BACK IN RALEIGH

Amstel's back in Raleigh. Small clarification from the last blog post. My family was never disappointed about sharing time with Robbie's family. In fact, everything turned out better than we had ever planned. The last night the Dollars were in town, the Leonard and Hutton families got to spend time together with Deanna while celebrating Robbie's sister Julia's high school graduation party at the country club. The only small mishap the entire trip was that Don's flight got canceled and he didn't make it to Pittsburgh! Nevertheless, De and Deanna got to visit everyone, and Deanna got to see her Mimi (my mom), Papa (my dad), and every single other relative under the sun. Main point -- a little compromise goes a long way, and our families got along great. I didn't mean to hurt any feelings, but at the same time I have to be truthful about open adoption. The last thing I'd want to do is misrepresent it as absolutely perfect. Because it's not perfect. I won't speak for anyone other than myself from this point on, but I refuse to continue blogging if I cannot be fair in presenting all sides of open adoption. Good or bad. I want to say a huge thank you to Robbie's grandparents for purchasing the Dollars' plane tickets and to Don, De, and Deanna for taking the time to come visit us in Pittsburgh this year. THANK YOU! Pictures from the trip: