WHAT AM I WRITING? An "Abby's Road" Anniversary!

September and October are big months for our family. And since this year marks the fifth anniversary of most of the events of "Abby's Road", celebrate with us as I post the fifth anniversary of book events as they occur! I hope you enjoy the posts over the next month and enjoy reading (or re-reading) it in the book!

Today is the 5th anniversary of the events starting on page 99 of "Abby's Road...". 

              "On Tuesday September 8^th we received a call from Cary.  Valerie was having stomach pains.

                Def Con 2! Homeland Security Threat Level Mauve! Red Alert! Red Alert! Ah-oooga! Ah-oooga!

                Stop! It’s only the 8^th; the baby isn’t due until the 23^rd. What gives?

                It is possible, even likely, that Valerie will have the baby early. Why? A secretary told me her theory: I’ll sound like a complete mysogynist but it was her theory, not mine. Let me put this nicely –this is Valerie's third baby. The trail has already been blazed, so to speak. Abigail will be boldly going where other babies have gone before. The tubing has been loosened a bit. Get it? Whether that has any medical merit I have no idea and I am sure I will be corrected if wrong.

                But we have to be ready in case the baby is born over the weekend. By now we had websites bookmarked and knew exactly what we needed to do. If the baby was born in the next few days we could fly out of St. Louis via Southwest on Saturday the 12^th. The cost was fair even at this short notice. We could reserve a car with a baby seat at the airport. We picked an Extended Stay motel in Bethpage – it was nearest the hospital and had a kitchenette and two queen-size beds. For the trip home we could take Amtrak on the weekend of the 20^th.  I preferred the New York-Chicago route with a bedroom, but another route – New York-Washington-Chicago was also available. Then the train from Chicago to St. Louis (a five-hour layover).

                We would be home by our wedding anniversary!

                An obstacle appeared that evening when we checked availabilities. I should have realized it would be impossible to make reservations at a motel in New York over a September 11^th weekend. Uh-oh.

                Where will we stay until Monday or Tuesday when the weekend is over? In the hospital? Will Valerie and her parents put us up? Doubtful. There’s no point in going until we can secure a place to stay – the baby could be four days to a week old by the time we get there. Will she still be in the hospital? A foster home? Our little girl being held by perfect strangers? Wait, we’re foster parents. Our little girl being held by people like us? I’m going to be sick! Again!

                There were no close friends or relatives anywhere nearby. My Aunt Iris did have some distant cousins in that part of Long Island. If she were still alive our problems would have been solved. “I have a cousin still living there. You’re going to stay with his son’s family in the pool house.”  At the airport we’d have been met by a small shivering man holding a sign saying “Curry”.

                “We thank you for your hospitality,” we would say, “but you don’t have to put us up, we can get a motel room.”

                “No, stay with us. You don’t understand. Do you know what will happen to me, to all of us, if Iris finds out you stayed in a motel? Oy vey iz mir …”

Luckily, we learned it was a false alarm before we could head to the Big Apple. We would not be so lucky in the next few weeks!

***

"Abby's Road, the Long and Winding Road to Adoption and how Facebook, Aquaman and Theodore Roosevelt Helped" leads a couple through their days of infertility treatments and adoption. It is told with gentle (and sometimes not-so-gentle) humor from the perspective of a nerdy father and his loving and understanding wife.

Join Mike and Esther as they go through IUIs and IFVs, as they search for an adoption agency, are selected by a birth mother, prepare their house, prepare their family, prepare themselves and wait for their daughter to be born a thousand miles from home.

Abby's Road is available at Amazon here: http://www.amazon.com/Abbys-Road-Long-Winding-Adoption/product-reviews/0692221530/ref=cm_cr_pr_top_recent?ie=UTF8&showViewpoints=0&sortBy=bySubmissionDateDescending

at Barnes and Noble here: http://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/abbys-road-the-long-and-winding-road-to-adoption-and-how-facebook-aquaman-and-theodore-roosevelt-helped-michael-curry/1119971924?ean=9780692221532

and at Smashwords here: https://www.smashwords.com/books/view/457270

Copyright 2014 Michael Curry