This puts us on a track to not only visit Franklin in early January (we could even go sooner but leaving at Christmas time is just impossible), but this increases our odds dramatically that he will be home with us by May. I've got to run now...more later.
I'm back. It's been such a great day. First off, we got 10 inches of snow (that wasn't really the great part) and Rick was home most of the day and John had a blast in the snow. Ian liked it too but it was a cold, blizzard-like day. So our weekend got off to an early start. That enabled me to get plans into motion. We have booked our trip to Guatemala!!!!!!!! We leave on a 6AM flight on Wednesday, January 11th. My wonderful sis-in-law, Bill and the boys will "move in" on Tuesday the 10th and stay here with John and Ian. We will get home late on Saturday, January 14th. This will give us all Sunday to recover and Monday is MLK day and although not a work holiday for Rick, it will be a school holiday for John. No doubt, Mom and Dave will pop in and out while we're gone and hopefully, no one will miss us much and Donna will not get too worn out.
I also learned that we will be able to spend as much time with Franklin as we'd like. Typically, the foster Mom and the attorney would bring him to where we are staying. Hopefully the foster Mom will stick around a bit to get him comfortable. Since we will be cross-eyed when we arrive Wednesday, we'll probably arrange a Thursday mid-morning meeting and then he will stay with us for 2 days!!! I got info on a casual, family style bed and breakfast called Telma's that caters to adoptive families. A family from Connecticut who adopted a 5 year old boy in October stayed there and said it was comfortable, safe, clean and relaxed. It has a court yard (for playing ball) and a nice pool. It has common areas and our meals are prepared family style. The rooms have kitchenettes and living rooms. I think this will be much less intimidating for Franklin than a formal hotel setting which is where most couples stay who adopt babies. I really am sooo sooo glad that Franklin will be old enough to know that we are visiting him and that he will go back with his foster Mom on Saturday morning so that he shouldn't be completely confused. I'm sure he'll be scared of being left with us but hopefully he'll see that everyone will do what they promised and he'll relax and have some fun with us. We know not to expect too much from him and that he could be very sad, angry, or quiet. We will hope that he will relax with some toys and fun and we can start building a trust. So many people have done this before us and I know there will be tough moments, it will just be so amazing to have this time to get to know him. Buenos noche mi nino guapo! I need to work on my Spanish!!!
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