Wednesday, March 24, 2010

Tales of a jailbird

Well in follow up to the Stress These Days post it's hard to believe but my brother has already been out of prison for a month. And for the most part things are going well. He almost has a job and hopefully will be able to get his own place soon. Bless my Dad he has let him stay with him even though he was extremely leery. If Jeff botches this one I think it will be his last chance.

Tommy and Austin badgered us with questions for days before his arrival. Tommy was scared to basically "meet" his Uncle Jeff. I was scared to see him too. It had been over 5 years. We ended up meeting at Dad's and he's slimmer and his hair is thinning but it was still Jeff. We had a nice misty hug then all went to dinner. It was a wonderful reunion with my Dad, Scott, and my kids. On the drive home I commented that after our evening it was like he had never been gone. We laughed so hard that night. It was amazing how easy it was to reconnect. We dropped him off and the first words out of Tommy's mouth were "I LOVE UNCLE JEFF!!!" He is quite the character even if he does have the devil's curly red hair.

I've loved the prison stories and yes many of them are sad but most are funny. You can find any person with a record online and so he's shown us some of his bunkies and my those are some scary looking dudes. I hope he never forgets the prison craziness and remembers how weird it was eating with real utensils once he got out, you only get sporks in prison.

He, Scott, Joe & I have had some I guess you can call them "healthy" talks since he's been out. Besides our free therapy sessions he is also talking to a "real" therapist once a week who is helping keep his head on straight. He knows what he needs to do, it's now just having the will power to do the right thing. He's struggled with that before we'll see if this time he's truly grown up. I love him and have enjoyed having him home. It's been a great month and I hope we have many, many more great visits. He's already had so much life lived in this past month; Ashley's birthday, Tommy's hockey, etc. I hope this simple life is enough for him. And I just keep telling the doubters I'm enjoying my time with him now and hope it lasts and his history does not repeat itself.

The fiery four-eyed freaks...aka Scott, Dawn, Jeff O!

Reunion night - I promise we're not as scary as we look.

9 comments:

Renee said...

Dawn I am glad to hear that reunion went well and that the kids are enjoying it as well. you guys look so happy in the pictures. I hope things go well for him this time.

Unknown said...

Glad things are going well with your brother!! Continued prayers for all of you during this period of adjustment.

Such a nice picture of the three of you! I'm sure your brother was more nervous than all of you put together. He is lucky to have such a loving and forgiving family.

Looking forward to playing ball this spring/summer with both of them! Maybe they can help us take home that trophy, finally:)

Julie said...

All I can say is - WOW what great smiles on a good looking family and gee Dawn, you are looking short in the pictures with your brothers.

Sheila said...

So happy for all of you that things are going well and I hope they stay that way!

Dawn said...

Thanks girls for the support! And haha about me looking short, I definitely didn't get any height genes but apparently the guys did. We'll see how things are a little farther down the road.

Jill said...

I'm glad all is going well.
It was nice to meet your brother and I look forward to playing ball with him this summer.

Dawn said...

Thanks Jill - And he should be able to help our team. I personally can't wait to get out and catch some pop ups! You need to schedule an April practice I think.

Barbara said...

I haven't been on the computer much lately but I'm glad you posted an update on this. I'm so happy that the reunion went well and things seem to be working out. I hope you can all hang in there.

Kiera said...

I am so glad that the reunion went well. The pictures of the 3 of you are great and I will continue to keep you in my prayers. He is truly blessed to have such wonderful family and it is great that you can all be so honest with each other.