Page 122 of Family Bonds- Gabriela & Luca

Now it was with happiness. Anticipation.

All the good things.

“Good. But that’s not why I called.” There was no way to ease into this. “I’m going to start the process of adopting a baby.” The silence filled the line, thick, heavy, and caused his heart to thump hard. “Are you there, Mom?”

“I’m here. I’m processing. For years I thought you’d say those words, but now, I’m kind of surprised. You just said that you and Gabriela are going strong. Can she not have children? Or doesn’t want children?”

He expected the confusion to be there. “She’s sure she can but hasn’t tried. And she wants them. But this is about me and what I want.”

“I’m glad to hear that on one hand.”

He sighed. “But not on the other. Gabriela is fully aware and supportive, Mom. We’ve talked about it.”

“I’d hoped that you had. Fill me in so I’m not as confused as I am.”

“I want you to be happy and excited over this.”

“I want to be myself, but I also know that adoptions are tricky. It’s why Zoe didn’t want to do it.”

“What?”

“I shouldn’t have said that.”

But she had.

“Yes, you should have. Why didn’t she want to?”

He should have known this as her husband and he wasn’t sure why he hadn’t, yet his mother did.

“Zoe told Susan that she didn’t want to get her hopes up adopting a baby only to have the mother change her mind. It was worse than waiting for that positive pregnancy test. She really wanted her own child, yes. You know that, but even Susan tried to talk her into adoption. She couldn’t put herself through that.”

“I didn’t know. And she wasn’t wrong to feel that way. I can’t say for certain it might not happen now, but I think the chances are slim.”

“Well, I’m going to hold off being excited until we know, but that doesn’t mean I’m not supportive.”

“I can’t and won’t ask for more than that,” he said, settling into the chair.

“Tell me the situation then.”

“A sixteen-year-old patient. Taylor. She’s due mid-May. She doesn’t want the baby. She doesn’t have any support and her family is encouraging this. It’s going to be a private adoption; she’s not screening anyone else. I wouldn’t have gone forward if it was going to be that way. And it’s not like I’m going to an agency hoping someone will pick me. It’s this or nothing in terms of adoption. That’s my thought right now.”

“So this is someone you know. Someone you’ve made arrangements with prior?”

“As much as we can. I’ve got an attorney. They are going to get us in touch with an agency they work with a lot and we’ll go from there. There will be home visits and many things, but I’m not really worried about any of that.”

“As you shouldn’t be.”

“I would be more worried if she wanted a mother and father, but since she’s having a boy, and has never had a male figure in her life, she wants her son to be with a father. I don’t know, I think she feels that by me adopting him, he’s my child and not a woman’s to fight for custody if I were married and then divorced.”

“Is that true?” his mother asked.

“I don’t really know and not something I’m thinking about. It’s the first step that she agreed. The next is going to fall into place as it does.”

“How are you going to care for a child with your hours?” his mother asked. “Have you thought of any of that?”

“I have. I’ve got four weeks of vacation, two weeks get taken in one rotation, so that gives me twenty-five days off right there. Almost a month. Gabriela said she’d watch the baby for the next two rotations, then I’ll take another while I try to find a nanny. My hope is that if I can expand it to someone in Boston and have them stay on the island for those five days, then they get ten days off, it might be appealing. I’m not sure what my chances are of finding someone on the island.”

“I’ll come and stay for a week. I’ll do it for one of your rotations also, that buys you another month, right? Or close to it.”