Our Adoption Journey Part 3

Jake worked all day on Friday so we didn't get to spend any time but we picked Mary up early afternoon and went to lunch at a Vietnamese place. She of course added hot sauce again and was determined to do whatever she could to get the baby out. She started drinking 2 teaspoons of castor oil in her OJ and after lunch she brought us to the USC campus to walk around. There was a beautiful park to walk around. Everything was in bloom and the day was a perfect 75 ish and breezy. We talked and laughed and got to know each other even more while Brian played with the squirrels. He managed to get one to eat a piece of chewy granola bar from his fingers, it was cool. I married the male Snow Freakin' White. We walked over to the cafe where she and Jai first met. She told us the story while we sat and had coffee for a couple of hours. There was a belly dancing show outside of a local bar that evening and we were going to hook up with her friends and all drive over together.

We got to the lot and Mary was happy to be out and see some friends but mostly she was jumping out of her skin to see the belly dancing troop. She was taking lessons with them before she became pregnant and it was obvious she was anxious to get back in action. She was up and down out of her chair and definitely groovin' to the music. There were fire dancers and a hula hooper extraordinaire. The music was invigorating and we had a lot of fun but I couldn't help but notice that Mary was not holding her belly much at all that day. I had come to learn that whenever she was having contractions she would hold her belly so I took this to mean that we still had a ways to go. Although we were enjoying all our time together, the bit was chomped.

After the show we drove through "Five Points" which of course made me think of 1864 downtown New York and the fights between the Irish and the Americans. It was crazy college antics with drunken "kids" all over the place. Girls in stilettos stumbling around and guys yelling across the street to their frat brothers and all sorts of stuff that I suppose at one time I would have thought was really cool. Now all I wanted to do was put Mary in a bubble and the hell outta dodge. Jake's pizzeria was smack dab in the middle of the mayhem and we stopped in to grab a slice and say hi. He impressed me by flipping dough in the air without making a hole in it. Very cool! We wrapped up there and headed home.

We dropped Mary off at her house and she intended to go back out that night and meet friends. Through my perpetual yawning, all I could think of was that a 9 month pregnant girl had more energy than I did. I'm lame.

Brian and I were happy to be back at the hotel; we chatted over the nights events and then settled down for a content night’s sleep.

And just 5 and a half hours later......the phone rang.