Sharing Responsibility

[justagirl4fun]

Marissa Miller is a 24-year-old single mother to 4-year-old Charlotte. Marissa's parents helped out with Charlotte, who has special needs, while Marissa finished getting her nursing degree, and let Marissa and Charlotte live with them, but her father was recently transferred out of state for work, so Marissa's parents and younger siblings are moved. Now, Marissa finds herself struggling to pay for rent and childcare on her own. She works the 11PM to 7AM shift, and is searching for a roommate in a similar situation that works a different shift so they can trade off childcare duties.

[justagirl4fun]

*bumping to keep on page 1*

[Ishigreensa]

Sent a profile on a single father and two girls if you don't mind me joining*

[justagirl4fun]

It was a blustery, early February morning in upstate NY and Marissa Miller was busy getting her apartment straightened up. She got Charlotte settled at the coffee table in the living room with some Play Doh to keep the girl occupied while she cleaned. Marissa was expecting a prospective roommate and was getting nervous as she'd already interviewed nearly a dozen people and was now running out of options...and time. She glanced at the clock and saw that he would be there any minute.

[Ishigreensa]

Mike Sanders

[justagirl4fun]

Marissa opened the door and flashed Mike a welcoming smile. "Hi, you must be Mike. I'm Marissa. Come on in. Can I get you some coffee? Tea?" she asked as she led him to the kitchen. She figured they could talk there and then, if she deemed him worthy, he could meet Charlotte.

[Ishigreensa]

"Yes, I am Mike Sanders," he said smiling.

[justagirl4fun]

Marissa retrieved a bottle of water from the fridge.

[Ishigreensa]

"What kind of help, exactly, does she need?" he asked.

[justagirl4fun]

"Yes, you'll need to change her diapers. She really has no bladder control, and is just starting to gain control of her bowels. She can poop on the toilet - you have to help her with that, her balance and core strength isn't that great so you have to put her on the toilet and make sure she holds onto the rails - but at this point, she only makes it about half the time. Because of the CP she is prone to getting constipated, so she takes fiber and a stool softener, which means she has at least two, maybe three bowel movements a day, and it can get pretty messy. Other than that she needs some assistance with dressing, she can't get on or off of chairs, the couch, or her bed by herself. She can feed herself just fine, as long as she has her adaptive dishes, which I'll show you should you choose to love here. She does take some meds, but I can handle those for the most part. There is one you'll have to give her at bedtime. Think you can handle that?"

[Ishigreensa]

"It doesn't seem much more than I'd do for my own children if they needed some special help or were sick," he said shrugging.

[justagirl4fun]

"She does go to pre-K in the morning, until 11:45.

[Ishigreensa]

"I see no problem with that arrangement, and I will be glad to take over so you can get some sleep.

[justagirl4fun]

"Well...there are only 3 bedrooms. I can put Charlotte in my room so your girls can have their own room..." Marissa offered.

[Ishigreensa]

Mike watched as the young girl made a chore of walking over to him to meet him.

[justagirl4fun]

"No, no, you take the spare room. If you're sure you're okay with it the girls can share. There is only a bunk bed in there, though, so Charlotte can sleep with me until we get another bed for the room," Marissa offered as she followed Charlotte to the bathroom. "Okay peanut, when mommy's not here, or is sleeping, Mike is going to help you. Let's show him how you use the potty."

Marissa moved a step stool in front of the toilet, which had

[Ishigreensa]

"It doesn't look too complicated," Mike said smiling.

[justagirl4fun]

"When she was born, she was unable to eat or drink without aspirating, so she needed the feeding tube. It wasn't until she was a year and a half that she was ready to start eating and drinking, but by that that point, she's developed an oral aversion. She wasn't used to having anything in her mouth and she couldn't stand the feel of it. She would gag, vomit, have a complete meltdown and refuse too eat. It took two years of intense feeding therapy to get her to where she would eat and drink enough that she no longer required any supplemental tube feeding. The only time I've used it in the last six months was a few times when she was sick and I had to give her her meds through it. I was afraid that with everything going on lately she might get upset and refuse to eat, and then I'd have to use it again but so far she's doing really well so as long as everything is okay at her next check up she'll probably have it removed then," Marissa explained as Charlotte made her way back to her Play Doh. "As far as eating, she's pretty good about taking small bites and chewing everything carefully. She doesn't really like anything dry and crispy, like crackers, or anything like meat that's tough to chew, but other than that you shouldn't have any issues with meal time."

[Ishigreensa]

"That's good to know," Mike said.

[justagirl4fun]

"Why don't you go get them. I'll get their room ready and fix a snack," Marissa offered. "Anything they don't like or can't have?"

[Ishigreensa]

"As far as I know, there is nothing to worry about.

[justagirl4fun]

Marissa tidied up Charlotte's room and put fresh sheets on the top and bottom bunks, then emptied out a few drawers for their clothes. Once the room was settled she went to the kitchen and prepared cut up veggies and hummus, which she set out along with pretzel sticks.

Meanwhile, after hearing that two little girls were coming, Charlotte set up her castle and lined up all her little Disney princess figurines. The tiny dolls had plastic clothes that snapped into place and were much easier for her to handle on her own than regular dolls.

When Marissa heard Mike knock she hurried to the door and opened it. "Hi! Come on in!" she said as she smiled warmly at the girls. "You must be Heidi. And you're Amy, right? I'm Marissa."

[Ishigreensa]

Heidi curtseid to her, and Amy, seeing what she did, tried to copy her sister which when she did, her panties was just visible under her dress for her dress was a littel short for her.

[justagirl4fun]

Charlotte was w-sitting (that's a thing kids with poor balance and muscle tone do where there legs are basically in a w shape. The wide base of support gives them more stability.) on the floor in front of her castle and she peered up at Amy. "I'm Charlotte. Do you like princesses?" she asked.

Marissa laughed. "Well, who could expect children to act like that all the time anyways?" She closed the door behind Mike and peeked into the living room. "Girls, there are snacks in the kitchen. Why don't you go get something to eat before you start playing?"

[Ishigreensa]

Mike smiled and nodded.

He walked over into the living room, and he coughed making sure the girls knew that Marissa was to be heeded.

Heidi took Amy's hand and started to walk her to the kitchen.

"I'll be right back," Amy told her.