House of Tears

It finally happened. And yet, it was so unexpected and abrupt. J and F went home to their grandmother/father tonight. After another day in court, we got the call at about 4:30 that custody had been granted to grandma. Mike and J met F and I at work/daycare, F said his goodbyes to his classroom and teachers and we rushed home to start packing them up. That chore done in about 25 minutes (thanks to those outrageously HUGE ziploc bags!), we had some sweet time to sit together and talk. We were surprised at how emotional both of the kids were, J who prides herself on never crying couldn't stop herself, and little F we think understood what was going on and was inconsolable and wouldn't let Mike put him down. It really was an awful transition, though Mike and I tried our best to talk things through with J, reassure her how much we love them both and loved having them here for the summer, it was just hard all around.

So after going out to dinner with some dear friends, we returned to a strangely empty and quiet house. It's awful. Mike and I are so much more emotional than I had expected we would be. I guess there really is just no preparing yourself for something like this. It literally feels like our children were ripped from our arms today. We know with time it will get better and we'll all move on, but for now, it's a house full of tears.