Today (1/12/11) we had our first conversation with the kido’s caseworker and therapist. The conference call was a really good one. It’s clear that the people in this kiddo’s life are really looking for the best fit for him. They had a lot nice things to say about the kiddo and where very frank about his strengths and the areas he is still working on. They also had a lot of cute stories that helped describe him and his needs better.

The weird part was they had some follow up questions for us. This was kind of new as the last 2 times we have done similar conference calls, all the questions had been one sided coming from us only. This change got us really got us excited. In the past two times, the tone and answers made us feel that once and if the placement happened, we would be on our own. But this time by their questions and answers, clearly is would not the case. They described the strong team of support and services for before, during and after the adoption for the kiddo and our family.  The funny thing was they seemed to be worried we would want to grab the child and go it alone, which is SO not us. It was really hard not to yell out YES, this is so what we want!” or comments like “If you hire us we promise to work really, really hard.” 

At the end the call, we all were a bit jazzed. This kido feels like a match to us and more importantly it also feels like we are a match to him.  But, and there are some big buts, he is not ours to just take. First, he is still considered legal risk. Meaning that there is still a very small remote chance his status will change from an adoption track back to one that would try to reunite him with the family he was removed from. Second, this is a great kid and as we mentioned before, we will not be the only family who will see how great he is. This means that there could be some real competition. Third, just because we think it’s a match, the caseworker may not or might think there are stronger matches. Even if she picks us as one of the three families for committee, the adoption committee will make the final decision.

After such a good conference call it’s hard not to get hopeful, but we are trying very hard to be realistic and pragmatic. We are still long ways off from the happy dance time.

Oh… remember those adoption loop-de-loops we mentioned in our last post?  Well, an hour and half before our conference call, our adoption clinician got a phone call from another kiddo’s caseworker asking if we would still be interested in learning more about her kido that we submitted on.

Last two days in the parks (Saturday & Sunday) were set at the slow wander pace on our speedometers. Saturday we scheduled ourselves to spend the whole day in the Magic Kingdom. With a projected high of only 67 we called it close enough and broke out the shorts. We had breakfast reservations at the Poly for 8:00am so it was another early day for us. But was it worth it! Kona Cafe for Breakfast, best breakfast maybe meal of our whole trip and really restored our faith in Disney Dinning. The Cafe was EMPTY, we a nice corner booth table and a great service. Anthony ordered the Macadamia Pineapple Pancakes – Served with Macadamia nut butter, pineapple sauce, and your choice of ham, bacon or sausage.  And Joshua got the Big Kahuna – French Toast, pancakes, eggs your way, home fried potatoes, ham, bacon, and sausage. Joshua also ordered a LARGE press pot of 100% Kona Coffee! We simply love the Polynesian Resort, no matter what the cost is next trip we are so staying there! Service was great and the food was great! After breakfast we took the Monorail to the Magic kingdom from the Polynesian Resorts Monorail stop. Did we mention we are staying at the Poly next time?  Thanks to the warmer weather most the flowers frost blankets were not gone and most of  the holiday gardening was out to see. We spent the wandering round the park. We did the train twice! Lunch was at the Liberty Tree tavern… nothing to write home about. After lunch we decided it was nap time, and jumped one of the Disney busses back to our dump/resort. We had such a good parking spot we wanted to keep it for when we left for good later in the night. Bus took 30mins to get to the resort… another 30 mins later and we were in nap land. After our nice nap we dressed and took the bus back in to the Magic kingdom and from their hoped a boat to the Wilderness Lodge Resort for a nice dinner at the Artist Point restaurant. On our way back from dinner on the boat  we noticed a thin layer of fog forming on the lake. It was supper romantic. The boat ride only takes about 10 minutes but by the time we deboarded and made it past the railroad archway, the light fog had rolled in and gotten much thicker. We headed over to Tomorrow land and killed some time before the fireworks and walked out to the top of Mainstreet USA about 200 ft from the front of the Castle and watched as the fireworks began. At first it was cool, the hazy Castle with defused lights shining all round it. Then the fireworks started  popping though the haze. But once the fireworks started to really go, the smoke and fog mixed and it go harder and harder to see the fireworks. Then the castle itself disappeared into haze and only the largest explosions cut though the smoke and fog. We found ourselves getting cloeser and closer as the crowds poured out of the park all upset at the fog. By the time the music for the fireworks ended and the castle ice lights came back on we were in front of the castle alone. We loved it! The fog was so cool. But we seems to be the only ones with that feeling. We hung around and rode some more rides and waited for the Main Street Electrical Parade which was scheduled for 10pm. Now here is the funny part, they ran the Fireworks in 0% visibly but 10 mins before the ground level parade was set to start they announced that it was delayed due to weather. So we decided to shop and look for new coffee mugs, Joshua has a great Stitch one and Anthony needed one (so he will stop using Joshua’s). Just as we were wrapping up our shopping the Parade began. Joshua kinda went crazy and too 250+ photos. SOME of them are online to view. After the parade we headed out and drove back to our hotel. Walked up to the front door and swiped our key card. And then swiped our key card. And then swiped our key card. And then swiped our key card. And then swiped our key card. And then swiped our key card. And then swiped our key card. And then swiped our key card. WTF!!!!!! Yes, we were locked out of our room. And to make it just a bit more fun all the fog had gotten into Anthony’s lungs and his inhaler was in the room. It took 45 mins standing outside in the cold and two trips to the front desk to get someone to come to our room and let us in. Aggghhhh did we mention never again at a Disney Value hotel? Sunday Morning we got up late (sine we were up late waiting to get in our room) and finished packing. Loaded the Kia and waved goodbye to the movie resort… well not yet. Seems on our final bill they had billed us twice for the same tip, our posh breakfast at the Grand Floridian Cafe. Took about 10 mins waiting in line, 10 mins to find a manager to ok the refund and another 10mins to figure out how to do it. Did we mention never again at a Disney Value hotel? Using our best and most refined rude gestures to the inanimate main-gate sign for the All Star Movies resort, we drove off and headed towards EPCOT. Sunday’s weather was cool high 50’s. After a week of cold weather Anthony was on the cusp of getting sick. Running nose and a general feeling of death. Because of events from this youth, it takes much yelling to get him to take medicine. So finally today he broke down on the way to EPCOT and took some meds as we parked. We had lunch at the Paris Bistro and argued about which French waiter boy to kidnaped to take home with us (I see a trip to Paris in our future) We also finally got to ride the Universe of Energy ride (Anthony’s Favorite ride). But as the weather got cooler and Anthony turned paler, we decided to head to the airport early stopping off in Downtown Disney for some final shopping and a early dinner at the Earl of Sandwich. Our flight home was at 8:30pm on US Airways. Our last official time ever flying with them if we can help it. We made that ruling back on our November PHX trip, but our Disney trip already booked by then. US Airways planes are just too dang cheap, seats are too small, planes are too old and crews are underpaid/tired/rude. On our last trip to Orlando in 2007 we got bumped off our US Airways flight home so another flight could have our plane. This caused us to had to spend the night at the airport in the Hyatt hotel. In the end we have had just too many bad events happen with them That said we were secretly hoping for another plane issue so we would get bumped again and could cuddle up together in a nice plush king bed. It didn’t happen, but we did get some great customer service from our Jamaican check-in lady. She called is right up to her area, there was no line which was nice! As we pulled out our fight confirmation numbers she started the check in process. First she had us weigh our bags and paid the baggage fee for each bag. Both just under the limit! When the fee was paid Anthony asked for our boarding passes. Her reply was (in a Jamaican accent) “We don’t roll that way round here.. Man. First we take the money for the bags then we deal with the people.” YES!  We had a new Mantra for the evening…. ‘We don’t Roll that way man” Feel free to use it as well, but remember the Jamaican accent. Knowing how bad and tight the seating is on US Airways we checked into see how much an upgrade to first class would be, but at $300.00 per person, we had to be happy with our cheap small seats. Blowing and extra $600.00 was not in the stars. Our flight was Orlando to PHX then we had to switch planes for the final leg to Portland. On our landing in PHX, the plane made the normal approach, lowered the wheels and was about 50 feet from touchdown when suddenly the plane shot violently back up into the air. Seems there was another plane on the runway and our pilot wanted to live. Our near miss in PHX caused us to be late for our connection home, but luckily they held the plane for us. We landed at home at 1:30am tired and glad to be home.