A/N Thank you to plebs for your reviews on this, they've definitely encouraged me to keep going with this one. There's four chapters left after this and they'll probably go up over the next two weeks or so. Thank you all for reading.

Two weeks were quickly taken up with planning and paperwork as well as normal activities. Then suddenly it was Thursday, May 26th, the day of Constance's forty-third birthday and the day after their third anniversary.

"Are you having a good day?", Imogen asked as they packed up the car.

"Of course I am, a lovely couple of days actually. Thank you again for last night."

As they were going away that day, Imogen had made the decision to combine their anniversary celebrations with a surprise birthday tea for Constance. In attendance had been Amelia, Davina, Anna, John, Carrie and Jake, along with Matthew of course who had been thrilled to have been a key part of the special occasions.

"You're welcome, sweetie. And we've got this weekend too, I can't wait."

"We're just missing one very important person."

A few seconds later, having said goodbye to Amelia and Davina, Matthew finally emerged with his bag filled with snacks and entertainment for their journey on his back.

"There he is.", Imogen laughed as she watched Matthew ran out of the building, slowed down to look around, then picked up the pace again when he saw Imogen waving at him.

"Happy birthday again." He wrapped his arms around Constance's waist and gave her a squeeze. "Did you really like your present?"

"Thank you and of course I did."

With the help of Amelia, Matthew had been busy crafting some very special gifts including a painted plant holder. He had been especially happy when Constance and Imogen had told him they would definitely be bringing their cards so they could display them on their special weekend away. What made this weekend even better was that it was an extra long weekend so they would be gone for four whole nights. They were going to stay in a hotel which was really exciting for a little boy who had never been on a holiday before

"Ready to go Matty?"

"Yes!"

Their journey was relatively uneventful with thankfully quiet roads for the most part. Even after stopping for lunch it was just a little after four when Imogen pulled up outside the hotel that she had booked for them.

"Well, what do you think?"

Constance smiled widely as she looked at the familiar views. "I think it's perfect love. Matthew, what do you think?"

Matt leant between the two front seats and peered at the coastline in front of him. "It's very nice but where exactly are we?"

He had slept for the latter part of the drive so had missed any signs signalling where they were going.

"We're in Wales little man, in a place called Tenby."

"Wow Wales? We're not even in England anymore, that's mega!"

Imogen was pleased that her choice had gone down well. Constance's mother had been from Wales and she had often visited this part of the country as a child. While she didn't have any family still living in the area she and Imogen had come here several times since their marriage and as well as revisiting the past, had created many new memories here. Those memories had been a major factor in choosing this location for their weekend away as both were hoping that the conversation they were going to have with Matthew was going to give them one more very special one to add to their collection.

They entered the hotel and once they were checked in, made their way upstairs. The family room Imogen had booked was clean and spacious with a large double bed as well as a single bed under the window.

"Wheee.", Matthew threw himself on top of the big soft bed and spread his arms wide. "This is huge."

"Oh dear." Constance put down her bag and winked at Imogen. "Matthew you must be very tired if you need to lie down straight away. Maybe we should go to bed now?"

"I'm not tired and we have to go out, it's your birthday and we're going for dinner in a really nice place. Let's get ready"

After unpacking their bags and freshening up it was time to walk to a nearby restaurant that they had been to before. It was thankfully just as they remembered with plenty of choices to suit a hungry boy.

They had debated telling Matthew about the adoption that night but had decided on a better plan. On reflection, it had been the right decision as he was already a little bit overwhelmed by the long drive and the excitement of being somewhere new. But that wasn't going to stop them from enjoying the special meal and the anticipation of what was to come the following day.

"Time to go home sleepy boy." A couple of hours later Imogen lifted Matthew from his chair and carried him out of the restaurant.

"Not sleepy.", he yawned in response. It was very hard to keep his eyes open, maybe he was just a little bit tired?

Luckily the walk only took a couple of minutes and he was soon back in the room, cleaning his teeth with bleary eyes before crawling into bed.

"Thank you for making my birthday and our anniversary so special.", Constance whispered as she tucked him into the smaller bed.

"It was fun. Love you…"

"We love you too.", Imogen leaned down to kiss Matthew good night before holding out her hand. "Come on birthday girl, we have a big day ahead of us tomorrow."

This was the first time the three of them had shared a room and it was a slightly strange, though still very nice, sensation. After completing her nightly routine, Constance left the bathroom as quietly as she could before joining Imogen in bed.

"No hot birthday sex tonight, sorry.", Imogen giggled as she was swatted with a pillow.

"Shhhh." Constance looked over to make sure that Matthew was still asleep.

"It's fine, he's out for the count and I whispered. You made more noise shhh-ing me."

"Hmmm, well anyway, I don't mind, especially after the very nice time we had when we were alone this morning."

They settled down together, Imogen leaning back against her wife, sighing with happiness as she felt soft lips brush along the nape of her neck.

"I can't wait until tomorrow.", Constance confided.

"Me neither sweetie, let's try and get some sleep and it will be morning before we know it."

It took a little while but eventually, they both joined Matthew in sleep, each thinking about the next day and how they were going to break the news.

"Are you awake?"

"Hmmm, no….yes. What's wrong?"

Matthew grinned as he saw Imogen's green eye peering out from under the duvet. "Nothing, it's morning. I've been awake for ages reading my book in bed. I was going to get dressed but I thought I'd wake you first."

At this stage, Constance had also awoken and was listening to Matthew's account of his morning so far. To her surprise he was right, it was almost eight and most definitely time to get up, especially when they had such a busy day ahead.

Luckily both women were used to getting ready quickly and it was a little after 8:30 when they made their way down to breakfast. Matthew's eyes widened at the choices that were available but eventually, he narrowed it down to orange juice and some waffles with strawberries while his foster mothers enjoyed poached eggs, toast and coffee.

"I'm so full.", Matthew declared rubbing his stomach to emphasise his point.

"Oh that's good, we won't have to feed you until tomorrow so."

Mathew knew by now that Imogen was teasing him. "Well, you said we'll be walking lots so I'll probably be able to eat again later."

Constance watched the playful exchange and shifted a little in her seat. Judging by the skirt she was wearing, eating was possibly something she had been doing a bit too much of lately. She didn't want the realisation that she had gained some weight to ruin their weekend but she had already made a vow to herself to address it once they returned home.

"Shall we go?"

Their destination that morning was a well known botanical garden in a nearby town. Anywhere with a large variety of plants and flowers was always going to be of interest to Constance and Imogen but they were delighted to see how much Matthew was enjoying it as well.

"I like those flowers.. and those and oh…What's that?"

"Ahhh.", Constance answered him. "That's a venus fly trap. It's a very unusual plant because it eats insects. Do you see the leaves? They trap spiders and flies."

"But not humans?"

"No Matty. Most of the time insects eat plants but this is the opposite. It's just how nature works." Imogen remembered being fascinated by the plant when she was a child and she could see that Matthew was the same. "Maybe we can get one for the garden at home if you like it?"

"Yes please, Jake will think it's great."

Meanwhile, Constance had spotted a bench in a quieter part of the gardens and knowing that both she and Imogen were fit to burst, decided it was time to have a chat.

"I really like it here.", Matthew announced as he sat in between them on the bench. "This is a great holiday."

"We're glad you're having fun Matt." Imogen caught her wife's eye and on seeing the brief nod continued with what she wanted to say. "We're so happy you could come with us to share our anniversary and Constance's birthday but there's something else, something special we need to talk to you about."

Immediately Matthew shifted a little on the wooden seat. "Am I in trouble?"

"Oh no, not at all." Constance put her arm around him and kissed his hair, watching the worried look slip away as Imogen explained everything.

"No, this is a good thing. Well, we think it is and we hope you will too. Matty you know we love you and how much we want to adopt you. Well we have some news about that. Kerry has said we can start the process, so have the adoption board. The question is, do you still want to be our son?"

For a good minute, Matthew couldn't speak. Did he want to be Constance and Imogen's little boy? Forever? "You mean I can start being adopted? Forever adopted"

The verbiage wasn't quite right but even Constance wasn't going to correct him. "It's already started. We've filled in the paperwork and I have it in my bag ready to send as soon as you tell us we can. But we need you to tell us, is this what you want?"

"Yes. Yes. Yes." Not quite sure who to hug first Matthew spent a few seconds jumping up and down before hugging them both extra tightly. "I'm going to live with you forever.", he shouted loudly enough for the entire garden to hear him.

"You are little man. Now, we have to wait for the adoption order to come through, that might take a few weeks." Imogen saw the disappointed expression sweep across Matt's face but she knew what else she had to tell him would help cheer him up.

"But when that comes through we're going to have a very special day. We can go to the court with all our friends, everyone who was there last night, and you'll officially become our son. And then afterwards we thought we could have a big party with lots of food and music and you can invite your friends from school if you want to."

"Really?"

"Really.", Constance carried on. "And like Imogen said, you'll officially be our son then but that doesn't mean we don't already think about you like that. As far as we are concerned you are already our beautiful, special boy and we love you so much."

"I love you too. I already loved you but now I really, really love you."

They sat together on the bench for a few more minutes, each feeling happier than they could ever have imagined. Constance and Imogen were holding hands while Matthew sat between them, the smile on his face growing wider by the second.

"What are you thinking about?", Imogen asked after watching his wide range of expressions for a few moments.

"I'm thinking that I'm very happy. I'm also thinking I still don't know what I should call you. But I want to call you something special 'cos you'll really be my parents now."

"What ideas do you have?", Imogen prompted.

Matthew thought for a second. "Well, everyone calls their mothers Mummy and that's okay but I want something different for you." He turned to face Constance, "You know how Carrie and Jake call you Connie, well, I don't really like that."

Imogen covered her snigger with a cough, she knew someone else who wasn't too keen on it but put up with it because she didn't have the heart to ask the two children to stop.

"I understand.", Constance breathed a sigh of relief. She could put up with it occasionally but every day from her own child would have been a bit too much. "Let's take some time to think about it, shall we? I'm sure we'll come up with something."

"That sounds good."

With that important conversation complete, it was time to continue with their tour of the gardens before carrying out a very special task together.

It could have been anticlimactic for the most important letter they would ever send to be put with the others in the registered letters pile. But clearly they had gotten lucky with the older man who was working behind the counter. Clearly sensing that this was a very special document he winked at the little boy who was straining to see over the counter.

"You won't lose it will you?", Matthew knew he was being silly but he had to be completely sure.

"See that receipt there, that has my name on it so I will make sure nothing happens to your letter."

"Good. It's very special because the judge needs to get the letter so we can live together forever."

"Well in that case young man, I promise you that I will give it to the driver myself. We can't have a happy family not being able to live together for ever can we?"

"Thank you.", Imogen smiled at the kind man who had given Matthew the reassurance he so badly needed after his previous experience.

It was a very happy trio who left the post office, ready to carry on with their holiday. The paperwork was in safe hands and on it's way to the judge, now it was just a case of waiting for this next piece of the jigsaw to fall into place.