Well, we made it back from MN in one piece! It was a nice trip, and I ate a lot of hotdish, Anna! LOL My mom drove me nuts of course, the guilt trips got tedious, but whatever. I expected it. Apparently I was supposed to be in 20 places at once, meeting with every member of our family, even though she cancelled on ME for one thing, and the family we were supposed to make a special effort to see (and we did!) couldn't be bothered to show up at the family picnic we had scheduled for just that purpose. But somehow it's my fault. Oh, and not only am I supposed to show up, but I'm supposed to have a damn smile plastered on my face every second, even though I'm stressed out beyond belief trying to leave town that day. argh!

The best part of the trip was meeting Dave's son! It was awesome. The girl he was dating in high school decided she'd go off birth control, and told all of her friends she was going to try to have a baby, but neglected to mention that little tidbit to Dave. So she got pregnant, and at first all was well, but he flipped out when he found out she did it on purpose. So he couldn't stand to see her, and ended up not seeing the baby either. After a while he settled down, and wanted to see his son, but by then she had remarried and started another family with her husband, and he didn't want to intrude and show up on this kid's doorstep like "hi! I'm your real dad!" and totally freak him out. So then time just passed, etc. etc., and he didn't know what was the best thing to do, so he just stayed away. I think he was afraid of dealing with it at that point, since so much time had gone by (the boy is 12 now). (and yes, he's been paying child support this whole time.) So I've been trying to plant the seeds of reunion for many years now, and he finally got up the courage to contact her (through the state, since he wasn't allowed to have her contact information). But surprisingly, and thankfully, she was very open and receptive to the idea of them meeting, and was actually really great about it. She had to tell Dylan (the son) the whole story, since he'd pretty much grown up thinking her husband was his father, but he was really cool with it, and they talked on the phone a few times before we went out there, and the meeting went fantastic! We all met for lunch first, and that went so well we set up another meeting to spend the afternoon together at Dave's folks' house, so they could meet him too. There has been so much pain, and shame, and fear surrounding this situation for so many years - Dave has been carrying this guilt around since he was a teenager! So to see him have this huge weight lifted off his shoulders is such a wonderful thing for me to witness. I'm just so happy! And, Dylan is SO much like Dave, it's really crazy.

I have to make this all for now, I will be back soon with another update (I hope!).