Santana yawned as she turned the key in the ignition of her jeep. It was early, too early. She and Rachel were about to head down to St. Lawrence to officially start helping the children's home move. The move was going to be easier than most big moves, since they didn't have to move any beds, just a few cribs, clothes, toys and some other essential items. However, they were moving sixty five kids from this home alone so they still had tons of work to do. Rachel had ran back into the cabin to grab her wallet that she had left out when she was ordering snow boots and some thermal under clothes for the girls. Santana laughed to herself as she took a sip of coffee out of her thermos. Those girls were going to have more clothes than Rachel and Santana combined.
"Okay, I got it." Rachel breathed as she climbed into the jeep and started to buckle her seat belt. Santana smiled at how red faced Rachel was from the wind that was blowing this morning. Snow was definitely in the air and there was no doubt in Santana's mind that they would have their first snow fall in the next couple of days.
"You ready to get this moving day started?" Santana asked as she put the jeep into reverse and began to back up. Soon she would have to start leaving her jeep down at the bottom of the road in the garage and drive the snow mobile up to the cabin.
"More than ready. I'm so happy for them, it's just all so exciting." Rachel clapped her hands together before settling back into her seat.
"KIDS! Please make sure your new room number is on ALL of your boxes. We don't want anyone's stuff getting lost. The little kid's boxes are already marked appropriately. You're older, please be responsible and do as I ask. If you know your number but don't have a marker, tell someone. We will write it for you!" Chloe stood at the back of one of three moving trucks checking off children as they finished bringing their boxes outside. Once they were done bringing their boxes out they were to go inside and clean their rooms from top to bottom. There was no way that the new children moving in were going to get a dirty home.
The children and workers from the new home would be arriving this evening at around four. So much progress had been made already but there was still a lot of work to be done. Santana, Rachel and the whole group that Santana had put together arrived at six sharp this morning and started work right away. The kitchen was packed up, the offices were cleaned out and all of the rooms were on their way to being emptied out. Agetha was already at the new home with a few social workers putting up the children's case files. Since they contained sensitive information about each child, they had to be moved and secured in the new location as quickly as possible.
"Truck one is ready to go." Leroy called as he came to stand next to Chloe.
"Perfect! Truck two and three are almost filled. We just need to do a walk through and make sure all the boxes are loaded." Chloe squinted her eyes against the soon to be setting sun.
"Upstairs on both sides of the home is clear." Santana said as she was coming out of the building with a moving dolly stacked with boxes. Marcus, Bayani and Cassie each were pushing dolly's also. "These are everything that was up there. There are some others doing a bottom floor walk through."
"We're so close to being done. I hope the kids are actually cleaning and not just playing around." Chloe sighed, cleaning was the last thing they had to do before they could officially leave.
"Oh don't worry about that. My mom, Rachel and Shelby are walking the floors like wardens checking rooms." Santana cackled as she started to unload her collection of boxes into the back of truck number two. "They should be finished in an hour or so maybe?"
"Okay...okay." Chloe took a deep breath to calm her nerves. An hour would work out perfect. Stephanie, Rich, Nicky and a bunch of the other home volunteers were gone taking the younger children to the new home at the moment. By the time they came back everything should be done. The rest of the children would then make the short trip to the new home where they would begin the process of unloading everything. Hopefully they would get a lot of this stuff done tonight, that way they could spend tomorrow and the next day decorating and preparing for the official opening ceremony. Everyone agreed that they wanted the home to be settled before they welcomed the town of St. Lawrence to come in and take a tour of the new place. The whole town was excited for the home and they couldn't wait to see the new sign that the one and only Santana Lopez had painted.
Rachel took a long drink from her water bottle as she sat down next to Santana at one of the tables in the dining hall at the new home. They had finished unloading the trucks merely minutes ago and now everyone was taking a quick break for dinner before they started unpacking. Well the older children would start unpacking their rooms while the adults helped the little kids settle in. Even if they didn't get everything unpacked tonight, one of the main tasks was to get their beds made and to find pajamas. It was starting to get later in the evening and the older kids still had school tomorrow.
"Are we staying for bedtime routines?" Santana asked after she finished chewing her bite of sandwich that she was eating when Rachel sat down.
"If you want to we can. I'm not too tired yet." Rachel stretched and popped her back making Santana cringe.
"I really want to. We haven't got to see the girls all day except for breakfast this morning." Santana pouted a little making Rachel smile. The shorter woman leaned over kissing Santana's pout away.
"Finish eating and we can go see them." Rachel said before she stole one of Santana's chips for herself.
As Santana and Rachel made their way down the hallway towards the nursery they could hear the distinct giggles of the little girls. Thankfully there wasn't much to be done in the nursery other than setting up the cribs that had been moved and putting clothes, books and toys away. With as many people as there was, this hadn't taken long at all to accomplish. Both women laughed when they walked into the open door. Benton was running around in just his pull up, obviously putting up a fight about getting dressed in his pajamas.
"No sleep time!" Benton yelled, thrusting his little fists into the air.
"Yes sleep time, Mister." Stephanie lightly scolded. She was standing there, pajamas in hand with the other resting on her hip. "You have to get into bed because the new kids arrive tomorrow and you are going to be a gentleman and play nicely, right?"
"No." Benton gave Stephanie a confused look like what she was suggesting was outrageous.
Samara and Sierra were sitting on Sierra's bed playing with their stuffed animals, laughing away at Benton's antics. Quickly the little boy glanced over at them and took off running around the room. He had to keep running because he wasn't going to sleep. If only he could make it to the door, he could go visit some of his older friends. Benton didn't notice Rachel or Santana until he ran smack dab into their knees. He fell backwards on his butt, stunned for a moment before he jumped up and hugged them as tightly as he could.
"You come see your babies?!" Benton asked them excitedly.
"Of course we did, but we came to see you too!" Rachel replied with just as much enthusiasm. At hearing Rachel's voice, both Sierra and Samara lost interest in their stuffed animals and began to scramble off Sierra's bed.
"I Stephy's baby." Benton proclaimed proudly as he pointed to his little naked chest.
"You are, which means you should probably put your pajamas on for her huh?" Santana told him firmly, but gently.
"Probably." Benton looked down at the floor and then back to Stephanie before he sighed and walked over to her, swinging his arms back and forth. Rachel and Santana both laughed as Benton sadly made his way over and lifted his arms to Stephanie with his silent request. She obliged him quickly, giving him a thank you kiss on the cheek.
After tripping over each other several times, the twins finally made it across the room to their Mami and Mama. The girls happily lunged themselves at the women, knowing that they would immediately be picked up. "Hi little bugs." Santana cooed at the girls, tickling each of them under the chin.
"Mami bebe!" Sierra pointed to her mouth and looked around Santana searching for what Santana and Rachel assumed to be her pacifier. She raised her hands in a questioning manner. "Bebe!"
"Mami doesn't have bebe baby. What happened to it?" Santana asked.
"We haven't gotten them out yet. Their pacifiers are in their little totes on the top shelf of their cubicles." Stephanie pointed to the side wall were all the cubicles were lined up like lockers. It was the most convenient and organized way to keep everyone's stuff.
Rachel immediately made her way over to Sierra and Samara's cubicles to hunt for pacifiers. "Look, Mama is getting you a bebe." Santana pointed out to the little girl who just looked so darn cute this evening. Sierra was wearing a little blue Adidas track suit. Her hair was done up in twists, courtesy of one of the older girls who loved to play dress up with the babies. Samara was wearing a similar outfit, however she had taken off her jacket some time ago now. Santana loved watching her little natural curls bounce all over the place as Rachel walked with her on her hip.
"Do you want a bebe too Samara?" Rachel asked the little girl who giggled and nodded her head. Of course she wanted a bebe too, what was her Mama thinking. Rachel laughed as she retrieved a purple butterfly pacifier and a blue whale one. Samara began opening and closing her fist while reaching for the blue one. That was okay, purple was easily one of Sierra's favorite colors so she would be happy with the butterfly.
"I don't need a bebe anymores." Benton said from his position of standing in front of Stephanie now while she pulled his shirt over his head. "I just needs me elphie." Benton reached around Stephanie to grab his beloved stuffed elephant.
"You're becoming such a big boy. Their bebe's are like your elphie." Stephanie tapped Benton on the nose making him giggle.
"Yeah, pretty soon the girls wont need bebe's either. We plan to start breaking them after we get them home and settled into the cabin." Rachel spoke to Benton as she bounced Samara on her hip. The little girl wrapped her arms around Rachel's neck before laying her head on the woman's shoulder.
"That's a good idea." Stephanie smiled at the two women. "I take it you two are here to help with bedtime tonight?" Stephanie didn't mean to come off as..pleading but she could really use the help. Everything was just so crazy tonight with the move having been going on all day.
"We are. It's all hands on deck tonight." Santana chuckled as she sat down in one of the gliders in the room.
"To save time, we aren't doing actual baths tonight, just baby wipe rub downs. It will go so much quicker and it won't really wake any of the tiny ones up like Jasmine who has been fussy all day. I think she is finally teething." Stephanie scrunched her nose in sympathy as she looked over to one of the cribs where Jasmine slept. The little one had truly had one of her roughest days yet.
"Sounds good to me. Does that sound okay to you?" Santana tickled Sierra who was now straddling her lap, sucking softly on her pacifier. The little girl nodded her head, giving Santana a huge smile that was clearly visible even with her bebe in her mouth. Bath time, bed time and then it was time to head home so that Rachel and Santana could fall asleep for the night too.