Expanding The Fam. ...?

Hallie was pretty good through the night.   I'd only had to get up with her about twice. 
But then she woke up bright and early at 7:30 when Tangled Fan's alarm went off. 
I woke up with a jolt as she squealed and started to cry, and I started to sit up, finding that peeling my eyes open was a challenge. 
Then I felt a tender hand on my shoulder, and Flynn whispered in my ear, "I'll get her.  Go back to sleep." 
"I ever tell you how amazingly awesome you are?"  I mumbled, my eyes going back shut, and he chuckled. 
I yawned, and tried to go back to sleep.  I don't know how Flynn could be up and aware of his surroundings...but then again, he'd been asleep when I had had to get up through the night with her.  I just couldn't function on less than six hours of sleep!
I also knew that Hallie was my responsibility as well as Flynn's, so it would only be fair that I got up too.  No use laying around if you can't actually sleep...unfortunately. 
I opened my eyes and sat up to see Flynn coming back under the bench, Hallie in tow. 
"Go back to sleep," he told me again. 
"Can't...but how much sleep did you get last night?"
"I'm fine.  You look like a zombie right now, to be frank.  Catch some more z's while you can," he told me, bouncing Hallie up and down. 

So I did. 

I woke back up around 9, refreshed. 
When I came out from under the bench, I was greeted by another round of loud screams.  Oh, goody.  I'll tell you one thing - that little child has quite the set of lungs on her. 
And Tangled Fan was talking to Flynn.  Wait...what? 
I yawned and walked over to stand beside Flynn, taking Hallie from him.  "What?" 

"Oh, good - you're up." Tangled Fan said. "I was just telling Flynn about this...so the other day, when I was cleaning my closet out, I found a little girl doll that could be adopted. She's around Jase's age, and it wouldn't be until I found some clothes for her to wear - she's nude right now for some reason. Would you mayyybe be interested in meeting her sometime?"
Well, what an awesome time to ask someone if they want another kid - when the baby they have right now has been screaming her head off almost constantly for hours on end.
But then again...Jase for sure would like a buddy to play with, I'm sure. And really, the older kids weren't as much work as the babies were. But on the other hand, having just the two girls was pretty nice.
"Will you send her to eBay if we don't?"
"Nooo, definitely not. You see, her hand was slightly chewed by one of the dogs, years back, and so she can't really be sold on eBay. It'd probably be Goodwill."
I gasped. "That poor little doll!" I gave Flynn a horrified look, and he matched it with just about the same expression.
"So...do you need time to think about it?" Tangled Fan asked.
"I suppose..." Flynn gave me another sidelong glance.
"Okay. I'll let you know again when I have some clothes for her." And with that, she was gone again.

Flynn turned to me. "Morning."
"Morning," I laughed. I reached up to give him a kiss on the cheek, and he grinned at me, putting a gentle hand on my side.
"How're we holding up?"
"Well, I'm not a bawling mess, am I?" I asked. "I'm fine. I just would like to know what's got her so upset!" I glanced down at Hallie, who was whimpering, but had quieted a little bit.
He nodded. "If you want to go elsewhere for awhile, I can handle her."
"It's fine," I told him, adding a thankful smile. "But what's got my interest is that girl. What do we do?"
He glanced down at Hallie and back up at me. "I think we should wait until we can actually hear ourselves thinking..."
"True," I laughed. "Hallie, goodness gracious, little girl! What's gotten into you?" I bounced her around in my arms a few minutes. "How long has she been awake?"
"Since 7:30. She probably needs to go back to sleep, because she was woken up by the alarm this morning." Flynn said.
"Yeah...you're probably right." I sighed. Finally, I started humming quietly to her.
After awhile, she calmed down and actually gave me a little grin.
I glanced towards Flynn, who was sitting and talking with Jase - I suspect about the girl - and he glanced up and gave me a raised-eyebrow, 'you mean you actually got her to quiet down' stare.  I laughed and looked back down at Hallie. 
"Now that's my sweet little girl!"  I told her.  She seemed to have settled down, so I set her down near Allie. 
As soon as I turned around, Flynn swept me up. 

He pulled me into a kiss, and I jumped with surprise, but then I put my one hand up on his shoulder, kissing him back. 

When we pulled apart, he gave me a grin. 
"What was that for?"  I asked. 
"For being you," he said simply, straight-faced. 
Deciding to tease, I said, "Ahh.  You're just glad I was able to get miss Hallie to quiet down!" 
He chuckled and gave me a quick hug before letting me go. 

 

Then, I decided to get Jase and talk to her about that girl. 

I took her into my lap and she gave me  a dimple-y smile.  I took her hands loosely in mine and smiled back at her. 
"Baby girl...what would you say if we ended up adopting another girl?" 
"She's the one Daddy was talking about?"
"Yeah," I agreed. 
"She's around my age?"
"Supposedly."
"Is she nice?"
"I don't know.  We haven't seen her yet, but when we do, we'll take you with us." 
"Okay.  Well...I wouldn't mind.  When can we go see her?"
"I have no idea," I said.  "We have to-"
"You're going to adopt her, right?  I'd love to have a playmate." 
"I have no idea," I repeated, laughing.  Turning to Flynn, I added, "I think we have a definite yes from her."
"Yes, PLEEEASE."  Jase corrected me. 
We ALL laughed at that one. 

"Yes...please.  We have a definite yes, 'please' from her."  I told him. 

Then I went over to Rayne and Blondie.  As I was going to ask them what their opinion was, Hallie started back up.  Again. 

Instead of talking about the girl, I said, "What is going on with that child?!" 
Rayne shrugged, and I sighed.  "I just hope she calms down soon."
I started towards Hallie to scoop her up, but Flynn was already on it. 

"I think I'll take her for a walk, hon.  If nothing else, it'll give the rest of you some peace and quiet!" 

"I can take her," I offered. 
"Naw..I can take her, too."  he grinned at me.
Thank goodness.  That award-winning grin on top of that offer?  Did he get any better?!  I gave him a quick hug and a kiss on the cheek, and he gave me a peck on the nose.  "See you later, dear girl."
"See ya," I smiled at him and watched them leave. 

So then, all of us girls gathered together.  I picked up Allie and held her for awhile (Merida's legs
were bothering her) and held Jase on my lap as well. 

We chatted about the girl.  Basically, the answer from everyone was that if Flynn and I both felt we could handle three, then to go for it.
The thing was that I wasn't sure we SHOULD.  I mean, I would be okay with it, and I KNEW Jase would be, and Flynn probably would be fine about it too.   But would we realize we'd stretched ourselves too thin, when it was too late to undo it?  I just didn't want that to happen.  And-
What was that sound?
"What is that?"  I whispered. 

 

We all turned to look towards the bed. 
I listened harder. 
"Now she's here, shining in the starlight..now she's here, suddenly, I know...if she's here..."
"Is that...my husband?  Singing?" 
Merida nodded slowly, and we all gave one another awed glances.  I put a hand over my chest and turned back to stare towards Flynn and Hallie. 
"Yer hubby can sing," Merida finally managed to whisper. 
"Uh-huh..." I mumbled, a smile slowly creeping up on my lips.  I had no clue he could sing that well!  Oh my goodness...his voice was so smooth and perfect.  I was wonderstruck! 
Then I realized that he had stopped...and he was heading our way. 
"Guys!"  I hissed.  "He's-"

Too late.

"She's out cold," Flynn came up onto the dresser. 
I gave him a smile, hoping to goodness that the others weren't staring at him.  Finally, I found my words.  Unfortunately, the wrong ones slipped out.  "No wonder she calmed down!"
"Why?"  he gave me a quizzical look.  "And why's everyone staring at me and Hallie?"
Well, crumbs. 
"Umm...Well, w-we heard...ah...here, lemme take Hallie and lay her down."  I jumped up and offered to take her. 
"No, I can get her."  he inched past Merida, and everyone's eyes stayed glued to him. 
Awkward. 
He laid her down on the floor beside Allie, who was sleeping as well, and then turned towards us. 
"Would someone please spit it out?" 
"You...we, um...we heard you s-singing to her, a-and...you're.."
"You heard me?"  his face turned red.  Gosh, mine was probably red, too.  Mine and just about everyone else's. 
"You're flawless!"  I spat out, finally. 
"Oh." he gave me a wide-eyed expression.  "I'm not the best-"
"Oh, yes you are!"  Rayne piped up.  I overlapped her with basically the same thing. 
He laughed and came over to me.  Squeezing my shoulder with his hand, he asked how our little while of peace had gone. 
"Excellent, dear.  Thank you so much.  Have I told you how awesome you are?"
"Only once already this morning," he laughed. 

We all went to bed around nine.  Hallie had calmed down substancially, and at nine o clock, she finally decided to sleep.  I really hoped she'd sleep through the night! 
When we got to bed, Flynn flopped down on his side and I did, too; facing him. 
"So..." Flynn started, brushing the hair from my face.  I got a tingle up my spine when he left his hand on my cheek.  "It seems that if you hum or sing to her, she quiets down.  I'm not sure why, but hey - at least something works!"
I grinned.  "Honey, she'd for sure go to sleep for you.  Your voice is soo soothing and deep, and...just wow.  You're a really good singer." 
He rolled his eyes.  "I am not." 
"Are too!"  I gave him a push.  He chuckled quietly and then suddenly pulled me close to kiss me. 
When he pulled away, he rested a hand on my waist.  "So...what are your thoughts on that girl?"
I rested my hand on the hand that was on my waist and sighed.  "I have no idea.  I mean...the older kids are a lot easier to care for, and it's not like we'd be adopting another baby.  But can we wing it?  What do you think?"
"I don't know, either.  Basically, I think the same as what you just said." 
He reached over and plopped a kiss on my forehead.  "Maybe we could try fostering her for a bit." 
"Well, I never thought about that.  I suppose we could try it.  If you're okay with it and everything, too." 
He yawned, and then mumbled a 'c'mere'.  At first, I was confused, but then I got what he meant.  I rolled over onto my other side and he pulled me close to him before he whispered in my ear.  "Sounds like an excellent plan, dear girl.  But don't feel pressured about anything, and you let me know if you need to talk about anything, okay?  That's what I'm here for." 
"Uh-huh..." I trailed off as I snuggled closer to him and went to sleep.

My sleep definitely wasn't peaceful, though. 
I woke up at Nobody-Should-Ever-Be-Awake-At-This-Time o' clock and realized my head was...beside Flynn's feet?  I looked up, blinking, and through the darkness, I made out a hand that was being held out towards me. 
I took it, and Flynn pulled me upright towards him. 
"Why was I...down there..." I mumbled drowsily, yawning and flopping onto my belly and doing a faceplant. 
"You've been tossing and turning all night long.  Need to talk?"  he sounded wide-awake. 
"Sorry.  An..and I dunno.  I'm just really sleepy.  Been thinking about that girl, is all." 
"Uh-huh."  he said.
"Well...." I sighed and propped myself up on my elbows, looking towards him (for all the good it did, since I could hardly see ANYTHING.)  "I'm just worried that we'll get ourselves knee deep in something we can't crawl out of." 
"We don't have to even foster her.  We can just tell Tangled Fan no." 
"No...I mean, I WANT to, but I'm just..scared of messing up, I guess."  I sighed again and squeezed my eyes shut, blinking the 'I need to go to sleep' sting out of them. 
"I can get that...I mean, I'm a little nervous as well.  But we'll see.  I mean, if we're fostering, it's kind of like a test drive.  Y'know?" 
"Yeah," I said, more awake now.  "So, do we tell Tangled Fan tomorrow that we'll foster her?" 
"I suppose...I'm okay with fostering if you're okay.  I don't want to push you into anything."
"Okay.  We'll tell her if we get the chance to, tomorrow.  For now, we both need to get to sleep again." 
"Yup...night.  Thanks for the midnight pep-talk," I joked quietly, rolling over onto my side and sprawling my arm out across his middle. 
"Anytime, dearest..." 
My heart squeezed, and then I was out.