David's Story Part 3: Second Meeting

7/8/03
To Mary:

We were finally able to see David again. First they wanted him to have some time to think, then his current foster mother wanted to take him camping. All good and important activities; I just didn’t think it would take two weeks until we saw him again. Ann is here for a two week respite, so that makes things interesting too.
We just had a picnic lunch with David. It definitely had a date feel to it: awkward, struggling to find something to talk about. It was just him, Andrew, me and Hubby (Ann and Brian both have day classes this week). David definitely focused on me, which is not surprising. After lunch we went to do some boring errands. In the store Andrew and Hubby went to electronics and I went to look at fans...he came with me. When I was done and went back to electronics he immediately became interested in looking at the stereos, keeping some distance between him and Hubby.

Of course Carl and Ann were both like that. They are all more wary of men. Hubby of course is the gentlest man in the world, but it takes them a while to trust that.

David will come back on Wednesday and Thursday and we will take him along to PFLAG on Friday. I suppose that we should spend some time talking about house rules and stuff. We still do not have a picture of what he is like when he is angry or not cooperative. We probably just won't know until we experience it. (I’m so aware of how much our experience with Ann is affecting me now. You know I almost want to make him angry just so that I know what it looks like. Yep…this is helping me understand why the kids test me.)

David's Story Part 1: The Beginning
David's Story Part 4: More Visits