Part 19
Steve
It’s so surreal, looking our new son through the
glass in the nursery. It doesn’t seem possible that he’s ours. All of the
paperwork, the drama, the hard work has led to the tiny little being. And yet,
despite my shock, it seems so right. Standing here, watching my son, my arms
wrapped around Joey who’s watching Aiden with tears in his eyes.
Now I have seen a lot of babies in my time as
a doctor, but none of them compares to Aiden. His perfect little face, eyes
closed in sleep, seems to glow. A weird light that seems to draw my eye to him
and only him.
“Can you believe he’s ours,” Joey whispers,
breaking into my thoughts.
“No. I can’t believe all of that work led to
him.”
Joey looks up at me from his place under my
arm. “You’re not regretting this, are you?”
I smile. “How can you ask that? You don’t actually
think I’m backing out now, do you?”
“No. Not really.”
“Good. Because even though I’m having a hard
time believing this isn’t just some weird dream I’ll wake up from, I couldn’t
be happier.”
Joey smiles up at me and curls back into my
arm. Our focus goes back to watching our son sleeping peacefully.
“Why Aiden,” I ask after a minute.
“What?”
“Aiden. We never talked about names. And you
just came up with Aiden.”
“Do you hate it,” Joey asks fearfully.
“No. Actually I love it. I’m just curious as
to why.”
“I don’t know. I just looked at him and it
came out. So you don’t hate the name?”
“No. And if we get the chance, I think we
should name him Aiden.”
Joey’s smile was enough of an answer for me.
“Hey, you guys.”
I turn to see Margie coming towards us. Joey
pulls out of my embrace and we turn to face her head on.
“How are you two doing?”
“We want him,” Joey says without preamble.
Margie’s smile is answer enough for me. I
reach over and grab Joey’s hand.
“I thought you might say that,” Margie
replies. “I’ve started the paperwork to get him into your care. He won’t be
able to leave for another day at least, but I should have everything settled by
then. It will also give you some time to get your house ready for a baby.”
“How can we make him ours,” Joey asks, as if
he didn’t hear anything Margie just said. “Forever.”
“Well, there are no parental rights, so once
we get the foster paperwork done, you can apply for adoption. It might take a
little while, but if everything goes right, he should be yours by this time
next year.”
Joey looks up at me and smiles the brightest
smile. “That would be wonderful.”
I bend down and kiss him gently on the lips.
“It would be perfect.”
“Wonderful,” Margie says, shooting us a smile.
“And I’ll help you through everything I’m just glad the little guy has a great
home to go to.”
I smile at that.
“Aiden,” Joey says abruptly, turning to
Margie.
“What,” Margie asks, clearly confused.
“I want to name our son, Aiden. Can we do
that?”
“I’ll make it happen,” Margie says with a
smile. “Congratulations.”
“Thank you,” I say, gently kissing Joey again.
Margie leaves us in peace and we turn to watch
our son once more.
“We should go,” I say after a little while.
“We have to get baby stuff if we’re going to bring him home.”
“I know,” Joey whispers. “But can we stay just
a little bit longer?”
I drop a kiss on top of his head.
“As long as you want.”
And so ends Part 19! Next week we’ll see Aiden
come home with his new parents. Until then, have a great week.
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