July 11th 2020
Karlie's POV
"You don't need all of those, Ro, we're only walking to the park," I laugh as I settle Auggie in his stroller - the five year old has three baby dolls and two stuffed animals crammed into her toy stroller. "I want my babies, Mama!" The little one pouts, she's been really grumpy today and we thought getting out of the house might prevent another tantrum. "Hey, why don't we take one baby and one stuffy, then we can play with the rest of them when we get home, yeah?" Taylor kneels down beside the little blonde and it's almost like magic as Rosie gives in and agrees.
Rosie goes with mommy and puts her other dolls on the couch until we get back and Lilah comes downstairs. "Ready?" I give her a warm smile and the teen nods in approval, we're as anxious about her next placement as she is and we should be hearing something from the social worker today so this is just an afternoon of keeping everyone distracted.
Lilah takes Joe as Rosie walks in front of us and Taylor loops her arm through mine as I push Auggie's stroller. It's a Saturday afternoon but in our area the houses are pretty far apart and it's less young families and more business types with money, so there aren't too many people around until we reach the playground.
Rosie wants Lilah to play with her and you can tell that the teen doesn't really want to but she agrees anyway. She always makes time for Ro, and after what she told Tay about losing her older sister - it all makes sense.
"So, my mom wants to know when we're going to start wedding planning," Taylor laughs as she sits down beside me, cradling August as we sit in the shade. "I've actually been thinking about that," I look back to her, "I know it's probably not the glamorous gowns and venues they want but we need to talk about whether we wanna go through with you adopting both kids now and then I adopt them later, or whether we wanna wait and do a joint adoption when we're married."
We haven't really discussed the technicalities of it yet, especially since our engagement is so new and we've had everything going on with Lilah.
"I want you to have the same rights as I do, Kar, and I've kinda been thinking about that too," she gives me a nervous look, you can always tell when Taylor has been holding something back. "I think we should get married when we go to New York in August," she's radiating nerves as she looks at me, and I let her go on. "We take our families and we get married, because the way I see it the only people affected by that piece of paper will be Ro and Auggie. If we have a small, intimate ceremony with our families now and then we can plan the wedding of our dreams without the time constraint and stress of the adoption."
I ponder it for a minute, it's a big move from getting engaged to getting married a month later. "You can say no, I just thought it would give us clarity in everything, you know." I shake my head as I take her hand, "if you're happy with that then I am too, babe, I'd marry you in a second with or without the kids to think about."
Taylor relaxes almost immediately as I say that, and after all this time I'm still surprised she'd doubt the fact that I'd have married her a million times over by now.
"The only issue is explaining this to our parents," I laugh as I look over to Rosie and Lilah, the teen pushing the little one on a swing. "I think this might be the only decision we've made over the last few years that they'll understand," the blonde sighs and I frown, giving her hand a tight squeeze. Things were complicated after Noah and my failed engagement and the tension surrounding Taylor's career, our families didn't exactly get it when our relationship seemingly changed overnight. They love and accept us now, but it was all so confusing then.
