Seattle, here I come!

Just a little over one more week until I see my sister! This trip has already been planned for a long while. Ava and I are flying out to Seattle (Hi Travis & Candice!) on the 18th to stay for a week.

It had been planned that Ava would stay with Lori for a year. She would attend Montessori school while Tara had time off, hopefully to grow up. If Tara's behavior didn't change radically, we would regroup in a year and make more permanent plans for Ava.

Of course, as it will, life got in the way of our well thought out plans. We are now thinking that Ava will stay in Seattle until Christmastime. She is soooo excited to go to school out there that she has been talking about little else but that for months, and Lori did not want to disappoint her. I suspect that Lori did not want to disappoint herself either, she really loves being around my little mija.

Everything is very fluid right now, as Lori isn't sure sure how well she will manage now with a four year old, but I think 3 months will work out perfectly. Her boyfriend is there to help, and Ava will be in school 4 days a week. Maybe it will be good therapy. For both of them - Lori and Ava.

Along with being excited about the trip, I'm a little scared and nervous. Lori says not to be surprised by her appearance, I'm not sure exactly what that means. I know there will be some very emotional times, especially since I know she wants to talk to me about some of her wishes for "after". When can you ever be ready for a conversation like that with your sister?

But we still have some bittersweet moments of laughter. Every time I visit Seattle, she's like a whirlwind tour guide, keeping me on the go from early in the morning until late at night, running from here to there, with activities planned every single day. I was telling her that I really need some rest, and I'd rather stick around the house a little more this time. She says, "Don't worry Cathi, you'll find that I've slowed down considerably." So we both got a chuckle out of that.

Cat