When he entered the room, a flood of emotions hit me! Some of these feelings I hadn't felt in over 9 years. I, for a moment, was the young, scared, naive girl again. I started getting panicky and I took a couple deep breaths, regained my courage, and we began. He looked the same, but old. He definitely looked older then he should of for his age. I thought it best to write down my thoughts and questions ahead of time, because I didn't want to forget anything I wanted answered in that moment. It was nice because he couldn't lie anymore or cut pieces out. He had been required to take a lie detector test, so the truth was out. It was the first time we both acknowledged all of the details of those two days. He was very nervous and seemed sincere. He answered all of my questions and apologized for the things that had transpired. He also filled me in on the steps he had taken to try and get himself better. His wife had eventually divorced him and remarried. He was struggling with keeping his life together and maintaining a relationship with his children. I honestly felt sorry for him for a moment. I immediately felt any weight I was carrying around still, was gone! Since that day, I have not had one dream with him in it, 5 years and counting :)!
We enjoyed the rest of our time there and headed home. When we got back, we realized the electricity was still out, and had been since we were gone. So all of our food in the freezer and fridge was ruined. We got it all cleaned up and then unpacked from our trip. Finally made it to bed as a rainstorm moved in, exhausted. I woke up in the night with Brynley and could hear the rain dripping into the apartment. I turned all of the lights on and could see water running down the walls and filling up the light fixtures. Evidently the roof had been damaged in the tornado, but we couldn't see it from below.The water was only coming into parts of the apartment and just slowly dripping. I laid out towels and pots to collect what water I could. I called the rental company as soon as they opened and let them know the problem. I figured since it was a natural disaster and out of our control, they would be willing to work with us, but they weren't. I immediately started looking for apartments. I made a list of all places in the area, in our price range. I went and checked them out and had no luck. There was only one place left on the list. It was a bit higher then we wanted to pay, but very nice! They were willing to work with us given the circumstances, so they waived the deposit and only charged us first months rent! I had family and a few friends that came help pack us up and make the move in one day, thank goodness they were there to help us! The rental company from the damaged apartment was still trying to fight us and hold us to our contract. We still had 4 months left of our year contract, but the place wasn't livable and I wasn't backing down. We finally got it all taken care of.
We lived in the new apartment for 6 months and then decided to rent a house. I was so happy to finally be in a house without neighbors and more room to live! We lived there for 2 years. In that time frame, Brayden started preschool. That itself was a huge struggle for me, and still is today. I wasn't ready to let him go, which I'm sure every mom deals with. But most of all, I didn't trust the people responsible for him. I couldn't trust that they wouldn't hurt him. I didn't see the school as a safe haven. It wasn't in my control anymore, and I didn't know how to deal with that. I did however, really enjoy the one on one time I was now getting with Brynley! I didn't get that like I had with Brayden, so we both enjoyed it!
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