Journey To Nicole: The Awakening

We went to dinner. We had heard that people in the south love to fry things, and sure enough they do. We tried the fried lasagna at Olive Garden, not bad. This was our first outing with Nicole; we were mentally exhausted and didn't expect all the attention we received. 

The couple next to us began a conversation with us about Nicole and adoption. On any other day, I would have politely ignored them based on their appearance (yes, sometimes even I am judgmental). Both had tattoos head to toe (they ran a tattoo shop, go figure), but proved to be the nicest people. The best part of our conversation was when I asked, "Is there anything interesting to do here?" The response, "No mam, I'm sorry, you're in Mississippi!" The gentleman added, "You're doin' it!"

As we ate a few workers came by to take a look, but one girl made my day. Remember, I was tormented with guilt and sadness all morning. She marched over and said, "I heard you adopted and just had to come over here and tell you, God bless you. You are doing a great thing! I'm adopted. Thank you for doing what you are doing. There will come a day when she pulls "the, you're not my mom thing," but she won't really mean it. Thank you again!" I think I really needed to hear that at that moment, another blessing!

I don't remember the rest of that day, I know it involved more phone calls and e-mails, and I think another trip to the store for a few things we forgot. 

Monday March 9th

One Olive Garden employee told us about a park nearby that we thought we'd venture to. We had nothing else to do, but wait for S & M to sign their paperwork. So we packed a bag and went out. (Oh, we finally got our own car seat back from the airline. Isn't Nicole the cutest thing in her car seat, she was so tiny!)

The park was beautiful. It was actually a lake with a road around it and small benches and parks all around. We stopped at a swing and sat in the sun for a while. That was a very relaxing morning. Later in the day we got the news that S & M had signed the papers and were directed to drive to Tupelo Mississippi. So, once again, we hurried and packed. 

That was THE longest drive of my life. Not in actual time or distance, but in my perception of it. The landscape in MS is all trees, trees in every direction; huge, tall trees. You can't see anything but trees! We were on a small highway surrounded by trees. Every once in a while you would see an exit cut through the trees, and a few shacks along the sides of the road, but other than that, there was no way to tell if there was any civilization any where nearby, or how long you would have to drive to reach it. There were a few signs that were pretty funny. One was for a restaurant advertising fried pie! They really do love fried foods!

Anyway, I had to go to the little girl's room. I held it, and held it until I couldn't hold it any more. It was an emergency! Trees, and more trees! Finally we saw an exit that said Mississippi State College - 17 mi. I told Jeremy to take it and he hesitated, saying, it's 17 mi! "I don't care, get off!" I screamed. Luckily, it wasn't that far off the exit; I ran into one of the buildings while Jeremy had to explain to the security guard who we were! I think the drive was only about 3 hours in reality, but it took forever!

Tupelo. I think the town is just about what you'd picture in your head from the name. We ate some dinner and found our hotel. 

Tuesday March 10th

By this time Jeremy and I were sick, but trying to feel better and not admit we were getting sicker. Meanwhile, Nicole had a Dr. apt scheduled at 10 am that morning. Picture the oldest, sweetest Dr and 70's era exam tables and equipment and you're there. The Dr. was nice and examined Nicole to follow the legal requirements of the state. Once again, we were playing a waiting game. The paperwork was supposed to be fed-exed to Tupelo on Monday, but didn't make it. So we had time to kill. We drove around the town looking for local places to shop (even though we didn't end up buying anything) and took in the scenery. One small drive-in offered fried bologna sandwiches, mmm, tempting (Jeremy took a picture of the sign, but sadly, he can't find it).  When we were tired of driving and window shopping we went to a movie. 

Movies don't start in Mississippi until 4pm and there are only 1-2 options that aren't rated R. We chose the only movie not rated R at that theater and were the only people in the theater! That's the great thing about newborns, they like to sleep a lot during the day. Jane called us during the movie to tell us that we had a court date, tomorrow! Wow, another huge blessing. As soon as we were done in court we could go home, we were really ready to get back home! 

We met with our lawyer late that night to sign more paperwork and to prepare for our time in front of the judge in the morning. 

Wednesday March 11th

I couldn't breathe. My nose was so clogged I sounded silly and my cough had taken my voice away; my throat burned and my chest hurt. Jeremy was in the same boat, we were horribly sick! This was supposed to be another very happy day for us and we were worn out. Nicole decided to cry all morning, too. We all dressed nicely, even Nicole in her new yellow dress and headed for court. 

Inside the old court building there wasn't a single empty chair, the place was packed! Our lawyer escorted us to a small room to sit and wait, seeing all the people there that day we all thought it would be a long wait. The Lord was merciful once again and we were bumped to the front of the list, it was our turn. Nicole stopped crying long enough for us to make our appearance to the judge. He was an old, single man and asked us each about ourselves. He asked if we waived our right to wait 6 mo (umm, yes, we wanted to go home). He signed the document and told us that was the only happy thing he would get to do that day and thanked us.

We had thought about celebrating and taking pictures, but Nicole started crying again and we couldn't even breathe, we were miserable. So, sadly, no pictures of that event either. instead we rushed ourselves back the old doc.

We saw a different Dr. this time, a woman. She said we both had Bronchitis and gave us a prescription and told us we should get a shot as well. So in march 2 nurses with long needles who tell us to drop our pants. I asked where it was going, "right in the hip sweetie." Ouch!

Now that we had some medicine we could plan our trip home. Let me tell you, one way tickets purchased the day of and the day before is not the way to go, so expensive. We weighed our options, 3 different airport choices,  huge price differences, and lots of layovers. We found one flight out of Tennessee that was a direct 3 hour flight, it was worth the huge fine from the car company to return the car somewhere else and get the shortest flight. It was also faster to drive up to Tennessee than to drive back down to Jackson Mississippi! The flight was early in the morning so we needed to get there that night. Another whirlwind packing session and we were off!

This time we made sure to take a legitimate highway with gas stations and fast food restaurants close by! This drive wasn't as long as the last, I think it was because of the road and because we were headed closer to home. I was looking out the window thinking to myself when I looked over at Jeremy and saw his chin against his chest for a split second before he jerked it back up! Ahhh! "You fell asleep!" Jeremy will still deny this, but I know what I saw. Needless to say, we pulled over and switched drivers for a while. I wasn't very safe on the road that day either, but at least I didn't fall asleep!

Memphis Tennessee

Jeremy drove us into the city and followed the map quest directions to our hotel near the airport. The directions landed us on the back side of the hotel with a large pedestrian walkway in between us on a dead end street. He went to go talk to someone in the hotel about parking and was immediately asked for money from a bum, who seeing which car he got out of, came and circled our car until Jeremy came back. That was our first impression of that city. The hotel manager asked what the guy looked like and stormed out to go to and find him. We decided we didn't even want to leave the hotel room that night after we asked a bell hop about places to go to dinner. He looked at us and at the baby and his watch and said it would just be better to order in! Ok, sounds good to me. 

We made sure to set our alarm so we would have plenty of time to get ready in  the morning, but as a precaution we also packed as much as we could that night. Good thing we did!

Thursday March 12th

I awoke to Nicole's cries and barely had time to think before Jeremy said, "Our alarm didn't go off!" As if we hadn't been rushed enough times on this trip, we had to hurry. We showered and packed as fast as we could and got lost on the way to the car return. Jeremy parked the car and I dashed to the waiting bus to make sure they didn't leave. Once at the airport we had trouble at the ticket counter (the only seats available on-line were the exit row, we took them, knowing we had an infant). They had to change our tickets. Jeremy got upgraded to 1st class, but told me to sit there (I love him). We boarded the plane last and they closed the door. We were lucky we made it when we did, another flight had arrived late and about 10 people were waiting at the gate to get on. They wouldn't let them, they got there 2 minutes after us! That was another huge blessing for us, we actually made our flight!

I was comfy in my first-class seat and served a nice, warm breakfast. I rested while Nicole slept in my arms the entire flight. We were going home, with our new baby!

The kids were so excited to meet their new sister. The adventure of course continued when we drove from the airport to Kai's school to pick him up and he was MISSING, but that's a whole other story. We did eventually find him  (he had ridden the bus home with another student), but not until I almost had a heart attack. After picking him up at a stranger's house, we went to Jeremy's parent's house to introduce Nicole to the whole family. Now I can end with the happily ever after part! : )