I quickly want to address and clear up the guest review and any other questions anyone has about whether Grandparent rights is a real thing or not. A few years back we went through this in my family and we learned about it from a lawyer. Each U.S. state is different. But mostly if a parent is deceased, the child's parents are divorced or the grandparent has been denied visitation they can go to court to get some kind of rights, though adoption cuts of all visitation rights of grandparents. I hope that clears things up for you. Enjoy this chapter guys, I love hearing what you think.
"Do you think we're doing the right thing?" Zoe asked her husband as they waited in a restaurant in Mobile for their guests. After deciding that they were going to let them be apart of Ariel's life Wade had made the call to inform them that they had to come to Mobile so they could sit down and talk about things, Wade was all about keeping all the stress he could away from Zoe.
"I do as long as Ariel wants this and they agree to our terms," Wade assured her. "I don't agree with what they're doing, but they deserve this chance, Zo." She nodded her head. She still wasn't sold on the idea of letting them back into Ariel's life after everything they had done when they had lived in the same state, but going through a death of your son did change you. She wanted to give them the benefit of the doubt here.
As they waited they had talked about going to a baby store so that way Wade had some kind of an idea on what Zoe would like to have in the nursery because he didn't want to screw this up. It was still going to be up to the kids but he was in charge and he would get the blame if it wasn't perfect. Zoe had told him that she wasn't going to pick out anything because it was up to the three of them. The most she was going to pick out was clothes for their little guy.
It wasn't much longer when they were finally joined by the older couple. Zoe made the introductions. Wade plastered on a smile for his daughter's grandparents. He studied Henry and Ruby as they pled their case. As far as he could see they were being sincere with every word they spoke.
"I don't care why you didn't want her apart of your lives before Justin's death, because that doesn't matter. We can't build anything on that. We need to forget about it and move on," Zoe told them. She was tired of hearing their excuses. If they wanted to be real grandparents they wouldn't need every excuse known to man, they would have been there, despite what their son told them or what he did.
"You're right," Henry agreed. "We will do whatever you say. You're in charge and we're only coming back into her life now. We want what's best for Ariel," he explained.
"She's still tore up over loosing Justin," Zoe told them. "She wants to know you both, but it's going to be hard for her. This whole wanting her in your lives again is coming out of left field for her and for us," Zoe said, reaching for Wade's hand.
"There are rules," Wade said, taking over. "I'm her father now, so what Zoe and I say goes," he told them, seeing they wanted to protest him on this. "Justin was okay with it," he informed them, softening the blow for them. "Until we can fully trust you, you will not take Ariel over night, you will not leave Bluebell. Ariel is not allowed to come visit you in New York until she is older and knows exactly what it is she wants and if at any times she no longer wants you guys in her life you will respect that. You will not talk bad about anyone in her life that she cares about," Wade told them. "You break any of the rules, we will not be allowed to see her or contact her until she is 18 and we have no say in the matter. Are we clear?"
"Crystal," Ruby spoke up. "When can we see her?"
"The first few meetings will take place at our house. That is were you will visit her at. Depending on each visit we'll go from there," Zoe told them. "You can come over tomorrow; I'm not going to cancel the plans we have tonight for you. You will be working around our schedule," she informed them.
"That's not fair," Ruby protested.
"It is," Wade said. "You came into your lives disrupting what we have. We're not going to drop everything we have going on to bend over backwards for you. The ones that need to do the bending are the two of you," Wade told them. "Taking this thing to court is going to be a waste of time and money for all of us."
"We don't want that," Henry stated. "We'll do as you say; we just want to be given the chance to know our only granddaughter. We were wrong about you Zoe, but you need to understand…" Zoe held her hand up to cut him off.
"I knew what Justin was like and what he told you guys. You thought the world of your son, as a mother I can understand why because I think the same way about both of my kids," she informed them. Henry and Ruby shared confused looks, but Zoe shared a smile with Wade. Zoe had told him about Braxton calling her mom and it was nice to see just how far they had come in such a short time. "Justin isn't with us any longer and not to be mean but this has very little to do with him."
After finishing up with them once they were able to get everything straightened out they paid for their half of the bill and went to look at a few baby things. Wade assured her that they didn't have to, that if she wanted to go home and rest that they could. He didn't want Zoe to overexert herself and hurt her or the baby. Zoe told him she was just fine. But she had made a compromise with him, they would spend just a few minutes in the store and then they would go home and she would rest until they had to leave for dinner with his parents. It was one of the things that she enjoyed during the week. She loved having a certain day during the week to spend with Earl and Jackie and a few days later they would go over and have dinner with Harley and Norma. She loved being around her family.