My heart is full of emotions today. We met up with Quynsie's birth dad to give him back the pictures he let us barrow and her grandpa was there then Nadia got to talk to her aunt on the phone. I'm not sure who was more emotional me her aunt or Nadia. I'm thankful for being able to build healthy relationships with some of their birth family one step at a time. There are still those that we want nothing to do with right now but we are making progress towards openness and the vision I had from the beginning as to how I wanted or adoption to look like.

I appreciate that Quynsie was not rude and making her siblings feel left out. The other 3 just were happy to be at McDonalds and being able to play.

This morning before we left to go meet up with Michael, Nadia had a bit of a melt down. She was upset because she sees her sister's having contact with their birth dad and she doesn't. She gets and understands why we do not and really in her own words, she didn't really want to see her birth dad, she just wanted a connection with someone. She said that "He never came to any of the visits, so he doesn't care about me anyway and it makes me sad that he doesn't make an effort."

So, because there is only one person on that side of the family that I trust, I allowed her to call her aunt.

Carson doesn't really know or understand what is going on yet. He was so young when he came to us and so we are all he knows as his parents. Yes, he remembers a lot, but not living with his birth parents. The most he said to the aunt was hi! I am not going to force the kids to talk to their birth family. We are taking their lead at this point.

I am done swimming around their questions. They are old enough to know the truth and understand it. If they want to dig their own grave, they can do it themselves. If the birth family makes promises and fails to follow through, then that is on them not us.

 

Here is Quynsie with her birth dad Michael and her grandpa Tim.

Carson and his tongue. He is always sticking out.

 

After going grocery shopping, we took a drive up Payson canyon. Joe's mom is up there camping and so we went up to see them. The kids got to fish for a few minutes and spend time with 2 of their cousins.

We then came home, got showers and dinner.

Now bed time!!!