Kevin had his mind made up before we actually got to the ballet school yesterday; he was supposed to watch a class and then decide, but in his little brain he was already dancing. The reality of the school, though, caused a few nerves to fire up and he asked Alex if he would take a few weeks of classes with him, just long enough that he wouldn't be nervous about it anymore. I braced for the "no" answer and was pleasantly surprised by "yeah, sure, it might be fun." The beginner's instructor seems to have a sense of humor and doesn't mind that one of her new students is a head taller than she is and older than the average by about six years.

Neither kid is happy with what they have to wear during class--very short shorts and skin tight t-shirts--but it was quite a bit better than Kevin's ultimate fear: tights and a tutu.

This afternoon Kevin hid in his room, and I was afraid he'd changed his mind and didn't want to say so, but they don't start until next week so I intended on leaving him alone and letting him work through it. He poked his head out long enough to ask Alex for homework help, and half an hour later Alex came out to get me; he had the real reason Kevin was upset and knew we definitely needed to address it head on instead of waiting.

One of Kevin's classmates informed him this morning that his birth mother could change her mind and undo the adoption and take him back. He's been agonizing over the idea since ten o'clock this morning, and we didn't find out until almost four p.m. I didn't know what to think at first; I wasn't sure how Kevin could even believe this but he did because the kid who told him swore it had happened to his cousin.

Char practically crushed the phone in her hand while she dialed it to potentially ream the kid's mother out. While she gritted her teeth and tried to get to the bottom of it, I sat on Kevin's bed with him and worked like hell to convince him it wasn't possible. Even if she regretted giving him up to us, one--she doesn't know where we live, she only gets updates about him through Char's dad and two--the judge signed the final papers when he was six months old. It's a done deal.

He wanted to believe us, but the only thing that really made him feel better was Alex swearing that she'd have to get through him first, and there was no way he was letting a total stranger get anywhere near his little brother.

Char did get to the bottom of why Kevin's classmate said what he did; his adopted baby cousin was indeed returned to his birth mother when she changed her mind a week later. Whatever state they live in has a time set wherein a birth parent can reclaim a child; I don't know what it is, but I doubt it's more than a few weeks or a month or so, certainly not ten years.

We couldn't do more than reassure him that there's no scenario where we would even allow this to happen without making it seem to be a legitimate concern. We left him in his room with Alex and listened from the hallway for a few minutes; he asked Alex a few questions about what he thought his birth mother might be like, and would she even like him if she met him. Alex's answer was a firm, Of course she would, you're an awesome kid, and he eventually steered Kevin back into talking about starting ballet next week. That's when we stopped eavesdropping

We've mostly prepared ourselves for the questions he will inevitable have (and has had) about his birth parents, but this was never on our radar. How could it be?