Lauren's POV
"I want to adopt Danielle and Lila."
I had been thinking about this for weeks on end now. I finally decided that I do want to adopt these girls. I had to knock some sense into myself. The reason I let them be taken away is because I thought I'd be a bad influence on these girls with all my issues and everything I had been going through at the time. I thought that they didn't deserve someone who couldn't even take care of herself or maintain stable health without constantly having to be in hospitals. At that time I had told myself that maybe they'd be adopted and have a family, where they can be happy. But now I see that most kids don't make it out of foster care. Couples are looking for babies. They don't want a teenager that was raised in the system. Lila has more of a chance of being adopted but I doubt it because people don't like children that had a bad past, and Lila has that. She was raised in a home that's not a home but a disgusting business.
I could be the one that they can be happy with. We already have a special relationship. I can care for myself now and can offer them so much. I want to adopt them.
"Are you sure about this Lo?" Camila asks me.
"I'm positive. I want to adopt them. I've thought about this so much and it is what I want." I tell her, looking down at the puppy on my lap and petting her ear softly.
"Alright, we can make the call today. But first, let's go get something to eat, are you hungry?" She asks me, taking a turn at an intersection.
"Yeah, thank you." The sincerity can be heard in my voice. She nods her head and keeps driving.
About 20 minutes later we arrive outside an adorable little restaurant. Camila helps me out of the car, I carry the puppy in my arms, it's awake right now but since it is so young, it just lays there watching me. We get a table by the window. The menu has a variety of different foods. But I just decide on a chicken salad and water. Camila orders a burger and sprite with some french fries.
"Hey Lo, look what I have." Camila whispers to me. I look up to see her holding a huge bag of candy in her hand. She puts a finger over her lips, telling me to keep it secret, and then puts it back in her purse. I just shake my head at her, chuckling at her candy obsession. Looks like nothing has changed about her. She eats a lot for someone her size, which is astounding to me because she literally is a human vacuum.
We talk a little about some new projects that our management is planning for us before the food arrives. I start to eat the way I'm used to, while Camila just stuffs her face, not taking time to breathe between bites. I laugh at her because she looks like a chipmunk with food on both sides of her mouth. She just smiles happily at me, fitting as much food as she can into her mouth.
"Camz, calm down. The food will still be there if you slow down." I say to her. She just nods and chews her food, slowing down on the amount she puts into her mouth.
Camila finishes before me, of course, although she ordered WAY more food than I did. I finish a couple minutes after her, Camila had just been playing with the puppy who had been in the puppy bag that Camila brought in here with us before I had to put it inside the bag so that I can wash my hands and eat.
We pay and head out, back to the car. Camila is holding my hand as we walk back to the car, in her other hand is the puppy carrier bag. She swings our arms with every step she takes. "I'm proud of you, you know." She says to me, opening the car door.
"I know." I smile, getting in the car. She hands me the carrier and closes my door, going around to get in on the drivers side. We get back onto the road in a comfortable silence.
After about half an hour we finally arrive to our home. There aren't any cars in the driveway, which is not surprising because everyone was with their families. I get out with the carrier and wait for Camila, who was grabbing my suitcase. We walk to the front door and she opens it, letting me in. The smell of home hits me, bring the feeling of nostalgia, that I didn't even know I had. I hadn't realized how much I've missed home. Looking at everything now, I see that nothing has changed in these past couple months.
Thinking about it now, it's been half a year since I've been here. Wow.
"So, now that we're home, what do you want to do?" Camila says, putting her keys on the key holder and taking off her jacket.
"I'm going to put everything in my room and probably make the phone call right after. Then once that's done we can watch a movie if you want." I say, already walking towards the stairs, struggling to hold the puppy carrier and drag my suitcase behind me at the same time.
"Here, I'll help you." She grabs my suitcase and carries it up the stairs for me. I push open the door to my room. My eyes widen in surprise. Hanging on the wall, there's a banner saying "Welcome home" and then another one on another wall saying, "Congratulations!"
"Oh my god," I say, walking in, looking around at the decorations. There are balloons everywhere and on the walls there are little white envelopes. "What are those?" I ask.
"Letters. All for you to read. Do you like it?" She asks looking at me with her big brown eyes.
"Are you kidding? I love it. Thank you babe." I give her a quick peck on the lips and then proceed to walk to my bed to put my stuff down.
"I think I'll put everything away later, I'm going to make the call right now. Can you lend me your phone?" I sit down on my bed, Camila doing the same, taking her phone out her phone and handing it to me.
I type in the number, already knowing it by heart. The phone rings for a couple of seconds and then someone answers the phone. "Hello?"
"Hi! Mrs. Moore, this is Lauren Jauregui. I don't think you remember me but I was that lady that took care of Danielle Williams and-"
"-Yes, Ms. Jauregui I remember you. How can I help you?" She stops me mid-sentence.
"Um-yeah, I want to talk to you about the girls."
"If you want to know about how they are doing you can write them a letter." She says.
"No, I wanted to know how I can apply to adopt them." I respond.
"You want to adopt them? I didn't see that coming. Well, this is something that should be discussed in person."
"But I'm already back in California." I say, quickly.
"That won't do. I need to meet with you in person. But I guess I can fax you the paperwork and you can fax it back so that I can send it to the court and you can go through the system, where they background check you and all that stuff. Will that do?" She asks.
"Yeah, but how long will that take?" I ask worriedly
"Weeks. Maybe even months." My heart drops when she says this. Christmas is next week and I really wanted to spend this Christmas with them.
"Is there anyway to hurry the process up?" I ask.
"You would need to come and meet me in person with all types of different paperwork such as your tax papers, bills, social security, tons of stuff. But it'd have to be by the end of this week or you won't get word back for weeks because everyone will be on holiday."
"Okay, I guess I'll do just that. I might be able to meet with you tomorrow afternoon, I'll just take a morning flight. Is that good?"
"Yes, I'll e-mail you all the paperwork you need to bring and you should be set to go. I'll see you tomorrow." She hangs up the phone without so much as a goodbye but I'm still happy that I got my way this time.
Camila looks at me expectantly, waiting for the details. "She said that I CAN adopt them but if I want to hurry the process I would have to meet with her and bring tons of paperwork. So I told her I'll try to meet her tomorrow. Do you think I can get a flight for tomorrow?" I ask her, taking my laptop, that I haven't used in a long time, out of my drawer and beginning to type away, looking for flights.
"Maybe, but don't you think that you should slow down a bit? You just got back home after nearly seven months and now you're leaving again."
"No Camz, I can't slow down. These girls have been in hell for long enough. Do you know what Danielle has been writing to me? She said she misses me and that she needs me. She begs me to come and get her in the letters you gave me. She says she's afraid to go to shower because her foster brother is always trying to watch her. She's afraid to sleep because she doesn't want to get raped by that same 16 year old foster brother. I don't even know how Lila is doing which stresses me even more. I need them in my life and I can't leave them there while I'm here just sitting on my ass. They were the whole reason why I decided to recover in the first place." I say. I finally find a flight going to Delaware, which is where Mrs. Moore's office is located. "Now with that said, do you want to join me?" I ask Camila, she smiles at me and takes my hand in hers, bringing it up to her mouth and kissing it, "It would be my pleasure to join you."
I book the early morning flight and put my laptop away, laying back down and cuddling into Camila. "I really miss them" I whisper.
"I know baby, you'll have them soon, I promise." She responds.
"I can't believe I'm going to be their actual mom now. I only ever imagined this to happen when I'm like 30 or something." I say to her, slight nervousness in my voice.
"You're going to be an amazing mom. You're great with kids. And speaking of kids, what are you going to name your puppy?" She asks me, I then remember the sleeping puppy that I left on the floor next to the bed. I turn around and reach down from the bed and grab the puppy from inside the bag. I turn back around to where my girlfriend is and lay the puppy right between me and her. We both look down at it.
"Believe it or not, I feel a strong connection with this puppy. I think I'm going to name it after Leah, remember her? She's that friend I made at therapy after the car accident and she ended up committing suicide? Yeah, I'm going to name her Leah." I say to Camila. She nods, and continues to pet Leah. "You know, I've come to peace with the deaths of all those people I was close with. It feels good not feeling guilt or so deeply depressed about their deaths. My therapist in rehab helped me with that. I have come to realize that I shouldn't feel guilty about this because beating myself up over something I can't change doesn't help anyone or change anything. What happened happened and I can't change it. I just have to keep living my life and remember the good times, not the bad ones. Like how Leah loved dogs more than she loved life." I say in deep thought.
"Have I told you how proud I am of you?" Camila says, looking up into my eyes. I nod, smiling. She smiles back at me.
"How about we watch a movie?" I suggest, getting up and choosing a random DVD off the shelf and putting it in the DVD player under my TV. I grab the remote and head back to my bed, laying down again next to Camila, she extends her arm letting me rest my head on her chest. She wraps that same arm around my shoulder. Leah is on Camila's stomach, still sleeping. This puppy sure does sleep a lot. It reminds me of Leah (the person), if you were to let her sleep, she would sleep for days. I always had to wake her up or put an alarm on her phone to wake her up if we had something to do that day.
I press my body the closest I can to Camila's warm body. This is what I love. This actually feels like a relationship. Unlike when we first started off, Camila was always more like a nurse, having to constantly worry about me and care after me. Now it just feels like we are finally IN a relationship.
I fall asleep halfway through the movie even though it's only 5 P.M. Camila had already fallen asleep before me. We're both exhausted. And tomorrow was going to be a long day so at least we're resting now.
Tomorrow's the day. I finally become a mom to the two little girls I love with all my life.