jin & jill had been married for a while—ten years almost, to be precise. their next anniversary was due in a few months’ time, & jill wanted to do something special to celebrate it.
a kid.
she could tell jin had been thinking about it for a while now; she’d seen the adoption centre pamphlets scattered on her workplace desk instead of papers, how she paused to look at children playing in the park for a few seconds longer than she usually did.
jill noticed all of these signs, often questioned jin on them—“you sure like to watch those toddlers have fun, huh?” “honey, care explaining this?”— but she couldn’t deny how her heart fluttered at the thought of finally taking care of another living being, giving a warm & nurturing home to a child she & jin could raise hand-in-hand.
“dear?” she spoke early one morning, looking up from her cup of tea over to jin, who was at the stove preparing breakfast.
“yes?”
“..i’ve been thinking. isn’t it time we’ve begun our own little family? not just us, like… with a child in the mix as well.”
& oh, how jin’s face lit up at that suggestion never failed to make jill’s heart pound.
“YES— i-i mean, yeah, sure, that’d be neat…. yeah……”
jill just chuckled, shook her head & went back to reading the news, her eyes traveling to the adoption column of the paper.
it took a lot of time—paperwork, home visits & the like. there was this one social worker, margaret was her name, who interrogated both women—separately & together—about their household & how they’d deal with problems.
“calm & collected,” jill responded, as casually as her response.
“with nerves. but we’d figure it out!” was jin’s reply, giggling nervously. jill held her hand in reassurance.
“sounds like a pretty balanced household,” margaret responded with a smile, writing down on her clipboard.
another month or so passed. on the day of their anniversary, early in the morning, there came a call on the household receiver—jin sprinted out of bed to get to it before it was sent to voicemail, before jill could even get up.
she heard her voice from the hallway— “today?” “how old??” “..15 minutes???”
the next thing she knew, jin was flying around the bedroom, absolutely squealing with joy while hastily getting dressed. they’d only been given fifteen minutes to prepare & arrive at the adoption centre to meet their child, so they sprinted to the centre together hand-in-hand, already out of breath when margaret greeted them in the lobby.
jill didn’t let go of jin’s hand. all that excitement suddenly concentrated into nervousness; what if the kid was sour? cranky? bad-tempered? would they & jin get off well? jin had this thing about people, she decided whether or not to trust them from the first impression—
she whined not-so-subtly as margaret led them down the hall to meet their new child, beginning to bite her nails out of nerves.