Home … Part Five

Five Years Ago Today … an Abby’s Road anniversary

            October 12, 2009.  

            Starting at page 180:

            “(late) On Sunday, October 11th, 2009 we were home after 23 long days away. Our life had changed irreversibly. One chapter closed and another started – as it had on our wedding day.

            We put Abigail in her bassinette and went to bed. I awoke hours later thinking the baby was choking, but it was only Mau the cat sitting on our comforter giving us a welcome-home hairball.

            The next day Esther was on the couch with cats Fizzy and Mau jockeying for position on her lap. Abigail snuggled on my chest, Warlock the cat on my right side and Nebula the cat on my left. I sat in my comfy green chair with my feet propped high. My chair, my home, my family. Life is … zzzzzzzzzzzzz …”

***

“Abby’s Road, the Long and Winding Road to Adoption and how Facebook, Aquaman and Theodore Roosevelt Helped” leads a couple through their days of infertility treatments and adoption. It is told with gentle (and sometimes not-so-gentle) humor from the perspective of a nerdy father and his loving and understanding wife.

Join Mike and Esther as they go through IUIs and IFVs, as they search for an adoption agency, are selected by a birth mother, prepare their house, prepare their family, prepare themselves and wait for their daughter to be born a thousand miles from home.

Abby’s Road is available at Amazon here: http://www.amazon.com/Abbys-Road-Long-Winding-Adoption/product-reviews/0692221530/ref=cm_cr_pr_top_recent?ie=UTF8&showViewpoints=0&sortBy=bySubmissionDateDescending

at Barnes and Noble here: http://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/abbys-road-the-long-and-winding-road-to-adoption-and-how-facebook-aquaman-and-theodore-roosevelt-helped-michael-curry/1119971924?ean=9780692221532

and at Smashwords here: https://www.smashwords.com/books/view/457270

Copyright 2014 Michael Curry

On our way home … Part Four

Five Years Ago Today … an Abby’s Road anniversary

            October 11, 2009. A train ride from Washington to Chicago to St. Louis … breakfasting with British cousins and putting up with the Australian Octomom and Captain Dig Me. Then finally … finally ….

            Starting at page 176:

            “Fond and familiar cities rumbled past: Springfield, Alton…

            By six that evening we pulled into the St. Louis station.  My father was there to meet us.

            Two days before, late that frantic Friday afternoon, we called him to give him the news.  “So you’ll be home Sunday night,” was the first thing he said.             

            “How did you know that?”

            “Your sister called me. She saw it on the computer.” He volunteered his time working for the city clerk, and the clerk and his secretary kept a Facebook watch to give Dad all the news.

            And now here is my father waiting for us at the station. I have never been happier to see his face in my adult life.

            “Hi, Dad.”

            “Did you have a nice trip?  Where’s that bad mandolin music coming from?”

            “I’d rather not talk about it. I’d like to introduce you to your new granddaughter.”

            He said he finally has a brown-haired brown-eyed girl; he has always wanted a brown-haired brown-eyed girl.

            He drove our car to the train station.  We had a baby seat installed for free that summer by the fire department during one of those baby-seat safety seminars they give a few times a year. When we got south of Mascoutah, Abigail cried. Esther asked us to pull over so she could feed the baby – Dad and I rode in front.

            We told her to take her out of the seat and feed her.

            “We’re not supposed to do that.”

            “No jury in the world will convict us. All we need is one mother on it…” It’s good to be a lawyer again.

            We went to my sister’s house in Coulterville. She took plenty of pictures and plenty of children looked at their new cousin. My sister held Abigail the entire time.

            We found out later that she was pregnant at that time – she just found out – but kept quiet for a few months to let Abigail be the only baby for a while.

            The plan was to stay in Coulterville at Dad’s house overnight. But we wanted to go home. We’ve wanted to go home for the past 23 days. Now that we were an hour away only extreme fatigue would stop us.

            We said our goodbyes, loaded up on caffeine at the convenience store and headed home.

            Our other babies, the cats, stayed in the basement this entire time. Relax, our basement was bigger than my first apartment. We asked our house-sitter to let them up from their basement home the day before.

            When I walked in with our luggage, two of them sat by the dining room table and watched who came in. I called their names. When Warlock saw me, he stalked toward me. I petted his head as Esther came in with the baby.

            By the time I moved the car to the garage and came back inside; Esther sat on the floor as the cats rubbed against her and the baby seat. Warlock sniffed at Abigail. Abigail stared back. I snapped a quick photo. The caption: “What the hell are you,” each asked the other.

***

“Abby’s Road, the Long and Winding Road to Adoption and how Facebook, Aquaman and Theodore Roosevelt Helped” leads a couple through their days of infertility treatments and adoption. It is told with gentle (and sometimes not-so-gentle) humor from the perspective of a nerdy father and his loving and understanding wife.

Join Mike and Esther as they go through IUIs and IFVs, as they search for an adoption agency, are selected by a birth mother, prepare their house, prepare their family, prepare themselves and wait for their daughter to be born a thousand miles from home.

Abby’s Road is available at Amazon here: http://www.amazon.com/Abbys-Road-Long-Winding-Adoption/product-reviews/0692221530/ref=cm_cr_pr_top_recent?ie=UTF8&showViewpoints=0&sortBy=bySubmissionDateDescending

at Barnes and Noble here: http://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/abbys-road-the-long-and-winding-road-to-adoption-and-how-facebook-aquaman-and-theodore-roosevelt-helped-michael-curry/1119971924?ean=9780692221532

and at Smashwords here: https://www.smashwords.com/books/view/457270

Copyright 2014 Michael Curry

On our way home … Part Three

Five Years Ago Today … an Abby’s Road anniversary

            October 10, 2009. We received permission from New York AND Illinois to go home. We got our train tickets and headed to Penn Station. From there to the nation’s capital.

            Starting at page 171:

            “Among the many nice things about babies is there is no need for an alarm clock. Among the many horrible things about babies is there is no need for an alarm clock. By the time the alarm rang at four that Saturday morning we had already fed and changed Abigail, showered and packed our last bits of belongings. I paid our bill (actually Capital One did and I paid them – still paying them for that matter) and pushed our luggage carrier to the motel shuttle.

            Other people were on the shuttle for the Long Island Railroad station that morning too. That surprised me – it was 4:30 for gosh sakes! It took a long time to get to the station, and the train pulled up just as we paid for our tickets to Penn Station. We found a nice niche to ourselves and settled back for the next hour or so.

            The ticket-taker walked past a few times. We laughed as men bolted the train during stops as the ticket-taker approached. They had no ticket and were riding for free. Thieves!

            Soon we were at famous Penn Station. I thought about looking around, but decided against it. It was a long walk to the Amtrak station, but the way was clearly marked. There were a few homeless people sleeping in the hallways as we passed. We don’t have much of that in our small town so it was hard for me to ignore them. I thought about the hundreds of people that pass by without as much as a glance. Are they cold for doing so? No, not really; but that in itself is also a problem, isn’t it?

            A friendly Amtrak lady checked us in and told us that since we had a sleeper car for the trip from DC to Chicago, we could stay in the VIP lounge at all three stations. We were prepared to lay on benches and wait, but instead spent our layovers on comfy couches with clean bathrooms and complementary sodas, tea, coffee and snacks.

            I kept Abigail snuggled on my chest while in the lounge at Penn Station. The train to Washington DC was delayed in Boston for several hours. I wasn’t worried about missing our connection – it wasn’t for another twelve hours.

            Esther took some photos of Abigail and me trying to snooze. The VIP lounge was the perfect tonic. We got to relax. It reminded me of going to Long Island – this was happening. Really happening. We are forty-eight hours from home.“

***

“Abby’s Road, the Long and Winding Road to Adoption and how Facebook, Aquaman and Theodore Roosevelt Helped” leads a couple through their days of infertility treatments and adoption. It is told with gentle (and sometimes not-so-gentle) humor from the perspective of a nerdy father and his loving and understanding wife.

Join Mike and Esther as they go through IUIs and IFVs, as they search for an adoption agency, are selected by a birth mother, prepare their house, prepare their family, prepare themselves and wait for their daughter to be born a thousand miles from home.

Abby’s Road is available at Amazon here: http://www.amazon.com/Abbys-Road-Long-Winding-Adoption/product-reviews/0692221530/ref=cm_cr_pr_top_recent?ie=UTF8&showViewpoints=0&sortBy=bySubmissionDateDescending

at Barnes and Noble here: http://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/abbys-road-the-long-and-winding-road-to-adoption-and-how-facebook-aquaman-and-theodore-roosevelt-helped-michael-curry/1119971924?ean=9780692221532

and at Smashwords here: https://www.smashwords.com/books/view/457270

Copyright 2014 Michael Curry

On our way home … Part Two

Five Years Ago Today … an Abby’s Road anniversary

            October 9, 2009. John Lennon’s birthday. I hoped that would be a good omen …

            When we last left our adventurers, we waited for one of the most bureaucratically-ensnarled states of the union to approve the interstate compact so we could go home. It was the Friday before a three-day weekend. Oy …

            Starting at page 169:

            “Illinois is an hour behind New York, so the offices there would not open until 10:00 a.m. our time. We weren’t expecting any news from Ronnie until noon. … I also posted (on Facebook) “(t)hanks for all the prayers for us getting to go home today. No luck though. Anyone want to join me for prayers to Wotan? Baal? Any deity that will listen?”

            Noon passed. So did 1:00. Then 2:00. Then 3:00. Esther lay down in bed and cried.  A few minutes later she fell asleep. The baby was fed and she slept as well. I stayed up and played World of Warcraft and waited for the baby to wake up.

            Soon it was four o’clock our time; three o’clock in Illinois.

            Three o’clock the Friday before a three-day weekend at a government office. By now people were sneaking between the partitions and cubicles, jumping through the bathroom windows and pushing their cars out of the parking lots.  Once out of earshot they’ll start the engine and get the hell out of there. The smart ones took that Friday off months before – those left were the bitter employees who were too late to get their vacation requests approved in time.

            Ties are loosened; wine and beer bottles are opened. The radio plays. “Two more hours and we’re outta here,” someone shouts from across the room. Is someone smoking? That’s doesn’t smell like tobacco…

            I took my frustrations out on my fellow WOW gamers. When I had finished at four o’clock I started a Facebook post; I took my previous post to its inevitable conclusion:

            “Oh Mighty Baal, please strike dead those who decided we should not be allowed to go home this weekend and curse their spawn to the third generation.”

            I was ready to hit “Send” when Esther’s cell phone rang. She woke up and said hello in a groggy voice.

            It was Ronnie.

            We were approved to take the baby home.

            I told Esther to shut off the phone in case he calls back and said it was a mistake. We would crinkle some foil in front of the phone. “Sorry, bad signal – we’re already in Pennsylvania – what? What?”

            I could not have made the timing up. If I wrote it as part of a story the editors, critics and the reading masses would tear it to pieces. “What kind of melodramatic shit is this?”

            I added to my Facebook post: “ – hold on! As I type this we got our call! We’re going home!!! Jesus came through at the last minute! Hurrah for Jesus (but you cut it pretty close there, Godboy! Watch it!!)!!”

            Esther was a little more pleasant. She always is… “Praise God!!! We are cleared to take Abigail home. Thanks for all the good thoughts and prayers. We’ll be offline a couple of days. Facebook by cell phone for now. Please ignore Mike’s post.”

            Harrumph!

***

The cover of Abby’s Road

“Abby’s Road, the Long and Winding Road to Adoption and how Facebook, Aquaman and Theodore Roosevelt Helped” leads a couple through their days of infertility treatments and adoption. It is told with gentle (and sometimes not-so-gentle) humor from the perspective of a nerdy father and his loving and understanding wife.

Join Mike and Esther as they go through IUIs and IFVs, as they search for an adoption agency, are selected by a birth mother, prepare their house, prepare their family, prepare themselves and wait for their daughter to be born a thousand miles from home.

Abby’s Road is available at Amazon here: http://www.amazon.com/Abbys-Road-Long-Winding-Adoption/product-reviews/0692221530/ref=cm_cr_pr_top_recent?ie=UTF8&showViewpoints=0&sortBy=bySubmissionDateDescending

at Barnes and Noble here: http://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/abbys-road-the-long-and-winding-road-to-adoption-and-how-facebook-aquaman-and-theodore-roosevelt-helped-michael-curry/1119971924?ean=9780692221532

and at Smashwords here: https://www.smashwords.com/books/view/457270

Copyright 2014 Michael Curry