single parenting

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Doris and Rachel reminded me of a recent experience I had.  My family
and I are in the extended process of moving from a small town in
Kentucky to the greater Chicago area.  We have an apartment up here,
but still own a house in Kentucky.  We went back there for Christmas,
but because of a new consulting project, I had to leave Christmas
afternoon to come back up here to work.

On top of the move, we had been battling for a court ordered
restitution in which the intoxicated man who hit-and-run-ed my wife's
parked car with my wife and daughter in it was able to not have a
drunk driving charge on his record.  The car was hit on Labor day,
1994.  The court decided in our favor in December 1994.  The car was
taken to the body shop in February 1994.  My wife got the car back
last week, after waiting and then getting it in unsatisfactory
condition several times.

My daughter flew up from Kentucky after New Years to return to school.
We all thought this would be for a week or so, but on top of
everything else, my wife got sick and ended up in the hospital in
January.  She had family down there, and I had to work up here, and my
daughter had to attend school, so we didn't even get to visit her in
the hospital.

One delay after another resulted in my having sole care of our
daughter for 7 weeks.  Plus the cooking (we ate out a lot :-).  Plus
the laundry.  My daughter turned out to be a very good housekeeper,
and she did most of the cleaning.  I grew closer to her during this
time, but I certainly can empathize with single parents.  

My daughter is 13 years old, and friends say she is quite mature for
her age.  How would I have handled 2 or 3 pre-schoolers?  YIKES!!!

My heart goes out to single parents, as I now have a better
understanding of what they are up against.

-- 
-----------  "...  And the men went up and viewed Ai."  [Jos 7:2]  -----------
Robert Jay Brown III  rj@eli.wariat.org  http://eli.wariat.org  1 847 705-0370
Elijah Laboratories Inc;  759 Independence Drive;  Suite 5;  Palatine IL 60074
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