Suspense: The other mother and I put in our bid for the modern apartment. Alas, someone else made an offer as well. The owner has to decide which offer to take. We won’t find out until later today. I will be on the road by then, and hope to reach our daughter’s school campus by lunchtime. Family will join us later at the motel or at the Brazilian Grill in Hyannis for dinner where we have a reservation for fifteen.

Disappointment: If we don’t get the apartment it will be a disappointment. I don’t want to start worrying that we will never find what the girls need, because that is probably untrue and self-defeating. The weekend will be busy and I am wondering how our daughter will process the highs and lows of this momentous occasion. She is, after all, leaving her home of five years, her friends and her teachers. As we therapists like to remind folks, this is a process and whatever she may feel Sunday, Monday or in three months, will be changing, moving and maturing. However, having an apartment in place would be tremendously useful to focus all of us on the future, not just the losses and gains of the past.

Monday Morning: When we wake up Monday morning, the appointment of the day will include our daughter’s meeting up and lunching with her future apartment mate and staff from Ability Beyond Disability. That will be great. The girls will be together for the first time without the mothers. I will work, and our daughter will embark on the first day of the rest of her life, chapter 1.

Fingers Crossed: We will get the apartment. Back in touch Monday. 

©Jill Edelman, M.S.W., L.C.S.W. 2011