I went to look for Junior who I was sure had at least calmed down by then. I found him in his room.
“May I come in?” I asked after knocking. He quickly wiped away his tears.
“Yeah,”
“I know you hate me for keeping your dad away from you and I understand if you don't want to see me or talk to me,”
“He was always around me and I never knew it. I feel hurt but I can’t hate you. Every memory I have of you is full of love. I do not have a single memory of you that will make me feel angry or unloved.”
“But I am sorry. I was selfish for keeping his identity from you,”
“Stop apologizing mom,” that is what he called me, it started a few years after we adopted him. “I was just thinking about it and it made me love you more. You had the option of giving me away. I was a reminder of a betrayal but still you kept me here and showed me love. You took me to visit my mom every time I wanted to no matter how painful it was for you. You made sure I never forgot her and as much as I do remember she was my mom, it is you I have memories of.
When I got sick it is you who stayed up with me, when I became naughty it is you who put me back on the right track and honestly I never wanted to give you a reason to regret deciding to keep me that’s why I have always done my best and you never let me feel lonely and lacking so how can I hate you mom?”
“I have never once regretted the decision to adopt you and not because you were the brightest, most well behaved child but because you are just hard not to love,”
“And because I was your birthday gift,” I laughed
“Yes, because you were my birthday gift,” I hugged him tightly. “I love you son, never doubt that,”
“I love you too mom,” There was a knock on the door and Mark peeked inside.
“Am I interrupting?” he asked.
“Not at all, I’ll let you two talk,” I said standing up as Mark came in. I went to our bedroom and a few minutes later the other kids came in.
“To what do I owe this visit?”
“We came to apologize,” Matt said.
“Yeah mom, we are sorry, we had no right to give our opinion on your marriage. None of us is married so we don’t have a clue what it’s like.” Joelisa said.
“We also want to thank you for your choices. Dad made us see how hard it was for you but you did it for us, so we could have a complete family. So thank you mommy,” Chance said. Chance always wanted to prove he was hardcore but we all knew he was a real softy and a hopeless romantic like his dad.
“My babies, I love you so much,” I said giving them a group hug.
“We love you too mom,” They all said at different intervals.
I was glad that went as smoothly as it did. I honestly thought they’d hate us for keeping it from them especially Junior. I thought he’d never forgive us, never forgive me but telling them had changed nothing. The kids were still the unit they were and we still had to be the ones checking up on them except for Junior and Sky who always made the effort to check up on us, mostly me.
“Do you have any regrets?” Mark asked as we got ready for bed a year later.
“I have none,”
“I do,”
“What is it you regret?”
“That we stopped at Skylar, we should have added one more, and maybe that one would be interested in the family business,”
