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Great to see Corey for the weekend!

Three weeks was enough for Margie and me. We really needed to see Corey's face, talk to him for longer than 15 minutes, and get a better feel for how things were going in Bradenton.

The weekend we dropped Corey off, we were running around so quickly that it was difficult to get a good feel for how Corey would adapt. We had confidence that he'd do fine and talked with him regularly over the past couple of weeks, but seeing him for a couple of days, hearing (and seeing!) how he was doing, and spending some time with a few of his friends and roommates made a huge difference.

We arrived late Friday night and went to see the boys play the Clearwater Chargers on Saturday morning. The team was split and one half played the Under-18 academy team; the other half played the Under-16s. The conditions were extremely hot (90+ and very humid).

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In the first match, Corey started and his team played well, mostly dominated, and earned a well-deserved 1-0 win. Nice goal, Rubio! In the second match, the boys struggled in the first half and fell behind 0-2, but stormed back in the second half to win 3-2.

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We had a great lunch with Corey afterwards. Margie took a bit of time to recover from the heat, but Corey shared a lot of details about the past few weeks, and "seeing Corey's face" was so valuable.

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Saturday night, we took Corey out for dinner with a couple of his roommates: Danya and BJ. It was a very nice dinner with three very nice young men. Another feel-good moment for Margie and me: Corey is hanging out with some very good boys.

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On  Sunday, we'd hoped to watch the Manchester United vs Chelsea match, but Corey was late for strength training during the previous week.The penalty: doing dishes for lunch on Sunday. So, instead, we waited for Corey to finish his penance, then Corey spent several hours with us on Sunday afternoon, doing some needed shopping and having another very nice meal with our boy.

In some ways, the trip reminded us how much we miss spending time with Corey on a daily basis, but it was pure chicken soup for our souls the entire weekend. I'm sure we'll continue to miss Corey greatly, but he's doing well and remains a great kid. It'll hold us over for a few more weeks, hopefully!

Margie and I took a large number of pictures this weekend. Residency Visit Pictures