Friday, November 25 - Sunday, November 27, 2011
It took a little while to pack our luggage, plus over an hour to get the valet and bellhop to leave the Gaylord Texan. After making it back to our house in Nanny's car, Nanny headed back to Nacogdoches. Melinda and I then transferred the kids to our car and turned on a video. They were content.
We then spent 10 minutes repacking (taking time out for a bathroom break and to feed the turtle, Speedy). We had planned the transition out pretty well several days before and had most of the stuff packed ahead of time (except what we needed to transfer from the bags from the hotel).
We just ate snacks in the car because we knew we would arrive at the Lilbert farm of Grandma and Papa's about 2:30 PM. Once arriving, we ate some tasty ham sandwiches to stay us until the Thanksgiving feast later that night. Alex and Erich arrived at the farm soon after and got to play with A and X for awhile. While we talk with Alex and Erich pretty regularly on the phone, I finally got some face-to-face time with them.
For dinner, we had the traditional roasted turkey, stuffing, dressing, fresh mashed potatoes, gravy, corn, peas, fruit salad,rolls, etc... It was all delicious and we fell asleep soon afterwards while watching either football or basketball games.
Saturday was a lot of lounging in one room or the other while everyone spent some fun time with A and X. Alex and Erich really seem to really enjoy the time with their future little brothers and I know A and X have a blast!
This day, the weather was not what we would have liked. It was cold and rainy and our one big objective (besides getting to visit with and relax on The Farm with family) was to get a special picture made with Alex, Erich. X, A, Melinda and myself. We will use this picture in March when we adopt.
It is sometimes very hard for Alex and Erich to meet with us and the only time we knew we could have all six of us was either now or for three hours on Christmas day (we have a hectic Christmas holiday travel schedule this year). It was putting a lot of eggs in one basket if the photo on December 25th did not turn out, so this was "Plan A" and Christmas day was "Plan B."
Dad took a couple dozen photos in a row using our camera. Despite the cold wet ground, freezing cold wind and all the while dodging the cow patties (did I mention we are barefooted in the shot), Dad got the shot. Literally, I was shooing cows away from the photo site seconds before the shot and the area where we ideally would have stood (several feet further back) would have been ankle deep in soft mud and cow "droppings" - no one agreed to that!
We will post the picture on this blog right after we adopt A and X in early March and it will be the first ever Internet photo of them (since we still cannot legally publish their names or images until then). This will be our "Forever Family" picture with all six of us!
Alex and Erich left very soon afterwards since Erich was scheduled to work most of the day Sunday in The Woodlands (three hours away). The rest of us spent the night, but, after getting to "drive" the tractor with Papa on Sunday morning, we also had to leave. We still needed to get a few Christmas presents (while the big post-Thanksgiving day sales were still on) and we have to recover and clean up from the last 5 days of travel.
Tomorrow (Monday) the CPS case work comes by for her monthly check-in and to discuss what we can expect Tuesday afternoon when we go to court (related to the mediated agreement we signed several weeks ago). Additionally, we have the City Health Inspector coming on Tuesday morning so that we can keep licensed for foster care (which is obviously very important).
Fortunately, we were very productive when we got home and now Melinda has minimal to do on Monday to get ready (which is good since she also has a very busy schedule even without the CPS visit).
Overall, an excellent 2 1/2 days with Nanny and Melinda's family, followed by another 2 1/2 days with my family. There was a lot of Thanks Giving this year!
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