Just us- SBI adoption story (Just me and him book 2)

Chapter 55: the simple things

Kristin's POV:

It was already the third day on my trip and I knew I had made the right decision. Sure, I was worried about the boys and the face time calls were the highlight of every day, but I needed the time out. It was healthy for me and was going to make me a better Mum when I got back.

I was talking to my parents the other day about how Phil actually does more for our family than I do. (Constant questions about what my husband did for work were getting annoying.) I was reminded that Phil and I's jobs are very different. He might be the stay at home Dad the kids see more of but I was the one bringing in the main bulk of our income. That brought different things to our boys' lives and both were important. With Phil looking for work again, those roles would be changing anyway. I wasn't likely to drop any hours but Phil and I would start evening out housework and taking the kids to places.

Phil's previous career allowed us to live in a mortage-free house and that made a massive difference each month. And we had a pot of money we allowed ourselves to dip into from time to time for things like holidays. But when we reevaluated our finances to work out whether adoption Tubbo and Tommy could work, we realised that Phil picking up some part time work would release some pressure. The younger boys hadn't actually been adopted yet because the whole process is so long, but we were hopeful it would be over soon. And as for Phil's job: he's only had one company invite him for an interview, all the others were no's over email or no replies. But he's hopeful the right company will come along as long as he keeps looking.

Money isn't a problem, we're very lucky like that, but we want to keep money not being a problem and that means either I look for another job on top of what I already do or Phil gets a job again. (We looked at me doing before or after school clubs at my current school but the timings just wouldn't work for us.) Phil said he's looking forward to going back to work and having more to do each day. Plus, our life is just different now.

We aren't taking on as many foster kids and all our current kids are of secondary school age. Ideally Phil's work would understand if he needed to take an hour out to go pick up one of them from school or something but it's already been approved that James can bring Tommy home if needed. Particularly in his first year of school, we wanted there to be options. It will be a while until we know if we've made the right decision but that kid is too smart and we didn't want anything else to hold him back.

I sipped my glass of wine knowing if I finished it too quickly my Aunt Carol would be filling it up again very quickly. We hadn't had any alcohol in the house for months now and had even avoided the non-alcohol stuff. It looks (and sometimes smells) too similar for Tommy and Tubbo and we try to limit their exposure. They're better with it outside the house which makes sense. Anyway, apart from my birthday when I stuck to the non-alcohol alternatives so I wasn't still hungover by the time I got my flight and a rare occasion when I had a glass of gin at a friend's house: I had not touched anything alcoholic in months. Ergo, it was hitting me a lot harder than it used to. And I didn't want to be drunk tonight.

Nevermind the fact I was being bombarded with questions from nosy family members. How was England? Was I still with my husband? I heard you got more kids? I heard your kids were ummm.... well... disabled?

"Yea, well Techno has had his ADHD diagnosis for a while now," I didn't mention the far more recent autism one, he hadn't said he was comfortable with it being talked about yet, "and the two boys we are adopting are both disabled yea."

"Are they okay?"

"Yea, they're amazing. One of them is helping Wilbur produce some of his band's music. And the other is a bookworm just like Techno."

I watched his face contort as he tried to find the right words and facial expression to surpress his surprise. "Well, that's nice."

"Yea it is. How are your kids?"