal company in OH that has had tremendous success at legally removing mortgages from people's homes, THIS is something I'm really excited about.
Working with short sales is depressing as so many people want to stay in their homes and that isn't legally possible with a short sale. We go in and have the mortgage legally expunged and replace it with a new loan at 50% of the actual current value. and the family can keep their home if they want to. Or sell. That's a real rewarding thing for me.
So here we are. Because we've raised kids for 41 years we have no retirement funds to speak of. But this is working. We're looking forward to a relatively kid-free time in our lives.
2 comments:
You have earned a time of rest!
Hello!! I'm Sarah. My blog is lifeingingerbreadtown. My husband and I have twenty-two children ranging in age from 39 to 14. Reading about your children, I was curious about the group homes and Goodwill Academy. I live in Texas. We have some services and a few group homes, but I am not sensing our area is even close to the quality of services you have available. One of my disabled daughters is going through a DARS program that is supposed to help her find a job. Then, there's MHMR. I think they try, but everything moves at a snail's pace with them. My husband and I stil have twelve children living at home. Most of them are in their twenties. Their disabilities range from CP to Down Syndrome to blindness. My husband and I are perfectly fine with them living with us, but I am concerned about when he and I pass away. We've worked at length on estate planning, and our ablebodied children will, I think, step up and help out when we have passed away, but it's a hard road figuring out estate planning. Thank you so much for this post. It just helps reading how another family adjusts when their disabled children reach adulthood.
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