whirling dervish of emotions

wow! what an incredible day.

we had blair the girls therapist over for breakfast to meet bobbie and mark. i regret not taking a photo of jen and blair. it was an awesome morning and wonderful way to start the day. which was planned to be a really big day.

then we talked to kviti, our awesome lawyer, to make sure we were doing all the right things. and then headed over to shelia's to introduce her to mark and bobbie and get her to sign custody of jennifer over to them. NERVE RACKING. and i know her

on the way to the nursing home

shelia wouldn't talk to m & b at first and then repeatedly said (probably 10 times), in a very forceful tone: "you are NOT going to adopt my daughter". lindsay and i expected this, but i could see that it was really unsettling to m & b.

we went outside and had a longer conversation.

shelia explained that she was the mother and was really concerned that m&b had sent jennifer a letter and not her. "i am the mother and the letter should come to me. i make the decisions" she then asked them why in the world would they want to have so many kids, and why jennifer. m&b handled this with poise and grace, explaining that they feel like this is what they can do for the world and they have a lot of love to give. they also talked about how much they wanted to meet shelia because they love jennifer and knew that whoever was her mom must be an awesome person. i could tell shelia was starting to develop a little crush on mark. she said some really crazy stuff. and then asked them if they minded if jennifer called them mom and dad. when she learned that it was her and jennifer's decision she gave her permission. she then pointed to bobbie and asked jennifer "who is that?" jen would not answer and looked so on the spot.
she finally said "i am afraid to say it."
"don't be afraid baby, who is that"
"mom?"
"that's right" pointing to mark "and who is that?"
"dad"
"you have my permission to move to arizona"

then it was one big happy family

i am pretty sure the burger king made the trip easier

momma and baby
(who incidentally is much taller than her mom now)

we were all pretty exhausted after than, so we went and ate potbelly's. then m&b and jennifer and linZ went to arlington cemetery and paulette and i went to my ultimate frisbee game (we won). then to the going away party at sarah and tomicah (who get the gold medal of friendship bar none for this weekend and saving us from every other crisis or bind)

it looks more riotous than it was

mike, scott and chuck

sarah, eli, and lashaun

jen started crying. the friends that she wanted to come
weren't able to come. but i think all the goodbyes really started getting to her
our congregation is really like a family
especially for these girls.
it must have been really really hard to say goodbye.
it was nice to see her go to her dad for comfort.
paulette was super sister once again and got mimi and brought her over.

kimber and liz

linds and ginny

once the party was over the girls went over to liz and mike's and we went shopping for souvenirs. score! then to five guys (best hamburgers in dc) and then for a tour of the monuments.

i love ny...whatev

i don't think it is ironic that we ended up at this guys feet.

then we learned some conspiracy theories from mark. taught lindsay about area 51. and got home exhausted.

the girls were super exhausted, so they of course got into a fight about pencils. it ended in paulette punching jen in the back and lindsay jumping out of bed to contain the situation. no matter what sisters are sisters.

it has been a real emotional day. i am amazed that God put us all together. from linday and i being called to be shelia's visiting teachers. and lindsay and i feeling after our first visit that our primary duty was to the girls. to mikki desiring to hear the quite promptings of the holy ghost and be more willing to do something about what she hears and her feeling so compelled to talk to bobbie. i mean there are a million pieces to this puzzle that would be hard to fit together if you weren't omniscient and omnipotent.

it is miraculous. i am really excited for jen. i am really sad for me, because i really do love spending time with jen and it is going to feel really really weird not to have jennifer here with us. she often kicks off the silliness that i love so much about our fRamily. i dread tomorrow, but i am also really excited for jen.

i do feel like this separation is actually going to strengthen the girls relationship. i am too tired. i hope to come back and be more detailed and a more intersting writer, but for now, i just want to get all this stuff out.