Chris's Release Date...

My brother, Chris, and I had another falling out this week (go figure), so I decided if I wanted to find out what the board ended up recommending, I would have to call myself. Thank goodness for nice parole board members :)

His release date is March 1, 2011 (next year).

I am very glad it's not going to be this summer like the hearing officer recommended, but it still feels too soon for me.

I try not to talk about this whole thing and what he did, because yeah, it's sad. But it is always there. Always. So if you don't like reading sad things, you're probably on the wrong blog, because with all of the joy, bliss, and happiness, for some reason, we tend to have a lot of sad. I think everyone does...maybe I'm just more vocal about our sad, I don't know. When we were going through all of this 3 years ago, I was showing the newspaper article about what had happened to a friend of mine who was over helping me clean my disgusting house (I think she earned a free ticket into heaven for helping me wade through that mess!). I wanted to share it with her so she could understand why I had let my house get that bad...I was mortified that she of all people was coming over to help me, so I needed her to not think I was a failure of a human being, and just to be able to talk about it...I have to talk. I guess I know now where my kids get it from :) She handed me back the paper and told me she couldn't read it because it was too sad. I didn't blame her, because she was right, it IS sad. Later on when I asked one of my uncles if he could come to some of the hearings with me because, obviously, my dad was gone, and I wanted someone who wasn't as emotionally invested as I was to be there to support us, he told me he couldn't because it was too sad. Yup, it is sad. Very, very sad.

But along with all that sad, I also had SO so so many people, no, more like angels, jump in to help keep me and my family afloat during those awful months. DOZENS of friends and family helped me with my children. Others brought us meals, called to check on us, people like my cousin who came with me to nearly every hearing...what a saint that girl is, and on and on and on. It is a remarkable thing to know Heavenly Father carries us on the backs of our friends and loved ones. Hopefully, getting out will be a jumping off point for a new and improved Chris, and a new chapter of less sad in the Skelton family.