so much has changed.......

Guy and I took the boys out on Thursday night this last time. The goal was to treat them to dinner at this place. The wait time on the weekends is 3 hours. We figured 6-ish on a weekday would be a piece of cake. A very French..."NON". After waiting about 10 minutes we were informed we would be there another 30 before getting seated.

I was a little apprehensive because I really dislike taking the boys into crowds. I'm already over stimulated and it makes any mishap appear 40 times worse. This place was a zoo. I kid you not. There are drums banging...people jumping and shouting every 5 minutes to celebrate another birthday. Piles of candy in the gift shop...loud music and of course..ice cream every where. It took two minutes to decide this was NOT the night for Ferrell's.

Choice number two was Dickie's BBQ right by Guy's office. This was a fabulous choice since they have UNLIMITED soft serve ice cream. UNLIMITED.
The greatest bonus being that because it was midweek...the restaurant was empty. We had the whole place to ourselves. A secluded table in the back was perfect and we enjoyed a lovely dinner complete with UNLIMITED ice cream.

The fun didn't stop there. I came armed and dangerous with some seriously fun toys that night. Mardi Gras beads, some windup caterpillars and another one of those fun fidgety toys for Ty. He was holding the one I got last week when we picked him up tonight for our outing. (always a good sign).

My final coup was finding one of these at the thrift store for SEVEN bucks!!! It was the older model for sure but it works perfectly. We had one of these a long time ago and the boys loved it. They spent the night fighting over it in the car.

Dinner was over, we had a lovely drive home and we all piled out of the car to go in their house. It was a natural and easy ending to a great evening together.

I couldn't help thinking to myself about that day when we dropped Spencer off at that very house. The last day that he was to live with us together. That was, without a doubt, the worst day of my life. We brought him to the house and spent some time while we finished up paperwork and orientation. We had been bringing him over there many times so that he could be acclimated. We had brought over all of his familiar furniture, toys, computer, videos....everything that he would enjoy. It was the middle of the day and the other boys weren't home. In the interest of a better transition, the staff packed him up in the van for a ride so that we could leave the house unnoticed.

He drove off in that van and it felt like there would never be happiness again. I hated that house, that lawn and our terrible circumstances. Even though it was the right choice to be made, there wasn't enough right to make it feel good.

Our prayers have been answered after years and months. After trying and trying and trying again, we have a taste of what we have wanted from the beginning when we started our little family.

Ty enjoying all his toys and his computer with a belly full of UNLIMITED soft serve ice cream.....touchdown.