A visit to Raleigh

Today, we went and picked up S and her sister to visit Raleigh.

We had an easy flowing and great visit with them.  This was our first time meeting D, S's sister.  It was an instant connection with her too.  We saw the house they live in, which had NO baby stuff around - that was relieving for us!!!  We also met their pets. :)

We came to Raleigh and ate lunch at Raleigh Times and strolled around downtown.  They both said that Raleigh seemed so big, but I guess it does when you come from an area of tons of farmland.  Lunch was fantastic, as always.  We then came back to our house to show them around.  We ended up hanging out in the nursery for a while, just chatting about everything.  We learned that S doesn't like or trust birthdad's mom, but is relieved that he's already signed relinquishment of his rights.  S is still uncertain about her hospital plan, but did mention that we will need to be there somehow, to take home the little one. :)  D expressed her concern with not being a part of this child's life, and we reassured her that we want to keep this relationship open and ongoing; that she would be known as aunt D to the little girl.  We talked for a couple of hours about everything and nothing at the same time.  It felt so great that our get-to-gethers are natural and easy.

We headed back to their town so D could get to work that evening.  We were only planning on dropping them off, but they invited us inside for an official tour of the house and ended up staying to see their little sister and step-dad arrive.  We hung around the house like we were part of the family.  We played a game with O, the little sister, and heard many family stories to pictures in albums.  It was fantastic.  We excused ourselves when dinner planning started; we needed to get back to our animals. 

It was a great day!  We are planning our match meeting within the next week, around their weekend to the beach.  We are so thrilled that this relationship is starting off so well and open!  The countdown continues.