To Be A Blessing

Right now I am sitting in a bed that is not my bed, but will be my bed for the next three and half weeks. I am staying with my grandparents in California, but it's not necessarily a family vacation. Let me backtrack just a little bit...

The job that I had as an advocate for a girl with special needs at a summer camp was scheduled to be 10.5 weeks of the summer. That is a long time but by the time it was to end it still left me with three full weeks of summer before school started. I had never known exactly what I would do with those three weeks.

Should I go back home? Should I try to find another job? Should I try to shadow an OT? Should I fly up to North Dakota to see my dad and brother?

I had a lot of options, but I never actually considered coming to California.

That was until a couple weekends ago when I went home to visit with my mama who had just come back from North Dakota and she told me about what was going on with my grandparents (her parents). My aunt (my mom's sister), her husband, and her two boys were visiting my grandparents from Oregon and had decided one day to go to the aquarium. I guess my grandma had different plans because they didn't quite make it to the aquarium...walking from the car to the building, my grandma didn't see a curb and ended up falling and breaking her knee cap (patella for all you nerds (; ). After going to the doctor and finding this out, they scheduled the surgery, and were told that she would have to have a walker/wheel chair and would have to keep the leg completely straight for at least a few weeks. My uncle and cousins drove back to Oregon, and my aunt Lee Anne stayed behind to help around the house; but she couldn't stay forever since she had to go back to work. Her and my mom were going through their options of who would stay there, if they could get help from the neighbors, etc.

I jokingly said "Well after work I can just fly up there." But then realized that I could actually do that!

There were a few in between details such as having to take off work earlier than expected and buying the plane tickets, but now, here I am!

I'm really excited to be staying up here with them. They are getting older and I am really happy to have the opportunity to spend such a long amount of time with them, and to be a blessing to them.

My grandpa is hard of hearing and if my grandparents were in different parts of the house and my grandma needed help, he would not be able to hear her. She has her cute purple walker and can get around for the most part by herself, but it's the small things like bringing the food to the table and such that she needs help with. My aunt has been here since I got here on Tuesday but she is leaving today and then I will be on my own to help take care of the house and my grandparents. I am a little nervous, but I think once I get into the swing of things it will be alright.

I do believe that there is no such thing as a true selfless good deed (as FRIENDS so wonderfully taught me), and being able to help my grandparents does make me feel good; it makes me so happy that I can be a blessing to them at this time. But I also think this is one of those experiences where even though I am helping them, they are also blessing me with this time together.