Willing Change

Buds and I met with an attorney last week to update our wills and talk about all the options for how to care for the children when we are gone. The "children" are now (nearly) all of legal age, which means this is our first will where we haven't named guardians for them.

We are entering uncharted territory for us. Though we no longer name specific adults who would take the children into their homes if we were to die, we still want the kids to know they have a glowing circle of love that surrounds them. Their grandparents and aunts and uncles would all be willing to swoop in with offers of support. The cadre of friends who have become family, would shelter, feed, and love them as needed. The path is not written in a legal document any longer, but it is still there, offering comfort and safety.

Thank you to those of you who were willing to become their legal guardians if that need had ever arisen. Just as it gave me comfort when I was a child to know that I would go live with Grandpa George and Grandma Wanda, or later, Aunt Sheila and Uncle Gary, if anything were to happen to my parents, I am eternally grateful for those of you who said, "Yes!" when we asked you to consider being surrogate parents if the unthinkable happened. That meant a lot.

We will return in a few weeks to sign documents and settle up the final paperwork. Then we will return in 5 or 10 years to update based on the lives we are all living at that point. The children will become the executors and healthcare proxies and future decision makers.

What a cycle it is.