A New Home: Settling into Minnesota

The first quarter of this year was characterized by chaos. We made up our minds to move from Texas to Minnesota so that we could help Roger’s parents remain independent as they faced significant health challenges. After 50 years of aggressive arthritis, Roger’s mom (Jan) lives with immense pain and walking, even aided by a walker, is getting harder and harder. Her heart surgery and valve replacement some years ago has already passed its expected lifetime and she is returning to chronic shortness of breath. Life is hard. Though his dad (Glen) has been a loving caregiver, he is now experiencing the losses that come with Parkinson’s Disease. Memory is not what it was a few years ago, while balance and walking are becoming more difficult. Thankfully their losses are accepted with still pleasant dispositions that trust God and continue to rely on one another.

As we saw these developments during the latter months of 2017, we were able to talk to his parents and agreed that it would be helpful if we relocated to help them on a daily basis. For Cherie and Roger, this was an opportunity both to honor parents as we help them navigate their new limitations. However returning to Minnesota is a very positive option as it is indeed a beautiful place to live. That gave us three months, January to March, to prepare our house for sale or rental (including finishing a bathroom renovation); to sell or give away most of our furniture and possessions as we prepared to downsize to a one-bedroom living space; to say goodbye to Texas friends; and to make 1001 business contacts that come with any move. With great emotion, we said goodbye to our church family in Texas before Easter, and then loaded a Penske rental truck the day after Easter to drive to Minnesota. Navigation was pretty easy: From our Dallas neighborhood we turned left to head north on I-35 and after we passed through St. Paul we exited i-35 and headed east a few miles to arrive at his parents home. The weather during the trip was a foretaste of our arriving in our new home. Rain turned to snow the first day which became more intense the second day of our drive. Then after a week of cold we had a 20 inch snowfall and blizzard–a bit unusual in Minnesota, it was nonetheless a beautiful welcome.

In the couple of months since our arrival, we have had clear confirmation that this was the right move and that our presence will be an important help to parents now and in the future. It was a big change for us. It was also one of those times in our lives where we knew with great clarity that this was the right thing to do.