As always – thanks for readings & reviewing the last chapter. :)

Mac's Law Office
March 2013

"Knock, knock," Mac said as she tapped on the doorframe of the already opened door. "Do you have a second?"

Marie Hilliard looked up from her computer and smiled warmly. "Hi, Mac! Come on in! Have a seat."

Mac entered the large office and sat down in one of the oversized chairs in front of Marie's oak desk. Marie was sixty-something year old woman who embodied elegance, professionalism and grace. Harm had even made a comment to Mac after he met Marie that if Jackie Kennedy Onassis became a lawyer instead of an editor in the later part of her life, she would be a lot like Marie.

He probably wasn't wrong. Marie, who like Jackie, had been widowed twice by the age of fifty, had dark black hair the fell to her shoulders. She wore expensive tailored suits with pearl earrings and pearl necklaces. She even had her own unique voice that was a soft, breathy whisper with traces of a Southern belle accent instead of former first lady's hard to define accent.

"I brought the introduction letter and the pictures," Mac said as she passed Marie a manila folder and large envelope.

"Excellent! I will look it over and get it sent to Tiffany and Ryan in graphics right away so they can print a bunch of books up to send over to the adoption agency." Marie waited a beat, and when the younger woman in front of her didn't say anything else, she spoke again. "Everything okay, Sarah?" She asked with an arched brow.

Mac shifted nervously and eyed the folder on the desk. "Nerves, I guess," she answered, as she twisted her wedding ring around her finger with her thumb. "What if it's not good enough? What if the expectant mother doesn't like my past...my family life? What if I picked too many pictures? What if I picked not enough pictures? What if I didn't pick the right kinds of pictures? What if-"

"Sarah," Marie interjected, softly. "I know it must be really hard to be on the other side of things in this type of situation, but that is why you have me. Just pause for a moment and take a breath. Breathe with me," she encouraged. After the pair took a few deep breaths, Marie continued. "Now, there is something I always tell my adoption clients, and I'm sure you tell your clients something similar. Do you know what that is?"

"I think I have a pretty good idea..."

"I'm sure you do," Marie nodded. "I tell my clients that the birth family isn't looking for a perfect family – the perfect family doesn't exist! They are just looking for a family who can cope with life experiences." She reminded Mac with a smile.

Mac let out a shaky breath. "I know that deep down, but it's really overwhelming."

Marie nodded. "I'm sure it is, but everything will work out."

"I basically told Harm once that he had control issues, but now I seem to be the one that's struggling when it comes to that," she confessed. "The whole letting go part, I guess," she clarified.

"You have to trust in the process, even if it is hard...even if there some bumps along the way... don't lose faith that everything will happen in due time. Fate, if you will. There is another child somewhere in the universe who is waiting to join your family."

"That's what we keep reminding ourselves," Mac began. "The whole concept of fate is...fascinating, I suppose. Harm and I danced around a relationship with each other for years. Sometimes, I think about all the time we wasted during those nine years, but other times, I think about how every wrong turn we made, still brought us together- how they all brought us to Mattie and Caroline. It's like all those bad things had to happen." Mac took another deep breath and slowly let it out. When she briefly closed her eyes, an image of Audrey flashed through her mind and she took a second to bite her bottom lip before she could speak again. "Sorting the pictures, though, and writing the letter...it was just harder than I imagined...it was emotional."

"That's what makes you human, sweetheart. Although, it makes you feel like you're signing up for a dating website or something, doesn't it?" Marie tried to lighten the mood some.

"Yes!" Mac agreed. "It's really hard to write about yourself life that...like you're marketing yourself. It's uncomfortable."

"As uncomfortable as people say the home study is? You have that coming up, don't you?"

Mac nodded. "Yes, it should be finalized next month. Harm went through a home study years ago when he became Mattie's foster parent. He had no idea what he was getting into then, but he felt a lot more prepared this time around, which in turn, made me a lot less stressed about it. Caroline liked being assigned certain tasks to help, too. I think it made this process seem more real to her. Although, it's hard to know how much she really understands at her age."

Marie smiled. "Seriously, Mac, if there's anything else I can do to help you, as a friend, and not just your attorney, consider it done."

Mac smiled back at her. "I know. You've really been a blessing in my life, Marie." There was a brief pause. "Well," she began as she consulted with her internal clock. "It's 1:23PM, and time for me to leave. I have to go to the Ross pretrial at 2:00PM," she stood up from the chair. "Just look those over and let me know what needs changed."

Marie furrowed her brow. "How do you do that? You don't even wear a watch!" She glanced behind her to confirm that there were no clocks facing the younger attorney, either.

Mac grinned. "Harm has been asking me that for years. I tell him it's classified. But between us, attorney client privilege does apply..." she paused for a dramatic effect as Marie leaned over her desk to listen to the "secret." "I honestly have no idea."

Marie leaned back in her chair and laughed. "Well, a couple secrets are good in a relationship, I suppose. It keeps the mystery alive. Carry on, Mac." She flashed another smile as she picked up a pen so she could get back to work.

There was something about the way she said "carry on" that caused Mac to stop in her tracks and turn around to face her again. "Do you think you'll ever date again?" she asked her friend before she could talk herself out of it as she leaned against the door frame.

Marie furrowed her brows deeper- she hadn't expected that question at all. She had been widowed the first time at the age of 23, after five shorts years of marriage when her husband, a beat cop in the streets of Birmingham, Alabama had been shot in killed in the line duty. After that, she swore she'd never marry again. She decided to start over and make a new life, so she moved to Virginia, attended Georgetown Law School, and was content to keep to herself until the day she literally bumped into the man who would become the second love of her life. He was a doctor- an oncologist – actually. They had a wonderful relationship until -by a cruel twist of fate- he was diagnosed with terminal cancer. The irony of the fact that the man who helped thousands of people win their battle with cancer, lost his own cancer battle was never lost on her.

"That depends," Marie finally responded with a sigh as she tapped her pen on the desk. "I'm not against it, but finding someone at this stage in life is...complicated. Sometimes, I'd even say it was impossible."

The dating pool wasn't the best for someone her age. A lot of men were intimidated by her because of her professional life. And of the men that did show interest, well, they were either old enough to be her father, or young enough to be her son. She certainly didn't want to be portrayed as a gold digger or a cougar. Maybe age was just a number to some people, but she couldn't deal with an age gap that large. It felt wrong.

Ideally, maybe she would find someone again to share her life with again – someone who could respect the stage she was in her life and her career, but more importantly, she needed someone that she trusted enough to bring into the lives the children she cared for in foster care. For years, she and her husband were registered foster parents, but once he became sick, they got away from it and only stayed on for respite care in emergencies. It was, however, something that she missed and wanted to get back into doing regularly – but would anyone her age even be interested in something like that? Men her age were probably grandfathers – they probably happily put their child rearing days behind them.

"Nothing is impossible, Marie," Mac replied somewhat nostalgically.

"Why? Do you know anyone?" teased. "Does your husband have a single uncle?" She raised an eyebrow. Mac once confided in Marie about her uncle Matt's "situation" so she knew it wasn't Mac's uncle, but other than that, she didn't know too much about the extended family of the couple. Although, that was sure to change when she would look over the folder Mac had just given her – those adoption questionnaires had a way of putting everything out there.

Mac smiled and made a humming sound. "No, Harm doesn't have an uncle." She replied in a sing song voice. "But Caroline does," she thought before she spoke again. "Do you like baseball?"

"Love it, but haven't been to a real game in years. Lately, I've just been at my nephew's son's little leagues games when I can squeeze in a visit to Alabama."

AJ Chegwidden was living in the DC area again, and he happened to be one of the people who agreed to write a letter of recommendation letter for their adoption portfolio. He also agreed drop the letter off at her office next week. An idea was forming – Mac may not be the same type of matchmaker Harriet was – but she could at least arrange a chance encounter between her two mentors and let fate handle the rest.

"Well, maybe you'll get to go to a few more games this season," she winked as she adjusted her briefcase over shoulder and left.

When Mac exited the office, Marie picked up the folder and began to look it over. She started with the letter as she wondered what Mac may have been trying to conjure up.

Hello!

Thank you so much for giving us this opportunity to introduce ourselves to you. We would never presume what you must be feeling right now, but we can only imagine that you are probably riding on a rollercoaster of emotions. To be completely honest, so are we.

Let's start by telling you a little bit about ourselves. We are Harm and Sarah, and we have been married for eight years, but our story goes back much further than that. We met each other in 1996 in a rose garden, and while that might sound like the beginning of a sappy romance novel, it still took us nearly a decade before we became a couple.

We were both military lawyers and worked together for nine years – becoming best friends in the process. In that time, we had been through so much together. We literally followed each other to the opposite sides of the world, comforted each other after failed relationships, survived plane crashes, spent holidays together, and stormed warzones together. It shouldn't be a surprise that somehow in between all of that, we fell in love – even if we didn't realize it or were too afraid to admit it at the time.

In 2005, we were both presented with new orders, and we were going to be stationed on opposite continents. Those new orders forced us to face the feelings we had for one another and we decided to get married! Yes, we skipped the whole dating thing and went straight to marriage, but we truly feel that our marriage is based on the foundation of our friendship, and we wouldn't change a thing. Sarah ended up retiring from the military and now practices family law, while Harm is still in the military and oversees military lawyers.

We always knew we wanted to raise children together and we knew that our path to parenthood didn't matter as long as we did it together. Our first taste of parenthood was fostering our daughter, Mattie. How Mattie came into our lives is a whirlwind and would need an entire letter of its own to do her story justice. Mattie was just barely 14 when Harm was appointed to be her guardian after her mother died and her father abandoned her. She aged out of the foster care system before we were able to adopt her, but that didn't change anything. She was our daughter. Luckily, we were able to pursue an adult adoption in our state and we were able to make it official a few years later. She's currently studying to become a physical therapist. We also have a six-year-old daughter named Caroline, and like her father, she loves all things aviation (in addition to being a military lawyer, Harm was also a third-generation naval aviator) and the beach. Harm's parents live in California and Caroline loves making sandcastles with them when we go visit.

We live in a suburb of Washington, DC, so we love to spend family days together at the museums. Sarah has a love for paleontology, and Harm and Caroline can never get enough when it comes to aviation, so most often we end up at either the Air and Space Musem or the Museum of Natural History. Our love for our country is also a very important part of our lives, so we often make trips to the National Mall. Our very close friends, Bud and Harriet, live a few streets away from us with their four kids. We often have cookouts in the summer, bonfires in the fall, and combined family movie nights in the winter.

As you flip through this book, you'll get a glimpse into our lives, and the questionnaire filled out in the back should give you more insight into our background and our own childhoods. Neither one of us had a perfect childhood and we won't try to say we will be perfect parents, either. There is no such thing as perfect. We've both had our fair share of struggles through childhood, adulthood, and our marriage. We won't sugarcoat it or pretend that we didn't. The essay questions about our childhoods go into much more depth on these topics, but we're open and honest, and would answer any additional questions you may have.

For now, we've decided on a semi-open adoption – with the option of an open adoption on the table. We both feel that it is important for a child to know the truth about where he or she comes from. You are a key factor in our journey, and you will always be acknowledged in our family as such.

With love and gratitude,

Harm and Sarah

There were a handful of pictures in the folder and Marie carefully sorted through them. Each picture was accompanied by a Post-It note explaining the picture. There were pictures of the beautiful couple at military functions, pictures from the courthouse when Mattie's adoption was finalized, baby pictures of Caroline, pictures of their friends and family. A picture of a beautiful white house with black shutters and wrap around porch with the caption "Our home away from home," was followed by a picture of Harm in a yellow biplane. "Flying is a family tradition," that caption said.

The attorney flipped through a few more pictures with a smile on her face. There was a picture of a man who appeared to be close to her age, wearing a baseball cap. He was kneeling next to Caroline and holding a baseball. That caption read "Getting a lesson on pitching from Uncle AJ. Caroline can't wait to start playing softball next season."

The next picture was a picture that Marie had seen a dozen of times before on Mac's desk of Harm, Mac, Mattie and Caroline at the reflection pool at the National Mall. The Washington Monument was in the distance, the leaves were in the process of changing colors, Harm was wearing his blue uniform and overcoat along with his cover, holding a very happy Caroline in his arms, Mattie was standing next to him, and Mac was beside of her. The snapshot must have been captured at the perfect time, as everyone one looking at Caroline, and Marie reasoned the child must have said something rather amusing the capture the attention of her entire family. She made a mental note to asked Mac about the whole story behind that picture someday. Marie read the Post-It note, "Surprised Harm at his office for his birthday, and took a walk through the National Mall to get apple cider afterwards."

Marie turned to the next picture it was taken the same day, only in this image there was a shorter man with almost white hair, also in a naval uniform, and a blonde-haired woman. They were both talking to a boy and a girl who both looked to be the same age. They were pointing to the Lincoln Memorial, probably explaining its significance as two older boys stood beside them. The Post-It note read "We love spending time with Bud, Harriet, AJ, Jimmy, Nikki and Michael. We were so glad they got to spend that afternoon with us."

Marie loved that Sarah and her husband had included so many candid moments. Most families usually included posed photos from weddings and holidays and vacations – which there was nothing wrong with, of course – but there was something about the candid photos that showed how real, raw, and honest the Rabb family was. She hoped that the prospective birth parents would feel the same way.

"I can't wait to see where this journey takes you guys," Marie whispered aloud to the empty room as she packed up the folder and envelope and prepared them to be sent out to be turned into a book.