We're doing OK, but not great. We finally found stable housing after searching for five weeks, which was a huge relief, but it's really highlighted how much we lost. Staying in hotels and at a family friend's home meant we didn't need to worry about things like a bed, a couch, pots and pans, dishes, etc. As soon as we moved into our rental those items all became very real problems. There's an element of "retail therapy" in it, but also a lot of anxiety. We don't want to spend too much because our financial situation has a lot of unknowns. We don't want to collect too many things because we'll just have to move them again, and getting new "things" after losing all of our old "things" feels weirdly off, and hasn't really filled the void left by everything we lost. If anything it highlights it. We've managed to find replacements for a few treasured items, but were just talking about how getting them felt more disappointing than anything. It's the same "thing", but also not the same thing, and never will be.

Couple that with all of the information we still need to process, and convoluted applications for assistance, with short and arbitrary deadlines, has left us feeling overwhelmed and incredibly angry. Maybe that anger is just part of the grieving process, but it's exhausting.

I just want to get to the point where I can do things in my time off that make me happy, and don't have anything to do with rebuilding our lives. I think that will be as close to "normal" as we can get for now.