I was flat on my belly, my face planted up against the bed. I peeled an eye open to see Eugene was knelt beside me, shaking my shoulder. But wait. What was he saying?
"Wake up....Tangled Fan's coming in twenty minutes! Wake up..."
Tangled Fan.
Twenty minutes.
The adoption meeting!
"I'm up!" I exclaimed, scrabbling frantically to sit up. With a thud, I fell out of bed, dragging the blankets with me.
In a seemingly hopeless tangle of blankets, hair, and my own plastic limbs, I sat up on the floor of the shelf, pushing my messy hair out of my face.
Eugene, leaning over the edge of the bed, tried to help me untangle myself, and when I was done, I stood and helped Eugene out of bed.
"Thanks," I told him...and he told me the same thing. Laughing, I pulled him into a quick hug. "We ready for this?!"
He chuckled, but then he bobbled fairly hard. I snagged his arm, trying to steady him. Giving me a careful smile, he nodded. "Well...as ready as we'll ever be, I think!"
I grinned, but then realizing I had less than fifteen minutes until Tangled Fan came for us, I rushed off to change into my dress, brushed through my hair, and braided it neatly. Whirling around the lamp, I almost tripped myself in my excited rush.
My excitement drained when I caught a glance at Eugene's face. He looked like his legs were really sore...again. Likely from his first day of physical therapy. When he saw I was looking at him, he put on a smile and made the mistake of trying to come over to me. He could hardly walk! I gasped, hurrying to his side.
He couldn't go like this! And I wouldn't let him, either. If he walked too much, he'd get his legs even more goobered up.
I led him over to the edge of the bed. "When Tangled Fan comes, she's checking you over again. I'll tell her that we can't go today - you need to chill."
He gave a frustrated huff. "No, she's not checking me over again, and no, we can't miss the adoption meeting!"
"Yes, we can, hon."
"But what if she told those kids that someone might adopt one of them today?"
I realized what he'd been thinking. That would be so sad. What if they'd gotten excited to meet us? I shrugged my shoulders up to my ears. "I-I...I dunno." I sank down onto the bed beside him and sighed.
He was quiet for a couple of minutes, but then he nudged my arm with his elbow. "You can go,"
Umm...what?! This was supposed to be a family thing. Both of us needed to go! And...I admit, I was feeling nervous about meeting the kids. Weird, I know.
"No, I'm not going without you. You need to be there, too!"
"I know. But, hon, you don't know how mad it makes me that my legs are messed up. I don't want to be the cause of this being cancelled...Please. You can come home and tell me about everyone, and we can make a decision."
"I don't...I don't know, Eugene...I mean, yeah, I suppose I could..." my voice cracked, and I looked down into my lap.
"Hey. Don't be nervous - you'll be fine." He gave my shoulder a gentle punch before peering down into my face. I met his eyes for a second, and he grinned at me, winking. "Now...are you taking Pascal with you?"
"Probably not," I sighed. "We'll leave the scary reptile here for the first meet."
He chuckled. "We'll leave that for when they're adopted. Oh, yeah, sweetie. Here's a scary reptile that will probably terrify you!"
I burst out giggling. "Oh my goodness..." Still thinking about THAT, I leaned my head on his shoulder, grinning.
He slung an arm around me. "So, you're going to go?"
"I suppose. You pulled the guilt trip on me," I accused him, winking so he knew I was teasing.
Chuckling, he tipped my chin up so he could give me a sweet little kiss. Just as we pulled away, the door to the bedroom opened and shut. "I'll see you later. Love you, hon."
"Love you, too. Take it easy today, okay?" I requested, standing up to go meet Tangled Fan.
She took me to a different room (not sure what room it was), told me she'd be back to check on things when she came home from church, and then hurried off, leaving me to introduce myselves to three little girls, one looking extremely wary of me.
Sisters Audrey and Jordan
Natasha
When I came home, it was dark and I was purely exhausted. Tangled Fan had set me on the floor on the opposite end of the room, bless her heart, so I had to walk back to the shelf. In the dark. When I was tired as all get out. Ah well, I suppose it gave me plenty of time to think.
I grinned as I finally stepped into the shelf at nine. Eugene and Pascal were already asleep, though, by the looks of things, so I supposed I would catch up with my hubby in the morning. I changed into my nightie and went to work carefully spreading the blankets on the bed. I sat down on the edge of the bed before I remembered to unbraid my hair. Too tired to bother brushing it, I just sat and started unbraiding. I was about halfway done when two strong arms grabbed me around my waist, dragging me backwards. I gasped in surprise, my heart speeding up...but then the owner of those arms kissed my cheek and whispered in my ear.
"I scare ya?"
Eugene. Good grief. "Hah! Just a little bit," I laughed sarcastically, elbowing him playfully from behind.
He chuckled, releasing me from his arms.
I turned to see him and grinned. "You must be feeling better...? How did your day go?"
He flopped down on his back, so I laid down on my side and propped my head up so I could see his face, tossing the blankets over both of us.
"I'm more interested in how YOUR day went, personally..." He said, yawning.
"I asked first, dear," I reminded him, giggling.
"Oh, fine." He grumbled. "It went okay. I'm feeling better than I was, anyway. And Tangled Fan said I'd have my ups and downs...which is absolutely excellent..." he ended on a sarcastic note.
"Oh, things will turn out okay. It'll just take awhile," I reassured him, reaching over to kiss the tip of his nose.
"Hm. So...I answered you, now YOU have to answer me!" He told me, giving me his special little grin.
"Well...Tangled Fan only brought three of the kiddos she had - saying that she felt that they would fit the best with us. The first was a blond haired, blue eyed little five year old girl named Natasha. She seemed pretty sweet, but was kind of flighty...understandable, though. The other one was just a little baby, Jordan, about three months old in doll years. She has brown hair and eyes and seemed like a pretty quiet little one. She's sisters with the seven year old, brown hair and brown eyed sweetie named Audrey. She was really cute. Shy, but cute." I smiled to myself as I remembered Jordan and Audrey.
"Hmm...and which one out of those three were you considering?" Eugene asked, pulling me close to his side. I wormed away, though, to flop on my belly and rest my chin on his chest, looking at his face.
"I won't say anything until you tell me what YOU thought." I told him.
"I asked first..." he tried to pull that one on me.
"But I already know. I want to know what your unbiased opinion-" he tried to cut me off with a kiss, but I sat up, staying away from him. "Huh-uh. Tell me."
He chuckled, trying and failing to act annoyed. "Fine. I think Audrey seemed like a good candidate for adoption."
I nodded, and he sat up, too. "The only thing? She and her sister, Jordan, have to be adopted together. I liked both of them, but are we ready for such a commitment? Two kiddos, and one being a baby?"
He shrugged, biting his lip. "Well..." he made a few nonsensical noises before shrugging again.
I laughed. "Tangled Fan said she'd meet us tomorrow morning at nine to talk. So..." I sighed. "I dunno. And I'm tired." I leaned my head up against him, trying to remember what I needed to say.
He stroked my hair for a couple of minutes. I knew I wouldn't be able to sleep, even though I was beyond tired.
"Well...I mean...were you considering adopting a baby? I was open to it. If you are, too, what difference would it really make if we had an older child, too?"
I shrugged. "I dunno." I held my breath a few moments before letting it out all in a big rush.
"You could tell Tangled Fan we need more time, or..."
"OH! She told me she would bring the three of them to us tomorrow, so you could meet them." I finally remembered.
He gave me a surprised look. "Oh! Well...I suppose we don't have to have a 100% decision by 9 AM, then?"
I bit my lip, nodding slowly. I really wanted to know for sure, though.
He caught my expression. "But...you want to know what my preference is?"
I met his eyes, nodding and chewing my bottom lip like nobody's business. "Mhm. I mean, if you don't mind.."
"I say we go for it."
That's what I'd been hoping for, but I was also terrified of making the wrong decision.
"Okay. Okay! Then...okay," I said, not sure what to say. It was all becoming so real!
He chuckled. "Now...let's get to sleep." Catching himself, he winked. "But I doubt there will be much sleeping. More like staying awake, excited and nervous beyond compare?"
I laughed. "You nailed it, bud." I looked at him for a couple of minutes before I just threw myself at him, pulling him into a quick, excited-slash-nervous-kiss. He pulled away and then grinned at me, his eyes twinkling. I stretched my legs out, crisscrossing them over his before I gave him a broad smile. "I'm excited and terrified at the same time. How can that even be possible?!"
"Ohh, it's possible. Trust me." He laughed. "That was how I felt for, oh...three months after I met you?"
I giggled, leaning over to give him a quick hug. "Love you. How did we ever get each other into this mess called life as a doll couple?"
He grinned at me, giving me the most adoring look ever. I'm pretty sure I returned it...he didn't need to say a word. But he did anyway, being my Eugene. "Because you were the sweetest, most adorable and perfect girl I'd ever met. Plus, you're gorgeous."
I laughed it off. "I don't see myself as any of those things, especially not perfect, hon. I'm pretty sure it was because you were the nicest guy I'd ever known. Scratch the nicest GUY, you're the nicest person I've ever met!"
He chuckled. "Hmmm..."
I glanced down. Was he uncomfortable because of the way I'd sprawled my legs over his? I hoped I hadn't hurt him somehow...! "OH! I'm so sorry. I didn't-" I started to move, but he put a hand on my lap.
"Nah, you're fine."
I grinned at him, but then I mentally kicked myself for taking that sweet moment and totally trashing it. "And...there I go being unromantic and very awkward."
He gave me a playful shove. "You're fine. Now...let's get to sleep."
"You mean, laying in bed not sleeping cause we're both so nervous?" I asked, laughing.
He nodded. "Yeah....what you said."
I laughed quietly, trying to turn and swing my legs around to lay down in one swift motion. I started to fall off of the edge of the bed...again...not realizing how close I was to it.
Acting with quicker reflexes that I'd probably never have, Eugene reached over and grabbed my arm, hauling me back upright.
"Thanks," I laughed. "Let's talk about how perfect I am?"
He chuckled, flopping down on his back and stretching an arm out. "You're fine. C'mere."
I curled up close to him and rested my head on his chest, even though I was completely and utterly jittery for tomorrow.
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