Still One Short

So, we left at 2 pm, not at 6 am like I originally wanted to nor at 11 am, like we said would be our drop dead time. Oh well, it was way more than either of us thought it would be.

We stayed in Williams, Az the first night but not until having the exhaust pipe bust 30 miles from the hotel. Needless to say, it was pitch dark when it happened. I still drove it into town. The next morning, I got everything and everyone loaded up and we set out to find someone who could fix it. There was one little shop in town that had a lift that could lift the van, really they were those hand crank flat jacks...can't think of the name.

Anyway, we paid $60 just to have them wire it up. Argh! I wish I could have lifted the van myself because I could have done it for less than $5 (the cost of the wire). Then we were on our way to Vista, Ca. The kids were pretty good because we rigged up this laptop to play movies for them. It hung from a clothes rack attachment I bought. Pretty Cool. Bigger than any portable DVD on the market that I know of and widescreen to boot! We plugged in speakers and they could have been at the theater.

Anyway, we dragged ourselves into the hotel there. Can I just take a moment now to tell you how much it sucks to be the only one lugging all the crap in? I mean I had to disassemble and reassemble Hub's lift every single frickin' place.

Hubs had spasms the whole entire time. He had to sleep in his wheel chair the entire trip because it was the only thing that would stop the spasms for him. I felt so bad and so helpless for him. On the upside he was able to get real showers because they had roll in showers for him, which we don't have at home...yet.

Anyway, bright and early Wednesday, I got everyone up, showered and dressed. We left on time but got lost and passed right by the courthouse. We didn't realize that when we did get to the courthouse there wouldn't be a parking space left in the whole lot. Luckily, I had experience with the CSUN parking lots and quickly found someone who was leaving (yep, I asked) and followed them until they found their car.

We were lost and late. But they had pushed us back and our wait was short. It was strange to meet the social worker. She wasn't what I expected, well, I don't really know what I expected but she has been an incredible help to us. The courtroom had fold up seating like at the movies and the kids took up an aisle. The social worker was telling me it was only going to take about 1o minutes and that it seems like a lot of work to lead up to such a short event.

I looked over and all the kids were sitting, they had saved me a chair. But that empty chair. We were one short. After all this, and all the years, Bela was still missing. I don't know what I thought. I've never really grieved for my Squishy. It's all been such a whirlwind that I haven't really had one single minute to really think about it all. I broke down in sobs. I know I scared the social worker. Hubs was worried. I told him we were still one short and he understood but I could see the concern on the social workers face. I didn't know what to say to her because I didn't want the kids to hear or to mention Bela on this day. I tried to calm myself and luckily I was able to in time for the judge to come out.

He introduced himself to each of us one by one. Then he told the kids what being adopted meant= forever family and asked them individually if that is what they wanted. Then he told us what it meant to be adopting the kids and Hubs and I agreed we would treat the children as our own and give them a loving home. It all went so quickly that I only got pictures of Poufy and the Boy signing and agreeing that they wanted to be adopted.


I don't know if we get copies of those but they did give me copies of the blanks before anyone signed. I 'm thinking of having the kids sign those in their shaky writing so that they can see.

It was funny because the oldest supervised our part in signing the adoption papers, she checked Hubs signature over his other shoulder as he signed. Then she watched the judge sign. She seemed to be relieved. They all were excited.

CDQ was excited. I could tell by the way she acted all noncommittal and said "Whatever". It's part of her RAD diagnosis. I told her I would take this picture of her getting cozy with the plant anyway. After I snapped the picture she came up and hugged me tightly. And that was it. Outside the social worker told us that all we needed was the court stamped papers and that was it. No more social worker, no more California. They were ours. I still didn't get it though...

Stay tuned for the next installment of our week long trip...