Did I mention that I had plans? Not plans, really, but PLANS. I knew what I wanted from life and I knew how I was going to get it. We thoroughly prepared for my exit from the working world. We had a budget, knew what we could and couldn't do, and were very comfortable with how we had orchestrated everything. Well...



Traveling with my husband had seemed like a great idea. I did go on a few trips with him, but there were always so many things to do at home. He was beginning to get tired of traveling and we both wanted to spend more time with our grandson. My husband got an opportunity to take a different job within the same company. This job did not require travel and we both decided it was the right thing to do. So, some of the details had changed, but we were still doing what we wanted to do. We were happy. He was home. We were going to get to spend more time with the grandbaby. We were going to do some remodeling on our home. And that's when we got the surprise of our lives.



Looking back now, I really should not have been surprised. We knew from the beginning there was a strong possiblity that we would have a little more responsibility for our grandchild than the typical grandparent. Knowing this, we were thankful that we had the freedom to provide care for him on an as needed basis. I suppose that the unexpected part was that we would have to care for him full time.



There is nothing to be gained by going into the details of how we came to be parents rather than grandparents. The fact is that we did. His parents were no longer able to care for him and someone had to step in. He could have been placed into foster care, but that was unthinkable as far as we were concerned. We had less than two hours to decide if we could take on the job of raising a 2 year old. We thought we knew what we were getting into, but truly, we had no idea.