Third Time's The Charm

Chapter 5

After our shift, Maya and I made our way to the home. I was extremely nervous and Maya could sense it. She picked up my hand and gave it a squeeze before placing a kiss to the back of it, "we'll be okay," she said. The reality of what we were doing was finally beginning to set in. I looked up to the sky and prayed to my mamma that our little boy would be there. I had my heart and mind set on him. He came up to us for a reason. We pulled up to the institution and my heart started to race, this was really happening.

"Are you ready?" said Maya.

"What if he's not here?" I replied. Maya could see the worry in my face which confirmed everything she had feared up until this point.

"If he's not here then he's not here. Think about it this way, if he's not here then maybe he wasn't meant to be ours, and he was only meant to bring us here so that we can meet another great little boy who is meant to become part of our lives," she reassured.

I began to get choked up and my chest tightened. It was happening again. Maya made her way over to the passenger side of the car and kneeled in front of me.

"Hey, look at me. it's okay, take a breath," she said, taking my hands in hers. I tried to regulate my breathing but wasn't successful. It was just getting harder.

"Okay, Carina. Breathe. I need you to breathe okay?" Maya  placed her hand on the side of my face as if to get me to look at her but I couldn't focus on anything.

"Find five things, baby. Five things and describe them to me," I looked around and began to describe five items that I saw around us. I continued this process, describing four things I could touch, three things I could hear, two I could smell, and something I could taste, which ended up being a mint Maya had in her pocket.

"Now one more big breath. Good, you okay?"

"I'm sorry," I apologized. Maya pulled me in and held me, "don't ever apologize for what you feel, okay?" I nodded and laid my head back into her chest. We sat there for a minute and then made our way into the building in front of us.

We were greeted by who I assumed to be Angie, "hello, how can I help you today?"

"Hi, we are here for our six o'clock tour," Maya responded, a warm smile on her face.

"Oh yes! You must be the Bishop-DeLuca's. I'll go get the headmaster for you," she made her way into the back office, leaving us to explore the front a little further. The home was set up in a way that strongly resembled a school. It was fenced all around with a large courtyard in the middle and a front office, which we were currently in. The office was decorated with individual pictures of the children as well as group ones. I looked at the picture lined walls hoping to see the reason we were here. I was about to make my way through the second row of photos when I was interrupted by the opening and closing of a door.

"Hello there, I'm Sister Linda," she said, shaking both mine and Maya's hands.

"Hi, I am Maya and this is my wife Carina. You must be the headmaster."

"Yes, and I will also be giving you your tour today. Are we ready to start?"

"Yes. More than ready," I said, forcing a smile to try and hide how nervous I really was.

"Perfect. Right this way," she said, opening the door that led to a long corridor. We made our way out and started walking further into the institution.

"Okay, so the children should be finishing up their dinner in about twenty minutes. I thought we could take this time to show you around and get to know each other a little better, before you meet with some of the kiddos."