Becoming a caregiver can happen gradually or suddenly.  When it happens gradually, you are just trying to be helpful and may not realize that you have begun to provide informal care—such as performing household chores or accompanying your loved one to medical appointments—until one day you realize that you are performing these tasks with regularity and your loved one has become dependent upon you.

On the other hand, when you suddenly become a caregiver due to your loved one’s serious car accident, stroke, heart attack, or other crisis, your caregiving responsibilities begin immediately—whether or not you are ready for them!

Either way it happens, the situation becomes even more complex when you are living away from your loved one. Yet we are just as important to our care recipients when we live geographically distant as are family members who live nearby. Our care recipients need us. And sometimes those of us who live an airplane flight or driving trip away are more involved in caregiving than those who live down the street from our loved ones.

As a long-distance caregiver myself, I know firsthand what it is like to care for someone far away—it can be exhausting. Long-distance caregivers expend enormous physical, psychological, and spiritual energy during the planning and preparation for travel, during the actual travel time, during our visit with our loved one, and during our return trip.

Amidst all this planning and preparation, one can lose site of the whole purpose of the trip: to spend time with your loved one.  It can be hard when time is short and you feel as if you don’t visit as much as you should—there seems like so much to do!

I know how overwhelming visits can be and how under-prepared you can feel. Here are a few key strategies and tips I have learned that help me make the most of my visits.

Pray. Prior to arriving at your loved one’s home for a visit, ask God to help you to be a loving, respectful, and effective long-distance caregiver. If you perceive your loved one’s situation differently than he or other family members do, keep a prayerful focus to your visit.  This can help you avoid the criticism, from family and other area caregivers, that you come for a few days and try to change everything.

Enjoy your time together. When you visit your care recipient, schedule enough time both to enjoy one another’s company and to attend to necessary chores. You do not want to have regrets in either area when you return home. When you visit your loved one, do not focus exclusively on things that have to be done. Later, as you look back on your visit, sharing a loving time will be your best memory of your time together.

Know what to talk about. Be sure to include the following open-ended questions in your conversations with your loved one so that if they need to be addressed before you return home, you have the time and opportunity to do s