First Dates

I've been thinking about the perception of our home and what H and Baby T will think about it (to some extent the actual structure itself, but moreso the people it contains) when they arrive home, hopefully before Thanksgiving. **Hopefully, there will be an update on our court date and subsequently our embassy date as the courts should be gearing up to reopen any day now!**
I've mentioned to a few people the strange sense I've had lately about the first meeting with H and Baby T, but especially with H because she is no longer a baby. I'm going to assume that with Baby T, as with all my babies, we'll be given a "grace period", so to speak, whereby he'll think we're just grand as long as the food going in maintenance matches the food coming out maintenance; until such time as he joins the ranks of his older siblings in wondering, "Just HOW did I EVER wind up with these two knuckleheads as parents?" Anyone who is doubting me, clearly either never was or does not currently have an adolescent child (or more) living with them. Our resident adolescent has taken to watching his mom and dad do something just short of catastrophic embarassment and quickly responding, "And they're going to let YOU ALL adopt. Geez!"
But at least with him, we started at the beginning and had our "first date etiquette" in play for a while while we got used to one another. I find myself wondering, as one might do before going out on a first date with someone upon whom you REALLY want to make a good impression:
"Will he like me?" "Whatever will she think of this hair? I mean curly and red---scary! Not to mention all those little dots all over your face." "Will I say the right things?" "What if he doesn't like me?" "I don't really sound like THAT, do I?" and did I mention, "I really hope he likes me!" Except this isn't just a first date with the opportunity to give a phony phone number at the end and never see them again---it's a first date for keeps, which ups the ante quite a bit in my book. My hope is that we'll both venture slowly into this relationship and not scare each other off, maybe be "friends" for a little while, and see how we like it. Perhaps by the time Baby T is just starting to wonder how he found his way on to this particular ark, his sister, H, will be coming into a new kind of "grace period" the kind that comes after knowing someone for a while and accepting them for who they are and loving them freckles and all.