Tuesday, September 29, 2009

Moving towards the next phase......

Wow. Another two week period without a post. I guess that is a good thing. Actually, there was really nothing to say because until this past Friday we hadn't seen our son since the probation dept meeting (just me) and the 24 hours from hell (both of us).

We went down to visit him and attend the family session last Friday night. I was doing rather well most of the week until about 2pm on Friday when I realized the addiction was right in front of me again. It was nice not having to deal with it for a few weeks. Even though his disease is always a part of our life, not having it right in front of us was a nice change. My wife and I talked about it and think this is a good thing, that having the disease swing back and forth into our life means that it is either getting easier to deal with or we are able to push it (and keep it) aside for longer periods of time.

Anyway....the family session was good, and our son seems to be making greater strides in his recovery. We talked a bit and he told us (in a very good manner) that he feels he is done there, and ready to move on to the next step (which will be a sober house down in the area where he is). We have been feeling this for awhile, and when I spoke with one of his counselors on the side on Friday night she said the same thing. Our son has been there for 17 weeks now (I don't even want to THINK about how much this has cost us) and eventually he has to move on, move away from the nice, safe, sheltered environment that he is in and live out in the real world. Fortunately, he knows that moving back home is not the best idea for him (for the near future) and that he needs to stay in the area where he is because that is where is support network is. I know that our anxiety level will increase when he moves out, but he has to do this eventually. We just hope he has developed the necessary tools to lead a drug-free life, that he rely's on his support network, and that we can cope with whatever issues may come our way.

Our next steps are fairly easy right now. We are meeting with him and his counselor on Friday night before the next family session, where we will discuss his progress and his next steps, come up with a time line (nothing can occur until after the Oct 19 sentencing anyway), and make sure that he is converting and not being compliant.

On Saturday we are going down to see him again, this time with my mom and step-father, who have not seen him since Mothers day. We are going to take him out to lunch, and it should be an emotional get-together, but a good one.

In the meantime, we are still going to our parent support group one night a week and that is helping us alot.

I will post after our Friday night and Saturday afternoon visits. Stay tuned.

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