I left home yesterday and arrived yesterday afternoon. I met a foster parent friend from online for early supper and drove through a horrible storm to my hotel.

I had today to myself.

I caught up on articles I was supposed to have written for the last month. That's about it.

Before I left, I managed to identify a ton of "garage sale" stuff in the attic. Matt and I agreed that 99% of it would be donated if it didn't sell. It has to go.

I had already identified a number of eBay items. They will go with us.

We're narrowing down the details of the relocation. The spring market is not projected to be any better than the fall market... but we really should've been listed by Labor Day to take full advantage. Now it's a matter of rolling the dice on what's left of the fall market, or waiting for the spring market. I'm not sure what would be worse.

Meanwhile, tomorrow is the hearing for Cookie. My lawyer filed a motion requesting a jury trial to terminate the parental rights, give us custody and allow us to adopt; plus a separate motion to visit her. I guess we'll see what happens. Her current foster parents truly would rather not adopt her unless it's an absolute last resort and she'd be going to a stranger if they didn't. So we are planning for her to come home at some point.

I'm scared. I'm afraid that all of this upset will have a permanent and negative effect on her. I'm afraid of what her mother's going to do just from us filing the motion. I'm afraid we'll spend a lot of legal fees for nothing. I'm afraid of what all of this is going to do to our current family. I'm afraid of all of it.

I just need to hand it over.