I realize many of you have already done this whole being-responsible-and-thinking-about-the-worst-case-scenario thing, and appointed legal guardians to raise your children in case of your early demise, and medical POA's and financial POA's, in the event that the unthinkable happens. Dennis and I have had the conversations, but they always circled around to "WE want to raise our children" and it got pushed back to the far corners of our minds only to peek out with impending travel plans and whatnot. We recently got a bit of a stern talking to from an insurance agent that Dennis works with through his business, so....
Finally, today we did what we have been talking about since we first brought Gabrielle home eons ago. Driving home from the attorney's office, I thought I would feel melancholy, ("On a family vacation, the plane goes down and you all die together, who do I write down as beneficiary in that scenario?"), or worried, or I'm not sure what, but oddly enough, I felt a little euphoric. Not because we have finally taken care of something we have known needed taking care of, but because I was driving home to spend more time with the kids we had just finished discussing for 2 hours, and what would be the best situation for them given this circumstance, or that circumstance. And the circumstance is, we are their parents, and we are the best situation for them right now. We are far from perfect; I'm sure all of you who have read and laughed at my "I lost mother of the year AGAIN" blogs concur, but we're it, and our family is perfectly happy being together each with our own imperfections, laughing at our inside jokes and Bill Cosby quotes, and listening to our eclectic blend of every type of music imaginable, (show tunes and Irish drinking songs? got em. Current pop hits? got em. Country, rock, and alt rock? got em, got em, got em. Oldies? got those too. Hip hop and rap? we even have a few of those) And if our situation changes, I am comfortable in the knowledge that we have raised kids who will roll with it and be perfectly happy in the next situation with all its intrinsic imperfections, because there will be new inside jokes, and comedian quotes, and... well, probably not new music.
Good stuff!
ReplyDelete(Your planning and reminiscent thoughts...not necessarily the reason why you have plan) ;)
ReplyDeleteWe put that off for so long the kids were half grown because we wanted someone who would take all five. When we finally settled on Jim's sister and husband, my kids were very excited. I overheard part of a conversation that went something like, "....but we don't want them to die, right?" "No, maybe just be in the hospital for a long time so we can go live with Aunt Nancy and Uncle Gene."
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