Page 70 of The Facilitator: Part 3
“Come on, got your notepad?” I shouted up the stairs.
Her mumbled reply came before she charged down the stairs. “How do I look?” she asked.
“Fine, professional,” I replied.
“Professional? Not like a mum?” she said, and the pitch of her voice rose.
“Lauren, we are going to learn about Down’s Syndrome, we are not being assessed on our parenting skills…yet.”
Rebecca was a baby up for adoption and as soon as both Lauren and I had stared into the most amazing blue eyes, we knew we had to have her. It sounded so crass, picking a child from a range of photographs on a laptop, but that was how it happened. We were cautioned, advised, and nothing could change our mind. Not that May was trying to, she was simply giving us all the information we needed before making a decision. We never waivered. That night we were heading to a ‘class,’ as I’d affectionally called it. We had contacted a charity for help. We wanted to know everything we could. I called my sister constantly; we spoke to her care team and the facility that she lived in. We flew back to the States and, among cuddles with Dominic, we learned as much as we could there. We worked hard to have as much knowledge as we could, impressing both May and the adoption agency.
‘School’ was interesting, more so when we realized how different the research and funding was in the UK compared to the US. It didn’t matter to us, we knew we’d always be back and forth between the two countries, we were extremely fortunate to be able to take the best from both. That had us thinking.
“So, did you speak to the lawyers?” Lauren asked. We were in the car on our way to our last class.
“I did, it’s a simple process and we’ll work with the charity on it.”
Lauren and I had decided, regardless of the adoption outcome with Rebecca, we wanted Down Syndrome charities to benefit from our charitable trust. My sister was well cared for, she had funds available for her care, but many others were not as fortunate. Aging parents with full-time care-needing children required our help and that’s where we wanted to be. It was important to us that we could offer something back. We had more money that we needed in our lifetime and thathad to be distributed to worthy causes on our deaths, should we stay childless. So why not spend some of it now, we’d thought.
When class was over and another notebook was filled with medical knowledge, we climbed back into the car.
“Are you hungry?” I asked. Class was exhausting, learning something new at my age was never easy, but I was starving.
“I am, you?”
“Yep.” I gave the driver an address, a pub I had shares in that we hadn’t been to in a while and I sent a quick text message as I did. I smiled.
“You look like you’re up to something,” Lauren said. She frowned and her brow wrinkled as she looked at me with suspicion.
I smiled and just shrugged my shoulders.
Lauren and Jerry’s relationship had waned and I found that upsetting. He had been, and probably still was, in love with Lauren and when I came on the scene, of course, he backed off. It upset her, yet she understood, and although they spoke frequently, they didn’t meet up as often. I’d texted him and invited him to join us.
The car dropped us off and I climbed out. Lauren waited until I opened her door and held out my hand. She slid from the seat and stood. As she did, I kissed the tip of her nose.
“What’s that for?” she asked.
“Nothing. I’m pretty sure I don’t need a reason to kiss my wife, do I?”
She chuckled as she took my hand. We pushed through the doors into a crowded bar area. Lauren hadn’t seen Jerry at first, that was until I asked her to grab a vacant sofa. Jerry was standing with a glass in his hand and his coat, an umbrella, although it wasn’t raining, and a newspaper spread across the sofa.
“Babe, I’m keeping the space, quick before one of these fuckers wants to sit,” I heard. Lauren squealed with delight and rushed over to him.
“Oh my, Jerry. I haven’t seen you in ages. Where have you been? What’s been going on? Tell me about the holiday? How’s your mum?” Lauren peppered him with questions.
I walked over after having secured a table for dinner and buying a bottle of red wine. Jerry gave me a hug and we sat on the saved sofa, much to the annoyance of a couple standing nearby.
“Slow down, hun. Right. I have been setting up a new business, the holiday was bloody fab, Mum doesn’t know who I am anymore, and I met someone.”
He sat back and crossed his arms. This staccato type conversation was the norm for Lauren and Jerry until they got all their questions and short answers out of the way.
“You met someone? Tell me more, and I’m sorry about your mum,” Lauren said.
I sat back, poured the wine, and listened to them gossip. I loved watching Lauren with Jerry. They were old friends and good ones at that. There had been a period of time when Jerry had been sucked in by my ex and we’d kept our distance, but that, thankfully, was over and it looked like they were getting back on an even footing.
“Tell me all about class first,” Jerry insisted.
Lauren and I told him what we’d learned and he beamed that we were still very enthusiastic to adopt Rebecca. We’d shown him pictures of the times we’d met her and he was already referring to himself as her favorite uncle. He had plans, so he told us. He was going to take her to Disneyland and, even knowing we wouldn’t allow that, he was still talking about holidays and parties with her.
