AUTHOR: M. DATE: 11:04:00 PM ----- BODY:

We had an AMAZING weekend... just such a treat after all the craziness of last week, then being sick, and I. trying to finish up her semester despite everything. Friday I. classes were cancelled because of the snow (love snow days!), which was great. Three hours before we were planning to leave for New York, this is what our neighborhood looked like: This kind of snow is pretty unusual (though not unheard-of) around here this time of year, but we still managed to leave as planned, and the roads were even cleared. We had an extra-spoiled weekend: a posh little B&B with heated floors and a giant shower that doubled as a steam room, tickets to see Wicked, which was... PERFECT. (Remember that scene in Annie when they take her to the movies, and her eyes are huge as she looks around at the performers and the velvet seats and these people who are suddenly treating her like kid-royalty? That was me). Dinner at Candle Cafe, the best vegetarian restaurant I've ever been to -- my vegetarian, sugar-free, wheat-free wife was delirious. And the icing on the trip was getting to sneak in a homework-free weekend with I. even before the semester was quite over, which shocked and delighted us both. Work sent me to DC for a couple of days, straight from New York. I had dinner while I was there with a former colleague who is now doing child welfare work in DC. Over dinner he told me that he was planning to adopt, and had been waiting for a match with 2 siblings ages 5-8. The day before, he had gone to an adoption festival, the kind where they set all the kids up, zoo-like, and potential adoptive parents walk up and down meeting and talking to kids so the kids can convince them that they are the cutest/smartest/most athletic/most well-behaved/most whatever-you're-looking-for kids they should take home. Insane, except that it works: potential parents fall in love and make all sorts of crazy decisions they weren't planning to make. And of course: it's the difference between a theoretical idea of an 8-year-old and, in my friend's case, a 14-year-old living, breathing, intelligent, talented human being who had been in foster care since the age of 18 months. My friend fell in love, and in less than 12 hours had decided that this boy was his son. When he started stalking his social worker at 7 the next morning, she told him he was in luck - not only was the boy legally free for adoption, but he had been stalking HIS social worker about my friend since the crack of dawn as well. Please cross your fingers for both of them. I feel like there's some good kid-energy going around these days... I know lots of people could use it.

-------- COMMENT-AUTHOR: Away2me COMMENT-DATE:8:41 AM COMMENT-BODY:Oh I hope that works out for your friend and that boy! Everything is crossed! -------- COMMENT-AUTHOR: avonlea COMMENT-DATE:11:13 AM COMMENT-BODY:That's so beautiful, I hope it works out, it's so wonderful when two people find each other. --------