When it Rains it Pours!

  No, I'm not talking about the weather. We do live in the Pacific Northwest and it did rain yesterday and sprinkle today, but that's not what I'm talking about at all.

The blue shirt you can see below the kids belongs to the Daddy holding them up.

 Sometimes Owen's health issues seem daunting, especially when we are starting something new, like now. Especially when those new things have me spending hours every day on his care. But if that was all we had to deal with I think I'd be fine.

 Unfortunately, that's not all we have going on right now. I mentioned briefly a while back that we are having access issues with our house. A week ago we were given a settlement offer. It, of course, completely minimizes the impact the access issues have on our life and completely fails to grant us  useable access or pay us enough to move. Not really surprising since it is the first offer, but disappointing. Our next step will be to shell out a few thousand dollars we don't have to hire our own appraiser and get a statement of the true impact of not having legal access (the access agreement the title company negotiated doesn't come close to meeting our needs, is not transferable if we sell, and costs us more to maintain than we can afford).

 Today, I received a letter letting us know that we have one month (from the date the letter was sent not the date we got it) to  meet the requirements of the agreement (that we can't afford to meet) or no longer have access to our property. Our lawyer called and informed them that we were still fighting the title issues and asked if we could have a continuance until that was solved. They basically told him to screw off (not in those words, but that was the jist of things). There is no alternative access to the property that is ambulance accessible and no way to create one with out crossing a wetland area or purchasing a large chunk of property from neighbors who have no reason to want to sell. Keep in mind that there has been no agreement signed since at least 1988 and our property has been continually inhabited during that time. We ourselves have been here for over 4 years and crossing hasn't been an issue up until now. We're just lucky that way, I guess.

 You might think that's enough to drive anyone crazy and you might be right. I can still top it though. Last Friday, Rod was in a car accident and his work van isn't drivable (okay, it goes forward, but not backward and the hitch is broken). It was a three car accident and the perpetrator fled the scene. Luckily Rod and the other driver have the same story about how the accident occurred, so our insurance will cover it under uninsured motorist. Unfortunately, we don't have the money for the co-pay with the house stuff up in the air and Owen's recent hospitalization (and the hundreds of dollars in special keto foods and supplies we've recently purchased). We also suspect that the van isn't worth what it will take to fix it. What it is worth won't be enough to pay for a new van. Rod is currently using our family van for work and Devon has the Toyota for work and school, so I don't have a vehicle. Thankfully Mom is going to let us borrow her little truck (she's bringing it up this weekend) so I will have a way to get to the grocery store when I run out of Owen's special items. Between the truck and the little car Devon and I can get all the kids somewhere if we have to.

 It would just be nice if one crisis could be resolved before we have another (and another) added to the mess. This post got a little whiner than I intended. I'm just feeling very overwhelmed right now. If you are of the praying persuassion we could use a few around here.