Plans out the window

We've been keeping the whole adoption thing a secret from my parents. This is for two reasons: the first is that my mom went completely grandma-crazy over my brother's kids, and I'm not sure I'm ready to deal with that yet. The second is that it's long been a tradition in my family to save good news and such for surprises at special occasions. The bigger the news, the more it needs to be delivered as a surprise. Don't ask me why, because I don't know. It's just the culture of our family to do things that way.

Anyway, their birthdays are both in May, and for the occasion my brother and I have rented a cabin in Tennessee for a week, and we're all going to hang out together for that time. I was planning to deliver the adoption news then, hopefully with a copy of whatever license or paperwork we get from the State that says we're certified to start picking out kids.

My parents were planning to come down and visit us later on this year, probably some time in the fall. I was planning to tell them at the cabin to keep those plans loose so that they could be coordinated with our permanent placement, and then they could come down and meet their new grandkids.

It was all planned out, and now I'm learning that schedules have changed, and they think they can make it down next month for a short visit. The problem is that I know I won't be able to keep the secret from them while in close physical proximity. Heck, I almost spilled the beans on the phone the other day. When all of your thoughts and conversations of late have revolved around a particular subject, it's hard not to blab about it to anyone you talk to.

So I guess they're getting their birthday gift a little earlier than planned. I suppose changing plans is something I'll have to get used to when kids come along anyway, so I need to see this as practice.