I need some advice/guidance

You are his real parents.

Kids can get restless and flighty, but you're the bedrock.

I'm just here.

I remember Mo's birth announcement ... and the months that followed ... and then the years.

You've come a long way as a family. It's pretty darn spectacular.

Meantime, there is spashing in my room. If I disappear, the water gods have won, for a while.

Thinking about you all day today.

Splashing.. typos drive me nuts.

Just checking in.

It went really well. Better than I expected. We seemed to pick up right where we left off -- except for the elephant in the room, which took us a little while to get around to. We talked for almost three hours. We had fun.

She told me she stared at my friend request for days and talked it over with several people before clicking "accept". Only then did my note appear. And even then she was hesitant to reply.

I was really impressed with the self reflection and growing she's done over the years. She's in a good place and she's scared of having any of that change. She married a man from a huge family that is all super close. She said it's taken her a long time to learn how to be part of a family. That kind of broke my heart.

We're going to take it slow. They'll "friend" each other of Facebook to allow them to peer into each others lives a bit and share some things back and forth... maybe all get together for dinner (she's more comfortable with it being a group)... she's worried he'll be disappointed in her (he won't, at all)... she's worried she won't know what to say to him.... she's worried about a lot of things. She's glad I contacted her and happy to open the door to him but she's finally learned how to protect herself and she's cautious.

We talked a lot about the BIG question -- the sisters. It's complicated.

I came home and talked to Mo about our visit. He was strangely quiet until he got mad at me for talking to her about his response to seeing the photos of her and the twins. We talked about it a lot. I think he's feeling okay about it how it all played out.

So now it's really just time to wait and see what happens.

I think it's all going to be okay.

What a day.

I'm so glad for you that the meeting went so well.

You must be super relieved.

Indeed.

I'm glad lunch went well.

Everyone is going to have a lot to distill.

I am relieved! I've been feeling almost drugged or something for the rest of the day. Adrenaline crash or something. It's weird!

She told me some things about her life that I don't know if I'll ever be able to distill.

The fact that she came out in one piece and went on to build a happy life for herself is pretty amazing.

is she much changed and " strange" or is this rather like when I have met long lost good friends, we pick up almost exactly where we left off since no one has changed much?

I'm cracking glad. Not least that OM has turned out to grow herself up well, respect from me.

You both deserve rest.

Oh my.

She has changed, so have I, but we really just picked up where we left off. It felt.... easy.

Even the hard things we had to discuss weren't hard to discuss.

Uh oh. That doesn't sound good.

Honestly, there are things I would have liked to see done differently -- the Facebook thing, in particular -- but I'm going to let her call the shots and she thinks this would be best for her.

If you have concerns I'd love to hear them. I've always trusted you advice and experience. You've pointed me in the right direction more times than I can count and I'm sincerely grateful for that.

Taking ehBeth's advice we decided we'd go white water rafting today. (Seems appropriate, doesn't it?) I've got to go rustle everyone out of bed in just a few minutes.

Thanks again, everyone, for holding my hand through Phase I.

I am still mystified on how this works....I often hear stories of long divorced people who get together, sometimes after a bitter divorce, and instantly fall into old comfortable patterns of relationship. For instance a woman will think " I am not married to him anymore, so why did I just get him a coffee just the way he likes it when he did not even ask for one?". It is all rather spooky.