!JAKES POV!
Everybody had taken the news rather...badly. Audrey got really mad at me. Just me though, not Alyssa. I do feel bad about all this happening but there's not much i can do to change it. Later the same night, i kind of lost control and punched Adam in the face. He deserved it though. Unfortunately, I have a bruise on my hand from it. It seems like things are all kind of spiraling out of control. And now that the time for us to move was growing near, I was getting more nervous about it. Nothing has reassured me about the time we will spend in Florida. Will Alyssa be happy or make friends? Will the kids be able to adjust? Will our friends here forgive us? There's just so many things that I'm unsure of. I figure that Alyssa will have no trouble making friends, she makes them wherever she goes. And I'm pretty sure the kids will able to adjust. They're so young that they , too can make friends anywhere. But what if that doesn't happen? I could never forgive myself. I'm not worried about myself too much. It's everyone else. I wonder if it would be easier to just not take the job and earn less money than to move halfway across the country. Whatever it is, I just need some answers or at least peace within myself. I need something to occupy my mind. I guess I haven't been sure about this job from the start. That's probably why I was expecting, even hoping you might say, that Alyssa would just say no to this whole thing. i decide to talk to her a little more. I walk into the living room and see her sitting on the couch watching TV. I sit down next to her. "Hey.", I say. She looks at me and smiles. "Hey, honey." "Look, are you sure about this move? I just don't want to take you somewhere you're not going to be happy." She rubs my back. "Don't worry. I trust you. I bet the whole thing will be just fine." I half smile. "Because if you say no, we'll just stay here where we know we can be happy." She gives me a confused look. "You know, it's starting to sound to me like you don't want to move." "No! Well, I mean, of course I don't want to move. But I want this job..." I can tell that I'm not making much sense. Alyssa still looks at me confused. "What are you trying to say?" she asks. I sigh. "I don't know." "Look, Jake. If you decide you want to stay here, that's fine. Sure, getting more money would be good but it's not crucial. If you decide you want to move to Florida, that's okay too. Like I said before, I trust you." I sigh. She's never put this much pressure on me before.
!AUDREYS POV!
"Hey, Kevin?" "Yeah?" Kevin walks into the kitchen. "Can you help me fill out these adoption papers?" "Help you?" "Yeah. Is that ok?" "Why do you need help?" "Well, I have to fill out stuff about both of our history. We haven't actually been approved yet." "Are you serious? Where is Christian staying all this time?" "A foster home. That's why I want to get this filled out as soon as I can. I really want him to just have a stable life. It's so hard for him to move around from one family to one family. Especially at his age!" "Yeah, all right. What do you need to know?" Kevin and I go through the papers, carefully filling everything out and giving them the best vision of us that we can. It really helps me keep my mind off Alyssa and Jake moving. Now that my twin is moving... it'll be nice to have another child around the house to watch and occupy my mind. "Ok. Now we just need to mail these off and then they'll come by and check out the house and our living environment," I say. Kevin walks around the table and kisses my forehead. "You're so smart." "Yeah, I know." I smile. I look down at the table and sigh, my mind immediately going back to Alyssa. "You want to go to a movie or something tonight? I'm sure Alyssa or Sarah will watch Eve for us." "Yeah. We can ask Sarah. I'm sure Alyssa doesn't have time... with the packing and all." "Audrey..." "I'll call Sarah." Sarah agreed and we walked down the street with Eve a little bit before we had to go. I see Adam sitting on the porch, along with Dylan. "Uh oh..." Kevin says, picking up Eve. "What do you think they're doing?" I ask. I walk up the Darling's sidewalk. "Hey Adam," I say cautiously. "How are you?" "I'm good. How about you?" he asks, sounding completely friendly. "I'm fine." I see Sarah sitting in the rocking chair on the porch. I look at her and she shrugs. I take Eve from Kevin and walk over Sarah while Kevin immenced into small talk. "What's going on?" I ask. "All he wanted was to see Dylan. "That's it?" "Yep. He's been completely harmless so far." "Wow. So, you think Eve will be fine?" "Yes. She'll be perfectly fine. It'll me nice to have another girl around the house." Sarah holds her arms out and I hand Eve over to Sarah. "That's pretty crazy," I said. "Yeah, I know."
!SARAHS POV!
I've been having a lot of mixed feelings lately. At first, Adam was really stressing me out. I was scared he was going to do something to harm my family. Then I felt relieved that his intentions were good. Now, I am feeling kind of depressed that Jake and Alyssa are moving. I've spent practically my whole life with them. What is going to be like when i can't just walk across the street and talk to them whenever I want? Once we figured out that Adam was relatively harmless, Kyle and I would take turns sitting out on the porch while one of us would get stuff done inside. It seemed that Dylan took to him right away. It's weird. I didn't want to have anything to do with Adam, but here he is being a... great father to my child... his child. Whatever. It almost scared me. When Kyle and I planned out what we were going to do when Dylan was born, Adam was not going to be a part of raising him. I just don't want Kyle to feel like any less of his father now that Adam is here. Adam might biologically be the father, but Kyle's the one who has taken care of him for 6 years. I hope he realizes that. It also makes me have a feeling of happiness inside. Dylan will now get to know his real father. We've been telling him all along that Kyle wasn't his biological father, but that he was his true father, the one that has loved him and cared for him. And even at that young age, I think Dylan understands this. Now, I hope Tyler doesn't feel left out of everything. I'm glad when Audrey calls and asks if I can watch Eve for the night. Hopefully babysitting will take my mind off everything that's going on right now. However, when Jake shows up a little later that night with his kids, I feel like I'm about to lose it right then and there. "Hey Sarah. Alyssa and I have to catch an early flight out of here. So i figured it would be okay if the kids just spent the night" "Sure! Come on in, guys." They all come in and Jake sits on the couch next to me. I start asking him questions about the job and the move and stuff but he doesn't sound too excited. "Are you okay, Jake? You seem kind of out of it." "Yeah, I'll be fine. I'm just going to miss you guys." I try to smile. "Yeah. We're going to miss you too." By this time Adam had left. "But hey! Adam and Dylan had a nice afternoon together." I'd say anything to change the subject. "Oh, really?" "Really? That's good. I'm really sorry about punching him. I thought he was going to try something else and I just got sick of him." He really seemed sad. "Aw. Don't worry about it. None of us knew his intentions and it's good to know my little brother isn't afriad to stand up for his big sister." I say ruffling his hair. He smirked. "So, did you and Adam set up like some sort of schedule for him to visit Dylan or is it just a one time thing?" "Not yet. He's going to call sometime, though." "Well, that should be fun." "Yeah, it will be." Jake and I don't say anything fro a moment. "Well, I really need to go Sarah. We'll call you when we get there, Sarah." "Ok! You two have fun!" "Yeah... we'll try."
!ALYSSAS POV!
"Alyssa, wake up. We need to leave in 20 minutes if we want to get to the airport on time." Jake said as he shook me. I groan and roll over on my stomach when Jake turns the lights on. "Just...I want to sleep." I whined. I could feel him roll his eyes when i stuck my head under my pillow. Surprisingly, Jake's the early bird and I am the night owl. Jake pulls the covers off of me and takes the pillow off of my head. I feel like a teenager again. This is what went on just about every morning before school. "I thought you couldn't wake up with an alarm clock." I said as i sat up and yawned. "I couldn't sleep last night." He said as he grabbed my arm and pulled me up so I was standing. I looked at him. He was already completely dressed and our suitcases were sitting by the door. I went to the closet and grabbed a pair of jeans and a shirt. "Ugh. I hate airplanes.", I complain as I pull my jeans up. I'm not exactly the happiest person in the morning. "Yeah, well it's too far to drive.", He said as he sat down on the bed. I look up at him and see he's just sitting. Nothing else. "What are you doing?", I ask him. "Waiting for you. Now put some clothes on and let's go." I roll my eyes as I pull the shirt over my head. I quickly brush my teeth, wash my face, and brush my hair and we're out of there. After a plane ride that seems like foooorever long, we arrive in southern Florida. We get to the hotel we're staying at and get settled. We lay on the bed and turn on the TV. Jake is unusually quiet. "Do you feel any better about moving now that we're here?" Without even taking his eyes off the TV he says, "No." I scoot closer to him and lay my head on his chest. "Not even a little bit?" I ask looking up at him. He smiles slightly and shrugs. "I still don't know. This whole thing is confusing." "Just, don't make your decision because you feel pressured to make one. Do what you think is best for our family. Now that we're away from the others, that should be easier." This time he gives me a full fleged smile. "Thanks. I love you." "I love you too."The first day we just went around the town and went sightseeing. The next day, we had to wake up early (again) and looked at a few houses. We walked into the first one and my jaw dropped. It was huge. 3 stories with 7 bedrooms and 5 bathrooms. "Can we even afford this?", i asked Jake. Stunned, he answered "This is within the price range my boss gave me for picking out a new house." "Wow." It was overwhelming. The rest of the houses we looked at were around the same size and all about the same price. At the hotel, I asked Jake what he thought about moving after seeing all those houses. "I think that just made me even more confused. We don't need a house that big but it sure would be nice...Everything here just seems so much more superficial than it is in Illinois. But it's not quite as bad as L.A." Part of me was saying to move and take advantage of housing allowance and moving expenses but the other part was screaming not to. To just stay. Which part am I supposed to listen to?
!KEVINS POV!
Alyssa and Jake left for Florida yesterday. Sarah and Kyle and Audrey and I were going to take turns watching the kids. A few days of Jake and Alyssa being gone, it was time for someone from the adoption agency to come look at our house. We left all the kids except for Eve with Sarah. The house was completely spotless, as usual, and we waited. Audrey had gone to great heights to make this whole meeting completely flawless. She had even put little snacks on the table. About 10 minutes after the lady was supposed to arrive, Audrey was freaking out. "Where is she? This is just too stressful. Did she get lost? Did she decide to deny our application without giving us a chance?" Right when Audrey stopped her almost nervous breakdown, the doorbell rang. "Hello. I'm so sorry I'm late. I had some car trouble." "Oh! That's fine!" Audrey says, letting the woman into the house, and seeming completely fine now. I walked into the foyer, carrying Eve. "Hi, I'm Vanessa Drew and I'll be checking out your family and your house so I can confirm or deny your adoption request," the lady says, becoming very formal. "Hello. I'm Audrey and this is my husband, Kevin and this is our daughter, Eve." After the introductions we went into the living room. "Ok. If you don't mind, I'm just goint to ask you some basic questions about your home life and families and background. Very basic stuff." We all take a seat, Eve sitting in my lap. "First of all, where are the two of you employed?" "I'm a Kindergarten teacher," I answer first. "And I'm a Children's psychologist," Audrey answers, ringing her hands. Vanessa scribbles something on a tablet. "Ok, very nice. And why do you want to adopt?" Audrey takes this question. "Well, Christian was actually one of my patients and after hearing everything he'd been through, I knew I wanted to adopt him." "What do you feel you can bring to Christian as a parent?" I take this question, knowing our complete answer. "We feel that we can bring a stable home, a good education, a promising future, and most importantly, a loving home." We answer a few more questions about employment situations and such. "So, each of you tell me about your background. What was your childhood like?" Audrey goes first. "I had two very loving parents and a twin sister. My father passed away when I was a sophomore in high school, which helped me to mature a lot for my age. My parents made sure that I knew from right and wrong and were always there for me and my sister was always supportive." Audrey looks at me. "And I met Kevin when we were in seventh grade." We laugh. "Yeah. I always grew up with both parents and two older sisters. I think having two older sisters really helped me mature a lot faster than most boys my age. All in all, I was a good kid because of the love and support that my family gave me." "Very good.", she said as she scribbled something down on her pad. "How do would you or, do you, rather discipline children?" I take this question, being the most authoritative disciplinarian in the house. "Thankfully, we don't have too much trouble Eve." I can see Eve grin. "But when we do, we use methods of time and make sure that she knows what she did wrong. We do not use any form of physical punishment. Not even spanking." "Ok, I think we're just about done here" Vanessa says a few questions later. "Just one more question." I nod. "Do you keep any weapons in the house such as guns etc.?" Audrey and I look at each other and both shake our heads. "No, we don't," Audrey says. "Ok. That's about it. It was very nice to meet you and you should hear from somebody within a week."
!KYLES POV!
I was actually really happy to have Rylee, Cayden, and Crystal stay at our house while Alyssa and Jake were gone. Even though I am a guy and seem to be very emotionally stable and cool, Jake and Alyssa moving and Adam showing up at the same time is killing me. Sarah and I will have to get busy again, though. I really like having little girls around the house. They tell the boys what to do. Having all these kids here, really kept our mind off Jake and Alyssa. It was crazy how emotional it was for all of us. At the same time, Audrey and Kevin were trying to adopt. It was a good distraction. On Monday, I hear the doorbell ring. I go to answer it and see a very tan Alyssa standing at the door. "Hey Alyssa! How was Florida?" I ask as I give her a hug. "Hey Kyle! It was good. I love the weather and the beaches." "Did you find any houses?" She nodded. "We saw a lot of huge ones on the beach. They're soo nice but Jake is still questioning the whole move." "Oh, yeah." Both of us pause. "Well, the kids were great! We loved having them here!" All of a sudden, we hear lots of little footsteps. "Mommy!" I can hear Crystal yell. Three little Bakers were clinging to Alyssa's legs. "Hi, honey." Alyssa says as she picks up Crystal and gives her a kiss. "Well, we better get going. Thank you so much for watching them." "It was no trouble at all." "Tell Uncle Kyle thank you" Alyssa tells them. "Thanks Uncle Kyle!" they all yell as they leave.