All That Matters

Chapter 17

August 1, 2017
St. Catherine's
Pittsburg, PA

My leg is shaking in the front seat so badly while we drive to the church.

"Babe calm down. We're gonna do fine." I groan.

"I know. But I just want things to go right."

"They will." He takes my hand. "They will. We are good parents." I sigh and nod. We pull into the parking lot and go inside the church. "We're here to see Sister Robinson?"

"Yes. She's expecting you. Right this way." she leads us to an office and knocks on the door.

"Come in." the voice behind the door says. The lady opens it. "Mr. and Mrs. Anoa'i?" we nod. "Come in, come in and have a seat." We do as she says and the door closes behind us. "I'm very glad the both of you decided to do this."

"We wouldn't miss this." Joe says.

"I'm just going to get right to it. Here at St. Catherine's we always want to make sure that we place our children in the best homes with the best families. We do the interview like we are doing now, we do a meeting with you and the child and with myself or one of the other nuns observing, we do another meeting with just you and the child alone, background checks and home visits where the child can meet your family." She pulls out a notebook and a pen. "I've already done some checking of my own, but I'd like to hear from the two of you, tell me about yourselves, your families, how did you two meet?"

"We met back in 2010." Joe says. "At a bar. I was just finishing up a match and a friend and I went to grab a drink when I saw her at the end of the bar and fell in love."

"He came over to talk to me and I rejected him 3 different times." Sister Robinson's eyebrows furrow.

"Why?"

"I thought he was one of those guys that just wanted sex and I didn't want that. But when we ended up at the same New Year's party, he plead his case, I agreed to go out with him and the rest is history." She smiles.

"Tell me about your family Joseph."

"I am the youngest of 5, I have three sisters and 1 brother, who just recently passed away."

"I read about that. I'm sorry for your loss. And your parents?"

"Both still alive, they divorced when I was young."

"And you Malaika?"

"I am the youngest of three. I have an older brother and sister. My parents are divorced as well but they are in the process of getting back together."

"Good, good." She jots some notes down. "And your family life together?"

"Together we have a daughter, Anjali she's one year old and I have a 9 year old daughter Joelle from a previous relationship."

"And both you and Joelle's mother get along Malaika?"

"We hit a rough patch—"

"I cheated." Joe says bluntly. "On Malaika with Joelle's mother, Galina." I'm literally not breathing.

"I see..."

"We were separated for a little bit." I say.

"But I didn't accept divorce as an option." Joe continued.

"So we decided to work things out." I'm not telling her about the Colby thing. "I forgave Galina to start off the New Year right and we are very civil with each other. She is a big help while we're on the road." She continues to ask questions about our marriage, she looks deeper into our families so I had to bring up my sister's issues, she asked about our work schedules and I told her about the deal Joe and I have about having a baby and me quitting and staying home.