I have blogged before (before the situation got progressively worse) the big price of moving. There now are additional costs, such as rent, transferring fees into the apartment for hopefully only a month, eating out more because we have limited things to prepare food with, etc. We are not getting the home for cheaper because of all of this (although I think we should!).
In addition to all the money price of our situation, there is the price on our friends and family. First of all, our friends and family are sick of it. They do not even ask about our situation anymore if they ever did to begin with. Our family, especially our parents, are probably more than done with us. My parents moved my sister in the spring and have moved us from our home to the garage and then into the apartment. They are done with moving. They are storing some of our stuff in addition to all of my sisters stuff that takes up much of their home/garage. They are done with being the family storage unit. They have drove the 1 hour down here to take care of our kids so we could look at other homes, too. They have also spent countless minutes/hours on the phone listening to our housing drama unfold. Chris' parents have also watched the kids, stored some of our stuff, gone housing shopping with us, let us stay there until we found the apartment in spite of some boomerang effect (Chris brother and family and now Chris and our family have both moved back home at some point. I do not know Chris' brother's situation, but Chris and I had no place else to go and it was not planned. Looking back, we should have gone to a hotel, but under stressful conditions his parents home was just safer and easier), and had to have us over A LOT because we can not stay cooped up in the apartment for very long without losing our minds. Also, Chris has gone over there now twice because I have worked both a Saturday and a Sunday night shift in a row so need the apartment quiet so I can sleep. Oh, and we can not forget the topper - they have our cat! I am sure this is not what they had in mind for Chris' Moms first winter of retirement. When we are not at their house bugging them, they babysit for Chris' brothers 2 small kiddos - so I am sure they are wiped out as well. Yes, we do recognize all of this and think our parents are amazing!
You really find out how much friends and family care or don't care when you are in a situation like this. It saddens me to know how little some people care. Let's just say - neither of our siblings have called one time to see how we are doing. My sister does not call or email anyway and neither does Chris' brother- but still. If the situation were reversed, Chris and I would have gladly opened our home and hearts to help them. I am so saddened that I will have a hard time giving up my Holidays or sharing our kids' birthdays anytime soon. Those are special times to be spent with those you love AND LOVE YOU BACK! Chris and I both think they are laughing about our situation, which is nice to think about. At this point, we have to assume the worse since they have not called us.
As for friends. Ugh. Yes, we did sell our home in a bad economic time. But, we did not purposely put ourselves in THIS situation. We get the impression that think we caused this drama on ourselves - so let us suffer. Now that I am writing that out, perhaps they are not really friends.
I guess good and bad has come out of this in many ways. We now know we need to find good friends. Do they exist? I have had 2 close friends since I was 3 or younger that I think would go out on a limb for me. That is not very many when you consider my age. So, we are learning to be even more independent considering we know we can not depend on anyone. I do think it has brought us closer as an immediate family. I mean, how much closer can you get when we are all shoved into a small space for an extended period of time. This is as close to camping as I may ever get because I do not think I could sleep on a blow up bed again.
The biggest price of all of this is the new reality for us. I am not being selfish thinking we are deserving of a phone call or anything from our family or friends - we just know what we would have done if the tables are reversed.
I am still looking for the bright light in this situation. I am hoping it will come on the day we get into our new home, settled, all snug in our BEDS, together as a family. It does not matter what home we chose, we will make it our home as a family.
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