Harper & Lee Plus Three

Tears and Travel

I tried not to shed a tear. All six of my babies were finally together again, each one lined up in their swings. I hesitantly picked up Raven and put her down on the carpet. I wanted to get just one last picture of my babies for social media before I left, since there was a good chance Lee wasn't going to update anything while we were gone.

I was totally in love with that meme of the six husky puppies laying on the floor, lined up darkest to lightest because the mamma husky "ran out of ink." With the triplets, the differences weren't super noticeable. Now, with six kids, only two of them identical, it was crazy to see how different they all looked with their different eyes, skin tones, and hair textures.

I set Robin down next to Raven. The identical girls had black hair and brown eyes, just like their dad. Next was Hawk, who also had black hair and brown eyes, but his skin tone was a tad lighter. After him was Griffin, who had black hair and hazel eyes. After him was Phoenix, with that light brown wavy hair and those deep, blue eyes. At the very end was little miss Wren, who had curly blond hair and blue eyes, still looking exactly like her older sisters.

"That is so adorable," Sophia said as I took the picture.

I wrote the caption: "An updated 7-month photo. Looks like I was running out of ink as I gave birth!" and uploaded it to our official Facebook page.

"Everything is in the car, ready to go," Lee said.

I took a look around my beautiful house. I didn't want to leave. But for Zozo, I had to do this. I got her out of her bedroom and carried her to the car. Her legs hurt too much for her to go up and down the stairs by herself.

I hugged and kissed Ella and Lukas goodbye. It was killing me that I was going to miss their third birthday in a few weeks. With Sophia and John at the house to watch the kids, Lee and I got into the car and started the drive to the airport. We were there in about fifteen minutes. He pulled up to the front, where Jamie and the crew were waiting to film us saying goodbye and going into the airport.

"Well, here we are," he said.

"Masks, Zozo," I said, turning around to see that she already had hers on.

I put my paper mask on. I promised that I'd wear it with her so she wouldn't feel as embarrassed. I knew we'd be getting lots of stares because we were wearing them, but it was something I was willing to deal with for my baby girl to get better.

Lee took the portable pink wheelchair we got for Zozo out of the trunk and got it set up for her, then placed her in it. I grabbed all of our bags. We'd be in Memphis for who knows how long, so I had a ton of suitcases. The airport staff was alerted that we were coming, so someone was already coming out with a cart for all our luggage.

"Daddy loves you so much, Zozo," Lee said to her, giving her a kiss on the hat that was covering her head. "Remember, you're beautiful and?"

"Strong!" Zozo said.

"Very good! I'll talk to you tomorrow, okay?" he said.

"Okay Daddy," Zozo said.

I gave Lee a hug and a kiss, doing my best to hide my tears from the camera.

"I love you so much, babe. We'll get through this," Lee said to me.

"I know. I've just never been away from you," I said.

"We'll Facetime every night. I'm sure you'll get the portal thing set up in no time."

"Hopefully they have good wifi at the Target House," I said. "I love you, Lee."

"I love you too, Harper."

We had a long, romantic kiss before I pulled away.

"It's been real, guys. I'll see some of you in Memphis," I said, taking off my microphone and handing it to Jamie.

"I'll be there on Friday so we can film you at the apartment. Take it easy until then," she said.

"I'll do my best," I said. "Ready to go on the plane, Zozo?"

"Yeah!" she said.

The staff member pushed our luggage cart over to the counter while I pushed Zozo in her wheelchair. My daughter was in awe, and so was I. I'd never been on an airplane or even really been in an airport before, other than when I picked up Lukas. This was a first for her, just like it was for me. I took mine and Zozo's backpacks off the top of the luggage cart before it was our turn in line.

I handed the lady at the counter our boarding passes and said, "Hi. We're checking all of these."

"Sure thing," she said.

The guy pushing the luggage cart got everything loaded onto the counter. I gave him five bucks as a thank you. The lady at the counter marked all of our bags and put them on the conveyor belt behind her.

"So how much do I owe?" I asked.

"Pardon?" said the lady at the counter.

"For all of my checked bags? I know the first one is free, but how much is it for the other five?"

"No charge for you, Harper," she said, giving me a wink. "We knew you were coming and where you're going, so my boss told us earlier to waive your fees."

"Wha...wow. Thanks," I said, putting my credit card away.

"I was also told to give one of these to Zophia, free of charge as well," she said.

She reached behind the counter and pulled out a plush airplane toy. Which I handed to Zozo.

"Wow Zozo, look at that! What do we say to the nice lady?" I asked.

"Thank you!" she said.

"You're welcome. Have a nice flight. Thanks for flying Sunset Airlines," said the lady at the counter.

I exited the line with Zozo and went up the elevator to TSA. They let us go into the TSA PreCheck line because I had a small child in a wheelchair. We didn't have to go through the body scanner or get pat downs, which was great. Just a quick trip through the metal detector and we were good to go.

I pushed Zozo down to our gate, but stopped for McDonalds on the way. It was the only thing the airport had. When we got to our gate, I sat with Zozo in a corner away from everyone so she could eat without taking in so many germs. She was over the moon with her chicken nuggets and Barbie Happy Meal toy.

Before we knew it, it was time to board. Since Zozo was in a wheelchair, we were allowed to board first. Since her wheelchair folded, I was allowed to bring it on the plane and put it in one of the overhead bins. I got us some seats in the second row so Zozo would have a tray to rest her tablet on. I told Lee that his "iPad kids" mantra was out the window now that our daughter was sick. She had cancer. I was giving her anything she wanted.

About thirty minutes later, the doors were locked and we were backing up. I was still taking everything in. A few years ago I couldn't afford a car, and now I was able to take a plane somewhere. I seriously thought I'd go my whole life without being on one.

I looked over at Zozo, who was busy getting a movie started on her tablet. I sighed. I just wished things could be different. Maybe once Zozo was better, the crew would be able to fly all eleven of us out to Disney World, just like we talked about a few months ago.