Closing the book....

After spending countless hours cleaning out my father-in-laws home to sell we picked up the final load this weekend. Will's father is suffering from memory loss and we made the decision to put him into assisted living. Thankfully he was more than willing to go to one. After looking at a few places we found Cobblestone Court in Sumner, Iowa and he fell in love and so did we. The day after we got home from our trip to Africa we moved him into his new home. Since then we have seen improvements both physically and mentally and are indescribable. In order to afford this next chapter in his life we starting the process of selling him. Thankfully he has a beautiful place and perfect location so it didn't take long to sell, but then came the hard part....getting everything out. Will and I spent endless hours there throwing away and giving away belongings. My father-in-law already had the things he had wanting as he had been staying with a friend a couple years prior to this decision and we even rented it out for awhile, so the house was the easy part. The outbuildings on the other hand were an organized mess. Dumpster loads and scrap metal loads consumed most of our free time this summer, but we are officially done. With fingers crossed closing will be held this Friday.

When we moved Will's father in he was down 24 pounds from 2 months previous, he could barely walk and his memory didn't last beyond on couple minutes. I am happy to say that he has gained 5 pounds in a month and takes daily walks and he can remember things beyond a couple days. What a great change. He often asks about his bothers and sister with whom he doesn't have a relationship with as I think he is starting to realized how alone that makes him. We do keep his siblings updated on his life as best we can, but our hope is that they will pay him a visit and hopefully they will have a future together for the years that are left.

Here is a picture I received last night of Will's dad dance on "main street" at the assisted living. He is happy to be able to do what he loves once again!