Seven years ago today I became Mike's Guardian and Conservator. It's not usually a day that I remember or take note of, but today was different.
I was eating breakfast and received a call from a Virginia number that I did not recognize. Usually that means a nurse or someone who cares for Mike is calling. Today it was someone from the Commissioner of Accounts office in Richmond. The woman introduced herself and told me that the previous Commissioner had retired and the current one was going through the backlog of reports. Finally! I thought to myself.
For 7 years I have been submitting Conservator Accounting reports to the Commissioner's office and for 7 years have not heard one thing from them. At first I hand-delivered the reports. I mean all of our financial information, bank statements, receipts, etc. were in that packet and I am under a court order to turn these in every year. I am the type of person that takes all of this quite seriously and wants to make sure I do it exactly right.
The first year I waited a few weeks and then called to see if they needed more information and how much I needed to pay. They assured me they would let me know. I waited a few months and called again. This went on the entire year. I'm sure I was driving the receptionist crazy. The next year I hand delivered it again and was told they were still behind, but I would get a call. I didn't call as much that year. The third and fourth year I still hand delivered, but I gave up calling. The remaining years I mailed the packet with a tracking number. The last two years my accountant has included a self-addressed return envelope and a letter that all they needed to do was sign and return saying they received the accounting. The letter was never returned.
It was quite a pleasant surprise to get the phone call this morning and best of all the new Commissioner has gone through all of the reports and was ready to approve all 7 of them, but she needed to see a copy of Mike's most recent letter from the Department of Social Services before she could do so. Praise God! Hallelujah! Her assistant also told me that they do everything digitally, whereas the previous Commissioner did everything "with cards", so it is easy for them to keep track of all of the reports and documents and find what they need. Once they receive this last piece of information, they will give me a call and I can come over to pick up 7 years worth of bank statements and receipts, etc. and pay 7 years worth of fees. That might be a 7 year ouch!
It never dawned on me that it was exactly 7 years to the day until I was typing the cover letter to the Commissioner and went to save it under a file on my computer. After saving the document, I scrolled through some of the other files and one caught my eye. "Guardianship Night" I opened the file and there was the post that I wrote the night I became Mike's guardian, September 18, 2013. It was a rather long one as I recounted the day of Mike's accident; however, at 17 months post-accident God was stretching me and teaching me and today I needed to be reminded of some of those truths. It's easy to forget that Mike didn't recognize me even back then, that he was not getting better, that I could not and cannot change him in any way at all. God was and is the one in control.
As the day moved on, I re-read the post again and had a sense that these truths were not for me alone today. With the world in such a chaotic state, maybe these truths were brought back in order to be shared with you also. So I share the link to this post from 2013 and hope it will encourage, or maybe challenge, someone else who reads this too. https://onlyadventures.blogspot.com/2013/10/letting-go-of-controlagain.html
God truly does work in mysterious ways and I believe He did so today. These were God-incidences today, not coincidences. Getting the call on "the" day, running across my very thoughts from "that" day exactly 7 years later. It also re-energized me about sharing our story via book form and changed the way I had started the book months ago. When I re-read my beginning, it sounded contrived and not like my writing in the above post. I want to be genuine and real in the book as I have been on this blog. I would appreciate your prayers that I would carve out the time to actively work on getting this book written. There are so many distractions and always something to do that seems to take priority or I simply don't make the time.
Mike continues much the same. The nurse and I have not connected this week to video chat, but hope to do that tomorrow. The last time we videoed, Mike studied his left arm the entire time and grabbed it with his right hand. He was not omming, but totally obsorbed in looking at his arm. I spoke with the night nurse a couple of nights ago and he was sleeping peacefully. She said he had talked randomly before going to bed and it was good to hear him saying words which is rare. They have had 5 staff and 3 residents to test positive for Covid-19 since the beginning of May. Only 1 is active now and there have been no deaths due to the virus. Much to be thankful for.
