Moving Day

Okay, the other thing that has been going on is that we are finally getting down to Moving Day. Actually, it's going to be Moving Week but hey, at least I only live like 1 1/2 miles away from our new home. I have really been procrastinating on the packing. I don't know if it's pure laziness, my wishing we weren't in a situation where we have to move, or what I've been hanging my hat on as of late "The closing keeps getting pushed back so why live out of boxes until we can tie this down?" Well, we still haven't closed. We were suppose to yesterday afternoon. We even had it down to a specific time of the day versus the usual "either Thursday or Friday" that we've been getting for the past 3 weeks. But I guess the title company doesn't actually do their search until the very last minute and something came up. Well two things came up.; 1) the property owner hadn't paid her November HOA fee and, 2) she had an unresolved lean on her property. No big deal. My parents had one too. It seems those can happen under your radar pretty easy. But as long as you get the paperwork filed that corrects it, no biggie. So, as a compromise of sorts, we now have the keys to get in even though we don't own the place, in exchange for handling the November HOA fee for her. We got the keys last night.
I've been packing. It took forever to find free boxes from stores. But I have a ton of them now. I don't know if it will be enough for all our stuff, but again, at least I only live 1 1/2 miles away if I need to recycle them. Penelope's room is about 95% packed up. That was the ONLY room I could get her to help me with. One of the issues I'm dealing with her on is that she fell in gym class and banged up one of her knees. It's fine. But she is totally milking it for alllllll it's worth. I did the whole "stay in bed all day with your foot elevated" and it worked for that day. But then we have stuff to do! And I don't have the time to have her in bed all day again until AFTER we move. So I have Ms. LimpyPants moaning and groaning. My Mom told me the story about her father when he was her age going skiing and breaking his leg. She didn't believe him for over 24 hours when he complained about the pain and even made him take the garbage out. I said "She is faking it Mom. I've verified that she doesn't have a broken bone. I've seen her walk and run without any problems - as long as there is food or fun involved." So, Papaw is coming to pick her up so I can get some things done. It's late now but whatever relief would be great.
But honestly, other than that, Penelope is doing really well right now. We had a bit of a breakthrough in trauma therapy. Because of the "lie" about the boy kissing her in school, we were able to approach her sexual trauma. Penelope does have a problem knowing what is real and what isn't because of her trauma so I don't consider it a lie as much as I consider it fantasy her brain conjured up because of her trauma. She did some EMDR work related to at the last trauma therapy session. It's only one time but I think it's a beginning and a couple of days later we went to attachment therapy and she at her neurofeedback or "brain training" as we call it and her therapist was very impressed at how low her brain was able to keep her trauma waves down. Very good stuff! She is doing overall well. I see anxiety with the move but no acting out and we haven't had extreme crazy lying. There are still lies of course but so much improvement for now. So much to go but I'm going to revel in what I can. And you can see Penelope's perspective lighten as well. She feels the positive benefits of facing such horrific feelings head on and experiencing those feelings vaporize. That's the best way I can describe EMDR work. Maybe, and here I am being all hopeful again, that her experiencing the positive benefits will continue to break down this wall to her trauma and allow her to face it in therapy. It's going to be hard. I want her to face what she has done as well of course. It's related to her trauma too. She needs to be able to face it to become stronger than it and not do it again - I would think. What a long road we have in front of us.
But I see a light at the end of the tunnel. Positive breakthroughs in therapy. A new home. Wonderful and supportive parents (grandparents) that we are finally able to work together with. And help to a perfect self-employed financial situation for me that will be best for Penelope and I and make us not have to be dependent on my parents anymore. But that's for another day. I have to get back to packing!