Five years have passed, and I am happy to announce that Logan and I are still together. Now, do not get me wrong, we have had our bad days, and disagreements, but who does not with the one they love? We graduated from high school and trade school, and we have been living together since the summer after we graduated from high school. We found an apartment with the help of Logan's parents, nana and grandpa Noble. The four of them helped us with the rent, food, and utilities while we attended trade school. Now, we have moved onto only Logan and I paying for our own bills, but we are very thankful for their help.
We live halfway in between his parents and mama, and nana and grandpa Noble have moved closer to us, and they live about four blocks from us in another apartment complex. We love that they are so close. We alternate Saturday dinners between theirs and ours, and one Saturday a month, mama, Logan's parents, nana and grandpa, and Xavier and Shay, and their attachments come for a family dinner at ours.
Tonight is a family dinner night, and Logan and I have an important announcement to share with everyone, and they should be here by six for dinner shortly after.
"Now that everyone is here, Brae and I would like to announce that we have been approved to become foster parents. We received a call this morning from our case worker to inform us that we have been requested by a teen mom to adopt her baby," Logan proudly states with a large smile. "We met with the mother this afternoon, and we have decided to proceed with the adoption, and the baby is due in four weeks."
Everyone stares at Logan and I in surprise before Shay and Xavier let out loud cheers as they surge to their feet to tightly hug us both. They bring the others out of their shock, and we hug them all.
"You are making me a very happy old lady," nana chuckles with shiny tears.
"Have you thought of names?" grandpa Noble asks as everyone settles back down into their seats.
Over the next three weeks, we finished the nursery, and much to our surprise, mama, Mrs. Noble, and nana threw us a baby shower last week. Logan and I also have decided on three names - a "boy" name, a "girl" name, and a "neutral" name. Axel James, Poppy Marie, and Riley Sawyer. We have also decided on the last name for the baby which is Grayson-Noble. During these past three weeks, we have been spending time with the birth mother, Holly, and we have been getting to know her, and the family history of her and the birth father.
We were supposed to join her for the baby appointment tomorrow, and we were excited for this, but we will not be attending because Holly has gone into labor. Logan and I are in the birthing room with her at her request to be in there with her as she delivers the baby. Logan, the baby, and I are given our own room until the baby is discharged.
"Do we have a name chosen for this beauty?" nurse Rosie asks with a wide smile after she has checked over the baby.
"Yes, we have picked out a name her name," I grin while holding our baby on the bed next to Logan.
"Poppy Marie Noble-Grayson," Logan proudly tells her with his own content smile as he gently runs his fingertips over her arm as he then spells her name for the nurse.
The next morning around ten, Poppy is released, and we are on our way out, and we stop at Holly's room to check up on her, and say goodbye.
"Hey, how are you feeling? Do you know when you are being released?" I quietly ask her once we are in her room, and by her side.
She softly laughs as she tiredly answers; "I am feeling good, thanks, and I am being released within the hour. How is little Miss doing? I take she is released?"
She glances at the diaper bag slung over Logan's arm, and the baby carrier he is holding by the handle.
"Poppy's doing excellent, passed all of her tests with flying colors," I praise with a smile. "Yeah, she has been cleared to leave, and we are glad you are doing well, and being released soon."
We have agreed to keep in contact with Holly through emails to send her updates on how Poppy is doing, pictures on occasion, etc.
Another three years have passed, and today is Poppy's third birthday, and we are celebrating with a party this afternoon. We have one more child through foster to adopt, our son Elliot James Noble-Grayson. We fostered Elliot for a year before we adopted him last month, the day before his sixteenth birthday. His parents lost him because of abuse. Elliot has physically healed from the abuse, and he is on his way of healing mentally through speaking with a therapist.
We are fostering another child, a seventeen year old girl named Amber Ann, and she has been in the system for five years now. Her mom died in a car crash that Amber was in the car for, and her dad died when she was a baby. She has no family that is willing or able to take her in. We have told her that we would like to adopt her if she wants us too, or she can stay with us even after aging out of the system until she is settled on her own.
Life has turned out amazing, better than I ever thought it would. Attending Sunset Ridge Academy has turned my life around, and showed me that life can have it's beautiful moments, too, and that I need to focus on those, and not the bad moments.
