Seattle, here I come!

Just a little over one more week until I see my sister! This trip has already been planned for a long while. Ava and I are flying out to Seattle (Hi Travis & Candice!) on the 18th to stay for a week.

It had been planned that Ava would stay with Lori for a year. She would attend Montessori school while Tara had time off, hopefully to grow up. If Tara's behavior didn't change radically, we would regroup in a year and make more permanent plans for Ava.

Of course, as it will, life got in the way of our well thought out plans. We are now thinking that Ava will stay in Seattle until Christmastime. She is soooo excited to go to school out there that she has been talking about little else but that for months, and Lori did not want to disappoint her. I suspect that Lori did not want to disappoint herself either, she really loves being around my little mija.

Everything is very fluid right now, as Lori isn't sure sure how well she will manage now with a four year old, but I think 3 months will work out perfectly. Her boyfriend is there to help, and Ava will be in school 4 days a week. Maybe it will be good therapy. For both of them - Lori and Ava.

Along with being excited about the trip, I'm a little scared and nervous. Lori says not to be surprised by her appearance, I'm not sure exactly what that means. I know there will be some very emotional times, especially since I know she wants to talk to me about some of her wishes for "after". When can you ever be ready for a conversation like that with your sister?

But we still have some bittersweet moments of laughter. Every time I visit Seattle, she's like a whirlwind tour guide, keeping me on the go from early in the morning until late at night, running from here to there, with activities planned every single day. I was telling her that I really need some rest, and I'd rather stick around the house a little more this time. She says, "Don't worry Cathi, you'll find that I've slowed down considerably." So we both got a chuckle out of that.

Cat

It's not that easy trying to find information about ALS. There are a lot of websites, but it's mostly the same basic information, almost the same exact words, over and over again.

Even the message boards aren't that great. Some of them just aren't very active, some of them are too broad so you only see a question or two about ALS, and most of the rest are filled only with posts such as "I felt a muscle twitch in my leg. Do I have ALS?" Not very helpful.

But I did find one great message board. If you know anyone with ALS, who cares for a person with ALS, or who has a friend or family member with ALS, send them to the ALS Forums for support. There's a wonderful group of people over there, all of whom have different outlooks to offer, and very much knowledge and support, with a huge helping of care and love thrown in. I haven't posted there yet, I'm still lurking, but from what I've seen, I know I'll be jumping right in one of these days.

Cat