Published: 17 Jun 2019

When David got home, he told me about the phone call he had gotten from the boys when they returned to the dorm from their Summer School and I told him about mine and we told each other how much we wanted them in our lives. We agreed to call our lawyer friend and get him started on a petition for adoption as soon as our custody was made permanent. David also told me about meeting with his boss about offering the rooms upstairs in the big house for emergency placements.

We had decided to offer the rooms upstairs for students who needed temporary housing, we really didn’t need the rental income from a month to month renter, but we thought if we made the bedrooms available temporarily to students who had to be on campus before they got room assignments, or who had to move out of a dorm or their own apartment for a legitimate reason and had nowhere to go, we might be able to help them out. Then there was the problem of waiting for the appropriate housing needed for some of the vets that David and his boss had to work with. Although my old quarters and all the bathrooms on the second floor were ADA (Americans With Disabilities Act) compliant, there was no elevator in the house, so I had a stairlift put in for both the service stairs at the back of the house and the wide front staircase. In addition, we also had installed safety ladders at the windows at the rear of the house. They were an installed chain link ladder that stored in a box beneath the window and could be tossed down the side of the house to the ground to enable an escape from a fire, we had had them installed in all the upstairs bedroom windows in the renovated carriage house. The Victorian was now ADA compliant.

On Friday when David and I drove to Springfield it wasn’t just to pick up Davey and Matty, we had received a call from their social worker. There was a boy in Davey’s dorm room, another six-year-old, who was Davey’s “bestest” friend and both boys were torn apart about Davey possibly leaving the home, and Eric back at the dorm. Eric was slipping into a depression, and even Matty had noticed and had asked us if Eric could come to our house for the weekend, thus the call from the social worker yesterday. We had called her, after Matty’s call on Wednesday (just casually asking what we were doing, as if we were doing something fun without the boys, which we were, but had just finished and we both had showered to remove any evidence of our cumfest) and we left her a message asking about taking Eric along with our boys for the weekend.

She gave us a bit of information about Eric, who had been born to a streetwalker who in all honesty had tried to provide for him and had done a pretty good job of it, until one of her tricks had tried to mess with Eric, who was three at the time. From the police reports, the mother had gone berserk and attacked the man with a steak knife and had castrated him after repeatedly stabbing him in the neck. The police had tried to restrain her but while trying to do so she had broken away from them and had run into the busy street and had been struck and killed by a passing dump truck. He had been “in care” ever since. Eric didn’t relate well with adults, he felt much more comfortable with other children, which explained why he hadn’t “connected” with any prospective fosterers in the two years he had been living in the dormitory at DCFS. David had asked her what she thought about him accompanying Davey and Matty this weekend and she thought that with the brothers being along, that would help tremendously, as those were the two boys he related most with. We told her we were willing to give it a shot, for both of the younger boy’s sake.

We were so pleased when we went to pick up the three boys that Davey and Matty rushed to greet us and gave us hugs and kisses which we gladly returned and then Davey went to the bench along the hall wall and talked to a little guy, a boy a bit smaller than Davey. Davey then took his hand and brought him over to meet David and me. Davey told us that this was his friend Eric and if it was OK with us, he’d like him to come visit this weekend with all of us. I kissed Davey’s head, he had sounded so grown up I just knew he had practiced that little speech, probably with his social worker, and then I reached out my hand to Eric, and he stared at it, and then with a nudge from Matty, he reached out and shook my hand and Matty told him I was Dad, or Matt and then David stuck his hand out to shake and Matty told Eric that this was Daddy and his name was David. Eric giggled and told the brothers that he thought they were kidding when they told them our names the other day, and Eric giggling set us all off and we all went through the sign out process and we gathered up three bags this week and started off for home, of course stopping for our milkshake treats on the way.

Once home we first let Eric pick a room, and to no one’s surprise he chose the room right next to Davey’s, a room with a double bed, but this one shared the same shower bath as Davey’s, the bath connected the two bedrooms. Once everyone was settled in, we started to lead the boys on a tour of the home, so Eric would know his way around and then we took them out to the pool. We thankfully had extra life jackets, so getting the boys into them was easy, getting them out of the pool an hour and a half later wasn’t so easy, until David started up the grill on the patio and then they couldn’t get rinsed off and dressed fast enough.

Maybe it was that, even though we were older, and both of us were adults, the fact that we played games in the pool with them all and didn’t try to play favorites, but Eric seemed to start to relax after our pool time. He opened up even more as we sat at the patio table having our burger dinner as a family and by bedtime, he was even asking us questions, and laughing along as we all watched a kid’s movie Matty had picked out. When we did our tuck-in routine that first night Eric held his hand out to shake and I asked if I could have a hug instead. He appeared to think that over, but he held out both his arms and as we hugged, I kissed his ear and he giggled that cute giggle again and he did so again when David did the same to his other ear when they hugged. We told him if he got lonely, we were just at the end of the hall, but we had lit a night light in the shared bathroom and he could go and be with Matty or invite him to sleepover in his room if they both wanted. I wasn’t sure just what he started thanking us for, but it really didn’t matter, he was communicating and interacting with us, and that was the goal right?

That night in bed David and I talked about a lot of stuff, like our mutual love, the fact we were even more sure about taking in Matty and Davey, how little Eric needed some TLC and that we thought we had seen a glimmer of improvement in him since we had picked him up. Just as we were dozing off, we heard some high-pitched giggles coming from Davey’s room through our open door. I tiptoed over to his door and after listening for a few seconds I tiptoed back to bed and told David all I had heard.

It seems Eric found David and me to be a lot kinder than he had imagined and that Davey was right when he had told him that. He thought we were both nice looking, and Davey said we were the best-looking Dads he had ever seen at the Home and both little guys had chuckled at that. Davey asked Eric if he was going to be happy here with all of us, and Eric said he was just starting to feel happy, after the fun in the pool and even playing around in the pool, but the best was when he got hugged before falling asleep, not once, but by both of us, And Davey said that was one of the best things he had liked about last weekend, and even Matty agreed with that. There had been more giggling and then I heard them giggling as they both got under the covers and then they acted out the hugging and “sweet dreams” we always told the boys, and I swear they included the ear kisses we had given Eric just about two hours ago. They both giggled again and then it went silent in there. David and I tried the ear kissing ourselves, and liked it, and what it led to.

Everyone was up and ready to eat by the time David and I had waffles and bacon ready in the morning and we told them all to dress like David and I were, in jeans and sneakers, and maybe one t-shirt and to bring another to pack in our picnic carrier, just in case.

The boys scampered about getting dressed, trying to guess where we were going, but they couldn’t, and it gave David and me a bit of a kick to be able to keep our plans for the rest of the day a secret, for now

We drove to the riverside in Hadley and after the Bike Museum we turned up a farm road on the left and through the fields, but didn’t stop, we drove right up the mountainside to the very top, the three boys craning their necks to see as we drove right through the dense forest on the mountainside to the top, where we parked in the small lot and we made our way to the big white building, surrounded by open porches and offering a view of three states on a clear day, we were on the top of Mount Holyoke in the Skinner State Park. Most of the area was walkable, so after the boys got a good look at boats on the river that to the naked eye looked like leaves floating atop the water, and cars on the road hundreds of feet below us, looking like bugs smaller than ants moving along in their lanes, and taking turns on the big commercial telescopes, we hiked into the woods and following one of the printed guides we took a long excursion to the lake on the opposite mountainside and watched the wildlife and birds take on water and little aquatic organisms, from a distance, to not disturb their feeding and hunting. We got to see hawks of various breeds soaring and swooping in the airfoils overhead and creatures scurrying off into the brush as we made our way back, the boys watering a few trees as we did, it was just too far from the toilets at the lodge and the boys were excited to be out in the woods.

Once back at the Summit Lodge we got our food carrier out of the car then picked one of the empty picnic tables and ate our lunch out of doors, watching the miniature world move along well below us, the boys occasionally running to a telescope to see it magnified. It smelled so good up there and I remembered my folks taking me there when I was Matty’s age and how insignificant I felt after, seeing how small our world as we knew it really was.

I had a chance to do something here that my parents never thought of doing for me, I took Matty over to the wood side and pointed at a tree growing there. It was at least forty or fifty feet high, a huge pine, not as big as a Sequoia, but pretty big for a mountaintop in New England. I asked him if it started that big, from the very beginning, and then pushed aside a bunch of leaves and pine needles about ten feet from the base of the trunk of the huge pine and there, growing up from the ground were several saplings, no, not even as big as a saplings, maybe I should call them seedlings, no bigger than a fifty cent piece in height.

Matty stuttered out that he guessed they started out kind of small and then grew really big. I showed him the seedlings and he caught on right away, he pointed right at them and asked if those would grow as big as the huge pine tree. I explained that with the right conditions, and protection from the bad weather, and nasty pee from boys who pissed in the woods, and clods who would step on them and crush them, then yes, they had a chance to grow as big and strong as the huge pine we had just been looking at.

He looked at the seedlings for about a half minute and then flung himself so hard into my arms that from my crouched position we both toppled over with him on top and me on the bottom. He was clutching my torso as hard as a nine-year-old could and he was sobbing, telling me he got it, he got what David and I were doing, we were offering to take him, and his brother and their friend, and nurture and protect them so they too could grow big and tall and strong enough to withstand whatever came their way, well he used nine year old phraseology, but that was the gist of it, he wanted all three of them to be our sons and I couldn’t have been prouder of him for catching on as quick as he did, and for trusting us to finish raising him and his brother and Eric, for it was obvious that it was the three of them or nothing as we had noticed the way they all reacted to each other today, just as we imagined three close brothers would.

When we rejoined the others, we had already brushed off the pine needles from our hair and clothing that had been picked up from the ground and the others were exploring through the binoculars again, David having as much fun as the two youngsters. Matty took one last look around and then asked the two six-year-olds if it wasn’t time for a swim. He looked up to David and I and asked if that was alright, Dads, and David spoke before I could and said that that was a great idea, son.

We spent the last two hours of the afternoon in the pool, tossing the boys around with their life jackets on and each of them trying to make the biggest splash. It was at the two-hour mark that I got everyone’s attention and told them that we had better get rinsed off and into trousers and nice shirts as we had a wedding meeting and dinner with the women folk at their farm at the edge of town. So, into the house we all went, and the boys rinsed off together, as did David and I and then we were off to the farm that Mary and Lou now owned and where their soon to be foster daughter, Beth, was having her second weekend visit also.

Dinner was a roast but with Potato Salad and Coleslaw for sides and after there was a Strawberry Shortcake made with a decadent Pound Cake. We sat around the cleared kitchen table as the kids all watched an animated movie in their living room and we hashed out the details of the ceremony next Saturday. It would be pretty basic, both couples would come together from the side wings of the church and meet before the altar where Fr. Wilkins would say an abbreviated wedding Mass and at the vow exchanges both couples would act as witnesses for each other while our own kids would be our attendants and ring bearers, the eight of us standing the entire time except for the Mass part, then we would all take the first pew, the vows to follow right after.

What needed more working out was the food for the reception and who was going to cook what. I took it all in, the three of them trying to divide the mountains of food equally when I pulled a typed menu out of my pocket and passed it around. I had totally messed this up, and I admitted it, I had contacted the caterer who had served the reception after Tony’s memorial Mass and forgotten to tell anyone I had hired them for the upcoming Saturday afternoon to cater a barbecue lunch as our joint reception. I apologized dozens of times and then they started to laugh at me. That my wedding presents to the three of them were barbecued ribs. In my defense, I didn’t have to go out shopping for them and I didn’t have to spend three days before my own wedding cooking for 80 people. They did thank me profusely after all the hilarity, and David admitted that I knew the way to his heart, which I proved to him twice that night in bed, after the three boys were sound asleep.

Sunday, we took the boys for another canoe ride at the reservoir and Eric got to see the ruins under the water and also a mother deer and her two fawns. The boys went nuts over this sighting, and we had to all be very still or it would have scared them away, even if they were on the shore and we were forty feet away on the water in the canoe. Eventually, they did scamper away, and the boys cheered, finally being able to let loose. Sunday afternoon we asked Eric if he’d like to start coming here on the weekends and he said he’d like that a whole lot, but didn’t we have other plans for the next weekend? We told him we did, but we had built him into our plans for the rest of our lives already. Yup, we got our hugs.

We had one more task that day and that was to get the boys all a white dress shirt, a tie, dark dress pants, and dark shoes. We were not dressy sorts, but for our wedding, we were going to wear our good suits and we wanted the boys to feel special in their new clothes also. We ate out at a family-style restaurant and when we were all done, it was a short drive to drop the three boys off at their dorm at the DCFS facility. It was a mixed bag of emotions at the drop-off and signing them back in and through all that I worried about the next Sunday, would Matty and Davey have to come back? What would Eric feel if he was the only one dropped off, for that matter, how would David and I feel about that? While David was giving hugs to each of the boys and talking to them, I went to the kindly woman on duty and she recognized me and the boys and said she could tell I had questions, and she said Mary (our caseworker) was here to talk to us after the boys went to their dorm rooms.

Once I got my hugs and kisses the boys went through the double doors to their dorm rooms and Mary stepped out of the office and led us to the bench along the wall. She asked how everything went this weekend and how Eric fitted in. We told her about how we had noticed a good change in Eric, and by the end of the weekend he was as comfortable as the other two boys, in fact we had asked him to participate in our wedding next weekend with Davey and Matty and she nodded, telling us she had been watching how he handled the return and his cuddling as we said our goodbyes, and she was going to propose that next weekend, when it was time for the boys to be returned, that we keep all three at our house for say, the next ten to fifteen years at least. She had said that with such a straight face that it took us a second or two to have it sink in, but boy were we happy. She also suggested we bring six or so boxes or suitcases with us next Friday, so we could move all the boy’s belongings with us and to plan on spending at least 15 minutes, while each boy packed, to fill out the final set of papers for each of the three boys. That got her hugs and cheek kisses.

The week flew by for David and me, and as we expected, the calls we got during the week from the boys included Eric and he was really opening himself up to us, I think because we had assured him our plans for the future included him also. He was so pleased to be wanted and pleased it was the same home as his bestest friend Davey, and Matty as well. My work progressed and even Mary was able to work the week of our wedding along with our other staff. We got a lot accomplished and then on Tuesday afternoon, I got a call from David while he was at work.

David had had a pair of veterans come in to see about registering for classes under the GI Bill. David was on duty, so he had run through the forms and requirements with them and as they were talking, he realized by their answers that they were a couple, same address, same home phone number, same discharge date, same discharge air force base. In talking to them he found out they wanted to pursue studies in education to become grade or middle school teachers, just like himself. They both had transcripts from colleges near the bases they had been stationed at, proving they had completed three years of college level courses in the education field, with only a semester of practice teaching and one of final classes before gaining their teaching degrees, the BA (Bachelor of Arts degree) and they could work on their Master’s while teaching, or continue on and stay at the University and earn those before teaching, like David was doing.

The similarities between the three got them talking and David revealed he was getting married on the coming Saturday and the two others seemed to him to pull back slightly, until David mentioned that he and Matt, his fiancé, were almost finished with the process of gaining permanent custody of three boys. The other two perked right up at that and began asking all kinds of questions about the fostering process in Massachusetts, as they had just arrived in Amherst on Saturday and decided to see if they could attend UMASS before even looking for housing. Ken and Ben had thought of finding someplace a little cheaper than the motel they had checked into out in Hadley, until they knew if they wanted to settle here permanently and then they’d purchase a house. David was pleased with their answer and had asked them to stick around as he made a call.

While in his office he explained to me about the two guys out in the waiting area, and that he felt they might make good tenants for my former quarters in the big house. I asked if he would be comfortable with them living next door to us and the boys, and he said he was sure, as sure as he could be after talking to them and helping them fill out the forms for the university and for the government. He felt comfortable with them. I told him to have them stop by for dinner and we’d take them over and show them what we had available in the house for them.

They followed David back to our home in their car, and they were a bit surprised when he led them over to the carriage house instead of the main house, until he opened the front airlock door and they could see through the glass the wide-open rooms in front of them. They both were impressed and then there were a hundred questions to be answered, thankfully we had a photo album with photos of the renovation in it. When I arrived home from the big house the three of them were at the kitchen counter and David was showing the guys the pictures and was explaining the process of the transformation.

When I entered, David introduced me and we both explained the renovation that transformed the carriage house into the, OK, I’ll say it, the stunning home it was today. We continued to chat about the house after they had a tour of the whole house and then they began asking questions about the fostering program as David and I prepared dinner and even while we were eating at the table. They were so interested we gave them Mary’s info and the website they could register at for the on-line courses and tests. After dinner we took them over to the main house and showed them around that also, finishing on the second floor at my former quarters. My feelings about these two, Ben and Ken, was that they were just like David felt, they were two nice inquisitive guys who had survived six years in the service and hadn’t been sussed out by their crewmates or their officers. They planned on being together for life and wanted the security of worthwhile jobs and a happy home life with a child or two to share their lives with.

When we returned to our home Ben and Ken asked what we wanted for rent for the self-contained unit we had just shown them, and they agreed to our price and gave us the full month’s rent and the next right away. We didn’t feel the need for a security deposit, but we did have them sign a standard month to month rental agreement. They’d move in the next day. We invited them to our wedding, explaining we were having a double ceremony with one of my employees, who also happened to be a friend, as was her intended wife. We told them that Friday they would be able to meet our prospective sons, and of course, I had to show them pictures of the three boys that had stolen our hearts.

The rest of the week was filled with the normal activities for us, working out, swimming in the pool, sometimes Ben and Ken would join us there but for the most part, we were free to fool around and practice for our wedding night by ourselves. Thursday night the boys called and told us that the kitchen staff at the facility had saved them some boxes and we didn’t have to bring any, they had donated anything that didn’t fit, to the other boys and they each had just two boxes to move to our home. It felt really good when Matty told us that, “our home”, it just about made us weep again. We made sure their new wedding clothing and shoes were still looking fresh and pressed and their dress shoes shined. It wouldn’t do to have to run around on Friday to make sure they looked like a part of the ceremony.

We all met with Fr. Wilkins on Friday late in the afternoon after we picked the boys up and the ladies had gathered up Beth and her belongings. It was a quick walkthrough of the next day’s ceremony and then it was home where we had dinner waiting, a big pan of lasagna we had put together that afternoon before picking up the boys and their belongings. After dinner, we helped all three boys get their stuff organized in their rooms and then we watched a few programs before it was their bedtime. Eric and Davey thought this was the best time of the day and Matty said he was the oldest, so he could wait to be last tonight.

The tuck-ins were as much fun for us as it was for the boys and Matty told us that he had wanted to go last so he had us all to himself for a few minutes extra. He was not a changed boy, I think he always had it in him to be a kind brother, but you knew that he had meant what he said about anyone hurting his brother, he was also protective about Eric we had noticed. I wished I had had an older protective brother when I was growing up., David had told me the same thing, but both of us had been only children, I thought that this was a small part of David and I wanting a family, we were probably creating the family we had always wanted to be a part of.

It wasn’t until Saturday morning when the boys got to meet Ken and Ben. They came over to join us for a swim before we all had to get dressed for the wedding. We thought it might let the boys get rid of some of the nervous energy they had, as well as let us do the same. Just before a quarter past nine, we all had to go and get rinsed off and dressed for the ceremony at eleven, so we told Ken and Bill they could follow our car to the church and then to the reception after. David and I had to take pictures of the boys all dressed up and Matty took some of David and me in our suits, and then I showed him how to take some automatically, so he could get in some of the group shots and then we were off. Ben and Ken were kind enough to take some of all of us out front and then it was off to meet the two nervous brides and their Beth at the church.

It all went just as we had rehearsed it the day before and the boys and Beth did their bits really well when it was their turn to pass on the four rings to Fr. Wilkins, two at a time of course. The church organist played a rousing rendition of “Love is in the Air” as we walked the aisle out of the church, Beth with Mary and Lou walked all together ahead of us, Matty between David and I and Davey and Eric each holding one of our outside hands as we walked five abreast up the aisle. Two married families.

I was, I admit, surer of what we were doing, regarding the boys, than ever at that moment. They hadn’t hesitated one iota in doing their part in participating in our wedding, and for that matter, neither had Beth. I wondered if the kids thought that all kids being fostered had to go through some sort of ceremony like this to become a part of a family, but right now wasn’t the time to explore this, now was the time to celebrate our union, as wedded partners, and with the boys, now that they had officially moved in with us.

We formed what must have looked like the biggest reception line at the bottom of the church entrance stairs, and we spent the next hour or so greeting the folks that had attended the church services, with introductions for those friends on both sides we all hadn’t met yet. Mary and Lou got to briefly meet Ken and Ben and we got to meet some of the teachers that Lou worked with at the middle school she worked at. Not everyone at the church was attending our luncheon reception, but most were so it was a happy caravan that drove over to the farm where Mary and Lou had assured us that the caterer had started their set up at nine this morning and the ribs had been cooking from that time on the big cookers they had brought.

When we pulled into the farmyard it was evident there was a party planned for today. There was a big marquee set up with tables and chairs inside and what looked like a dance floor in the middle. One of the catering staff recommended we use the house facilities for a half hour, maybe take some pictures of each other and let our guests settle inside the marquee and then make our entrance. David said that made sense, as the caterers knew the timetable it would take to get everyone served their meal and anything that would help them perform efficiently was good, so we all went into the house and availed ourselves of the bathroom facilities, sneaking hugs and kisses while the boys were in the bathroom we were assigned.

We noticed through the windows our guests lining up at the port-a-potties the caterer had arranged to be dropped off this morning, so we were glad of a bit of private time in the house. After what turned out to be more like an hour, which we did use to take group and separate family pictures we were escorted to the marquee and we made our entrance to a standing ovation from our co-workers and friends.

We all had a wonderful meal put together by the catering crew and then after the plates and platters had been picked up someone started a CD player and the dancing began, with the two couples dancing together to a slow number and then a slightly faster one was played and the four kids joined us and we all had fun watching the kids let loose. It really was a great afternoon and by six the crowd started to break up. I think the boys were operating on automatic, even Matty, the oldest, so we bid our goodbyes and thank yous to those few remaining and then with Bill and Ken following we drove home. By then the three boys were comatose and we had to carry them up to bed, Ken helping, but once he had Davey on his bed, he bade us all good night and skedaddled. We got the boys undressed to their undies and began tucking them in and whispering “sweet dreams” to them and when we got to Eric he was apparently not quite out yet, as he mumbled to us, “Are we all married now, we’re all going to be a real family?” I hugged him and told him we were, we were a big family now. He snuggled into his pillow with a big smile on his face and drifted off into a deep sleep.

The boys were up early the next morning and we could hear them talking in Davey’s room, discussing the events of yesterday and it appears they had never been to a large private party before, sure they had experienced the group parties at the home but there the children outnumbered the adults and yesterday the adults totally outnumbered the children. They liked the vows we exchanged and as we were 69ing we had to stop to giggle at some of their impressions of their big day yesterday. We ended up just laying together listening to their talking and we realized that they all thought we were all married now, inseparable.

While we prepared breakfast for us all we explained to the boys about the adoption process, that right now they were in our permanent custody, but we wanted more, so in about ninety days we would have another kind of ceremony, but this one would involve a judge, not Fr. Wilkins, but it would involve Fr. Wilkins’ brother, who was our lawyer. He was going to pass our request to the judge to make all three of them our legal children for ever and ever. Davey spoke up, asking when they could call us Dad or Daddy and we told them that since they would be living with us, we thought that as soon as they felt comfortable calling us either one it was certainly alright with us if they did. Matty wanted to know if the adoption could take place before they went back to school, so they could be registered in their new schools with their new names. David told them that he wasn’t sure, but we would call Mr. Wilkins on Monday and remind him about the new school term starting in just about 80 days, so if there was a way to speed up the process it might be able to be done, but right now there were no guarantees, but we’d find out. Eric asked if they didn’t get adopted would they have to go back to the dorm and I told him I didn’t think that could happen, I was afraid they were stuck with us, as the custody papers said they were ours to raise until they no longer had to go to school, and even then we might just want them to live with us forever. We both got hugs from the three boys.

That Sunday was another canoe trip for all of us and we saw a lot of wildlife along the shore after we had paddled a bit further away from the busier area around the boat rental docks. We had lunch on a small island where we didn’t see another human for the hour we spent there, and then we did some nearshore exploring and saw a bunch of streets and building foundations that used to be the main street area of a small town that had been cleared for the lake to be created. We stopped off for Ice cream cones on the way home and again we chose to sit at a picnic table to prevent the inside of the car getting messed up.

We were at the pool two hours later when Ben and Ken joined us, entering into the boy tossing game we were involved with, which not only provided the three boys with a lot of splashing fun, but it gave us adults a good upper body workout. Between tosses Ken told me that they had both signed up for Summer classes, one each on campus and another online so they could have a step up on their final year of classes and would be ahead of the game when it came to their final semester and had to do their practice teaching stint, a suggestion David had made to them, and it was something he himself was doing to make his final undergrad year a bit easier.

On Monday David still had some days off from the time off given him by his boss for our wedding so he stayed with the boys as I went across to the big house and made sure the four editors had enough work for the day and that Mary taking the week off after her marriage wouldn’t disrupt our business. While there I did make a call to Mr. Wilkins, the lawyer brother of our priest, and he assured us he thought he could get an accelerated adoption hearing for us and the boys, as he had letters from DCFS totally backing our petition to the court for the adoptions. He said he’d call when a date was set, but he did say he hoped to be able to tell us something this week, even if the date might be a month or two from now. I thanked him and then went on to make sure everyone had manuscripts to work on and downloaded one into my laptop and took it home with me about lunch time, so I could eat with my family.

After lunch I sat with my laptop and worked for a few hours as David kept the kids entertained in the big fenced in yard, playing catch with them and letting them run around kicking a soccer ball. They all came in after an hour or two and I was at a good stopping point in my work, so we all suited up and went to the pool for a couple of hours. That night after dinner I finished the manuscript, I had started that morning and the boys were engrossed in a movie on TV as David took his first online class. We all finished what we were doing about the same time and then David and I popped some popcorn and we all sat together in the family room and shared the popcorn as we had a family-oriented comedy on the TV. It all worked out well and the boys got to see what we did and were considerate enough to give us time to do our work uninterrupted, so we could all have a treat and do something together after.

If you are following this story, let Art know by telling him. ArtWest at CastleRoland dot Net