Martha and Robert were on their way back from a dinner date. They had been making a conscious effort to spend more time together since the summer, and particularly time for just the two of them.
Robert hadn’t had even one drink during dinner. He rarely drank, probably an old habit from his days as a young doctor when he might be urgently needed with no advance notice.
Martha had stuck to just one glass because she wanted to get up early tomorrow and start taking pictures in the new house. She was delighted that they were letting her in before the closing. The family had moved out already and didn’t seem to care either way. She needed to get the contractors lined up quickly if they were going to get into the house before summer.
She felt a pang of guilt for avoiding Carmen’s party, but everything had changed after that night out in September, and she wasn’t sure if she could go back to how things had been before.
In any case, she needed to focus on her family now. She hoped it would be five of them moving in over the summer. In addition to working on the house stuff, she had been feverishly researching the fastest way to adopt that little girl from China. She had been pleased to learn that there was a real chance that they could be in a position to go get her by the end of the summer. That would be perfect. The boys would be settled and ready to go back to school. She would have the whole school day, every school day, to bond with her new daughter.
She just needed Robert to say yes. Martha decided it was now or never.
“Robert, I want to adopt that little girl. I’ve done all my research. I know the risks, and the costs. I know we will live with uncertainty about her health. I know all those things, but I can’t ignore my heart. My heart tells me that we are hers and she is ours.”
Martha braced herself for a long debate. Robert wasn’t a big talker, but he managed to find his words when it was something that was important to him.
“I already knew all that, Martha. You don’t have the poker face you think you do,” he teased. Looking more serious, he sighed and then continued, “I’ve thought a lot about it too. If you are sure that it’s what you want, then I want it too. But you will have to take the brunt of the responsibility. There’s only so much I can do and keep up at work. I know you want to do more outside the home, but I don’t know how much I can promise in terms of help.”
“I’m not going back to medicine, Robert. I might do some volunteering at the boys’ school, but I know I’ll need all my energy to take care of her and the boys.”
“What if you change your mind?”
“Maybe I’ll change my mind later, but for now I want this baby.”
“Okay,” he said. “Then I will support it—and you—totally. What should we name her?”
“I think we should pick a name from your side of the family. But can her middle name be Adams, just like Lucy? I know she won’t look like me or anything, but, you know, she will become part of me.”
“That sounds perfect,” said Robert with a smile. “What about Mildred for the first name? That was my grandmother’s name.”
“Okay, we’re going to need to negotiate that one.”
And for the first time in a very long time, they had a laugh together.