In the midst of all my wine-fueled flailing, I honestly cannot tell you how *incredibly* helpful and reassuring it was to read this. Since I've never been through this before, I really don't know what's possible/what's not, I just have a persistent sense that I'm going to fuck up at SOME point in the process and then the whole thing will go flooey. But you're right; nobody involved wants this to NOT work out.

Thanks so much for the words of wisdom!