Wow!

Well, we met L for dinner Tuesday night at a restaurant here in Montgomery and all we can say is Wow! - things could not have gone better. 

We were both nervous and excited and sort of wondering how everything would go.  When we got there we texted our social worker and told her we were outside and she said she, L and his social worker were waiting inside.

When we walked through the door, here was this boy that, at first glance, was everything we were looking for.  Mike shook his hand and Kerri gave him a hug.  The waitress told us our table was ready and we followed her.

On the way, L fell back to talk to Mike and said "I haven't been able to sleep since Friday, I've been so excited about this!"  Mike said "Yeah, we're pretty excited too..."

We sat with Logan between us and our social workers across the table.

L is very conversational.  Mike mentioned later that children in general and boys in particular don't usually engage in conversation with adults - especially those they don't know.  L just chimed right in and we were off to the races.

The conversation was easy and we listened, laughed and learned a lot about him.

He said that several people have told him that he was too old, that nobody would want to adopt him and that he needed to accept that and figure out what he was going to do with the rest of his life.  HE'S FIFTEEN!!!  With that, Mike put his arm around him and pulled him into a hug.  L reciprocated and the two of them just sat there a minute in an embrace that could melt the Grinch's heart.  It was a very emotional moment.

Our next visit with him will be Saturday, April 12 in Birmingham for an activity and lunch.

It's going to be difficult to wait that long but there aren't any other options.  In the meantime we have told him we will call him twice a week and Mike is texting with him a LOT.

Mike told our social worker that it's frustrating because this is like dating.

You have someone that you really like and you want to impress them and get them to like you as well but you don't want to be a stalker or that creepy person that calls all the time for no reason.  You don't want to be too clingy but you don't want to be too distant, too aloof.  So you wait for the appropriate time to make another contact and just keep the ball rolling when what you want to do is pick it up and shoot a goal!

Now imagine if both sets of parents were watching every move and telling you to hold off and slow down.  Our social workers are those parents and we agree with them but it doesn't make it any easier.

We hope that when Zach and Sean meet L for the first time on April 12 everything goes smoothly.  The next visit will hopefully be be a spend-the-weekend visit sometime later in April.

Thank you for your prayers and encouragement,  We are both very encouraged by what we have experienced thus far.

Please continue to pray for L, for us, for our family and our future together.