Visiting DaDa

Tay called Cord DADDA from the time she could talk. It was so endearing that we kept it going and Buds calls him that now too.

Mike and I took our 5th wheel down to Single Tree RV park in the Boulder mountains last week. On Saturday we hooked up and headed to Gunnison, (one hour and 40 minutes from Torrey) meeting Jana and Taylar there. Last time we took the trailer, we had to unload it at the Shake Shack downtown, as they wouldn't let us drive it through the gates of the prison. (they would have had to "search" every inch of it). When we asked if we could just unhook it on the road outside the prison, they said that would look "too suspicious" ??? SO we parked it at the park just across from the prison grounds and hopped in with Jana and drove her car through the prison gates.

We actually made lunch (turkey sandwiches, chips and H2O) in our trailer before we went in. Cord eats lunch at 11:00 a.m, so we wanted to time it so he could get dinner at 4:00 too. Our trailer wasn't level, since it was just parked at the curb and Tay kept sliding off of the bench seat. She is so funny. We are glad she wants to see Cord each week.

McCord told us last week that he had received the papers on Tuesday, saying that Tay and Buds were cleared to come in, so he was hoping that we would bring them with us on our next visit.

We were thankful that Steph let us take them. Last week, we actually started out with the whole prison in "lockdown". Actually they said it wasn't technically a "lockdown", just a "situation". But they couldn't tell me the difference.[Later, the guard told us that it was one individual who was alone in his cell....incidenting...] All we knew was that we had a narrow window before Buds had to take his nap and that window was definitely narrowing.

We finally got to go in after about 1/2 hour wait. Tay was anticipating the DOOR CRASHING as her mom had prepared her....after hearing it open and shut, she told us that it wasn't scary at all.

We were assigned table #6 and went into the enclosed, muggy blue room and waited for Cord to come out. He has to walk a long ways from where his housing unit is, so we usually have to wait about 10 minutes.

When you bring kids in, you are assigned to a windowed "blue" room (one wall is painted blue), i guess so they won't bother the other inmates' visits. I took the kids over to where Cord has to be scanned with a security wand before he can come in to our side of the visiting room, in the main visiting room. I could see a shiny glint in his eyes....Tears??? HE REALLY DOES LOVE THOSE KIDS!!!! AND HE WAS FRIED! LoBSTer RED...from being out in the yard for 2+ hours...he didn't buy sunscreen from commissary..said it was a waste of money?

Taylar was being shy and Cord took Buds and hugged him. Since Cord shows such little emotion, I was feeling disappointment at his reaction.......I wanted him to cry and scream and hug them...after all, he hasn't seen them for 8 months! Tay grabbed around his legs and then Cord picked her up too and he carried them both back to the "blue room" where Tay sat on his lap for the next two hours.

Buds had had to lock his sippy cup into a locker (they wouldn't allow liquids in, but allowed his blanket in), so he kept going to the door and telling us (using our locker key) "I need to unlock this door...I'll be right back. I need my sippy". He is a BIG BIG two year old. There was another little boy in there and Buds was at least a head taller and when I asked the mother how old he was, she said he was 3 1/2. Buds could have taken him easy....

The time went by quickly. Buds finally gave up and fell asleep on his blanket on the floor. A guard came in and told us to pick him up...he might get stepped on. SO Cord held him the rest of the time. He got a work out since Buds weighs 47 #! (that was back in May) But what a sweet lovable 47 #

Cord says he stays busy with his new schedule and goes to bed early and gets up early. I don't know where his letters are...Oh, wait...he isn't writing any....so much for "His Blog" ha

This time, when Tay saw Cord come out, she ran over to him and he threw her up and hugged and kissed her....Cord talked to Tay the whole time and just couldn't seem to get enough of her. It is a sad thing to see all those inmates in our "blue" room with their little families. Choices oh yes AND accountibility.

Cord said that the HOPE program has only had 10 successes where the graduates of the program have NEVER come back to prison!!!...ONLY 10???? I made Cord pinky promise that he would be the 11th success story!!! oh the POWER OF THE PINKY

When it was time to go it was sad. Tay said loudly, " I LOVE YOU DADA!!!! (MOre hugs and kisses)....See YOU SATURDAY!" and then they waved to each other until Cord had to get "stripped searched" in the other room and we couldn't see him anymore. (the guard motions for Cord when it is his time to leave and then he snaps on his black plastic gloves...we asked Cord what does "strip search" mean???? and why the black gloves??? He said that he guesses they don't want to touch the inmate's clothing? Because they don't check every orifice of their bodies...which I was envisioning....so that is a relief to a mother anyway, if not for the inmate. ha)

Another Saturday down. only 8 months to go.