Re-integration

When Vincent used to go over to his father's for the weekend or for part of a vacation, we'd sometimes plan "re-integration" activities - fun activities that were supposed to get us used to being together again, get Vincent used to our expectations again, and do something fun. Vincent came home around 7:30 p.m. (8-9 hours after the family meeting with Aaron and Ian), we called the police (as we were supposed to) and an officer came out (an officer whom Vincent didn't impress that much), and then Vincent went to bed. Vincent had gone off the next day to hang out with his friend/prom date, Jessi, who lost electricity for only 6 hours during the whole escapade. Lewis, her father, and Jessi had periodically kept us informed on Vincent's activities, even though they didn't have his where abouts (Vincent saying they would tell on him). One generally fun aspect of Ike aftermath, you'll recall, was we basically HAD to eat out - we couldn't cook on our electric stoves (and a lot of groceries - though we hadn't really checked much yet by Tuesday) - had gone bad. Vincent wanted to go out to eat with Jessi, her family, and a friend, who he had spent the day with. We were still and are still pushing him to follow through with his agreement to "check in with us' about going somewhere different. He "informed" us by phone that he was going out to eat with Jessi and her family, and we ended up joining them - at BBC (Bluegrass Brewing Company...not the Bradfordville Blues Club we used to go to in Tallahassee)- a restaurant nearby that Stephanie and I had visited for the pub crawl and where we had gone out to eat for one relatively unhappy Kentucky Derby. It was a fun scene there - it was packed on a Tuesday night because lots of folks in St. Matthews had no electric power. One thing that happened - besides the happy festive atmosphere (partly because some folks were also out of work this week - the bank account wasn't so thrilled about eating out a lot) - was we ran into other people we know - In fact, when we got there, we settled into a table with Debbie, our church music director and mother of Jessi, while Vincent sat at a nearby table with Jessi and a friend of hers. Lewis, Jessi's father, was off in the courtyard outside having a cigar with our pastor's husband (!?). Lewis re-joined us eventually. In the picture above, Stephanie had joined Vincent, Jessi, and her friend in a happy scene that made it seem like all was forgiven. Below - Stephanie has re-joined Debbie and me. We also ran into another youth group family, Maria, Peter, and sons, Luis, and Daniel. We used to often give rides to Luis and Daniel to youth group before Vincent's rebellion.

Below, Lewis has re-joined us.

We like this family from church and are glad Jessi and Vincent are friends, and they helped serve as a glue/buffer for us on that first full day back home for Vincent. At one point we thought Lewis would be a good mediator since Vincent actually listens to Lewis, but Ian is someone that Vincent can relate to given some of their similarities. (It turns out they and their daughter have faced some struggles in the past year plus, and Stephanie listened eagerly about that (and good news about how that's been going recently.)

-- Perry