The years passed and I went back to traveling on the road for a little bit before retiring (again) alongside Joe.
When it came to the kids:
Joelle excelled in cosmetology and got a job with the hair and makeup crew for WWE.
Anjali became a wrestler and is currently a two time Smackdown Women's Champion and is in the process of moving in with her girlfriend Birdie, and relocating to Orlando. Yes, you're correct. My daughter is dating Birdie Jo Danielson. To have the Anoa'i's and Danielson's in one family is one hell of a family line.
Mark pursued his theatre dreams and is living in New York while working on Broadway. He is currently playing George Washington in the revival of Hamilton while his partner James, you remember James his friend from school, he is also on Broadway in the role of Raoul in Phantom of the Opera.
Leati and Lilo are both on Raw and have been Mixed Tag Team Champions for about a year now.
Joe and I have announcement for our kids so we get all of them together in the room, except Mark we get him over FaceTime.
"What's going on mom?" Anjali asks. "You guys sounded weird on the phone."
"We have something to tell you all." Joe says.
"You two aren't getting a divorce are you?" Lilo asks. "Because that would suck... really badly."
"No." I say. "We're not getting a divorce." I sigh. "Your father and I have decided to move."
"Where?" Mark asks through the computer.
"Hawaii." Joe says plainly. Our kids stare at us before all talking at once.
"Slow down." I protest. "What's the issue?"
"You guys are leaving us?" Joelle says.
"Yeah... you all are grown adults who can take care of yourselves. Especially you Joelle."
"She's right." Joe says. "And it's not like you won't have any parents around. Joelle your mom and Aaron are still here and Mark your birth parents are still around." Mark groans and rolls his eyes.
"But we don't want you guys to leave us." Leati says in a small voice.
"We're not leaving you guys. You know you can always pick up the phone and call us."
"But you won't be just down the street..." Lilo says. "You'll be miles and miles away."
"We're still gonna be in the country." I say.
"Your mother and I raised you to the best of our ability. And you all have excelled in all that you're doing and we couldn't be more proud of you all. But now that we're retired... this is something that we want to do for us."
"This is something we've wanted for a while, we just didn't know how to tell you guys. We're looking at houses now don't worry it'll be big enough to accommodate for all you... hooligans..."
"Is this really what you want?" Joelle asks.
"Yeah. Yeah it is." She looks at her siblings.
"Then we're ok with it." Mark states. Joe and I take a sigh of relief.
"We just want you two to be happy." Leati says. "You guys have been through so much with all of us."
"Yeah. We love you guys." Anjali says.
"And we love you." Joe says.
"I have to start getting ready." Mark says. "I'll call you guys later."
"Have a good show." I say.
"Bye everyone." He hangs up. Jayla, Jon's daughter, and Joelle are going to Vegas for the weekend so she leaves to go pack, Leati leaves to hang out with Declan, Ferg and Sierra's son, leaving Anjali and Lilo in the room.
"Babe, can I get a minute?" I ask.
"Sure." Joe gets up and leaves the room.
"What's going on?" I ask the girls.
"Nothing." They say together. I lean back in the chair, fold my arms and raise my eyebrow.
"Now we all know that's a lie. Come on you two, talk to me." The two girls looks at each other.
"We want you both to be happy..." Anjali begins.
"But we don't want you to be so happy so far away." Lilo finishes. "Couldn't you guys just retire to Fort Myers or Naples or Pensacola?"
"No." I say. "We wanted Hawaii. You guys should be glad. It was either Hawaii or Italy."
"Fine." Anjali says. "I guess Hawaii is okay."
"Look, just because we're moving, doesn't mean that we're leaving you. We love you too much and all of you are way too dependent on us to not call. We'll always be your parents and you two will always be our baby girls." I hug and kiss both of them.
"Can we at least help you pick out the house?" Lilo asks. I smile.
"Of course."
X
The kids, Joe, Galina and I all flew in to NY to be with James because Mark was nominated for a Tony Award.
"And the Tony Award for Featured Actor in a Revival of a Musical goes to..." She opens the envelope. "Mark Anoa'i!" We all scream our heads off as Mark struggles to get to the stage in nerves and excitement. He gets onto the stage, takes his award and stands in front of the mic.
"Wow. Um. Wow." He looks down at it. "I know I don't have a lot of time so I'll try to make this as short as possible. But if you play the music and cut me off, my mother will tackle you to the floor." The crowd laughs. "I would like to thank the American Theatre Wing for such an amazing honor. To the cast and crew, our fabulous director Mike, thank you for you love and compassion. To the Straz Center in Florida, thank you for taking this little boy under your wing to show him the ropes. To James, my soulmate, all of my nagging and complaining has finally paid off so thank you for being a listening ear. To my other mother Galina, you didn't have to be so nice to me and raise me but you did so thank you. Joelle, Anjali, Leati and Lilo, I'm proud to be your brother. To my father, you are everything I could ever want in a dad, I love you, and I thank God for sending you into my hospital room all those years ago. And to my mom..." he takes a shaky breath. "God, my mom is the best mom in the whole world and I will fight you if you say otherwise. She taught me a lot of moves." The crowd laughs. "She's the one that got me interested in theatre, she made sure that I worked hard and got into Carnegie Mellon, she helped me pursue my dream just like she pursued hers. I love you mom so much and I share this award with you. Thank you mom. This award is for all the kids whose parents and family can't accept them because of their sexuality, or because they want to dance or go into theatre. I pray that all of those kids find someone that accepts them for who they are, just like my family accepted me. Thank you." He steps away from the mic and the crowd applauds as he exists the stage.
~
We're all at the after party and I watch as people crowd around my son to take pictures and offer words of congratulations to him. My children are all living their dreams and they're all so happy.
And I look at the smiles plastered on their faces and the pride that fills my husband's heart as he puffs out his chest and I realize that it was all worth it. All the pain, the heartache, the struggles, the crying... it was all worth it because the smiles, the laughter, the happiness and the success came flooding after.
This is what I worked so hard for.
This is what it means to be a daughter and a sister.
This is what it means to be a wife.
This is what it means to be a mother.
Because Through It All, this is All That Matters.
X
And that's a wrap on Malaika and Joe's story. I hope you all enjoyed it. It was a real honor and a blessing to tell their story and Finn and Sierra's relationship as well thanks to Thatgirlreci
Thank you all again for your reads, comments and votes.
And now I say my final goodbye with my last gifs of the chapter: