We Are Free

Graduation

Thursday I get home from work and after getting inside and settling everything down. Halo starts dinner I check the mail. I open the mail box and it was full of letters by people I didn't even I know. I go inside.
     "What is that?" She asks me.
     "I don't know." I say.
     "Fan mail."
     "I got fan mail."
     "Looks like that interview made headlines."
      "Yeah no kidding." I throw away the junk mail and put the rest on the counter. When the kids are in bed Halo and I talk about Emily's sleep over. Ava was coming over tomorrow after school for a sleepover. Her and Emily are in dance together.
      Her mom is taking her to dance and her and Anna are going to meet up. Halo and I are going to pick her up. Emily cleaned her room and everything she is so excited. She has her pjs picked out to. I grab all the mail off the counter.
      I look through it. They were letters from people who where in the same position as me. People who are in foster care. People who have a parent like my dad. They said that I inspire them. Some where from grown adults, teen moms, people who can relate to me in one way or another.
      They made me smile and cry. Halo read them to. One was from a 13 year old girl. She has two siblings to they are sisters. Her dad is never home and her mom just sits in front of the tv and phone. She said that she goes to school 7 hours gets her sisters from school takes care of them and takes care of the house.
      She is always moving and when her dad is home she is yelled at and called names like she never does anything. Her mom takes all the credit for what she does and makes it seem like she does nothing. It made me so sad to think that she is just a kid and she can't even be a kid.
      Halo started crying. She said she came across my video and now she knows she isn't alone and one day it will all be okay. I fold all the letters up and put them back in there envelopes. I put them on top my dresser. Halo and I go to bed.
      The next day after work  Halo and I go to Anna's we get out. We walk up to the door and go inside. Ava and Emily are coloring. Andrew is rolling around with the dog. Anna got a golden retriever when Halo moved out. She named her sun and she is just the most loving thing ever. She is so sweet and loves kids. Andrew loves playing with her. Emily sees me and runs to me. I give her a hug.
     "I like your shirt Ava." Halo says.
     "Thank you."
"Here is their stuff Ava's bag is by the door. I gave them a snack of course." Anna says. "Emily's work is done."
     "Okay sounds good."
     "Also Ava's car seat is outside."
     "Sounds good. I will go out this stuff out in the car and I will be back for them."
     "Okay hon." I go outside and grab the car seat I put it in the car and I put the bags in the car. I go back in and they are ready. I get them in the car Halo helps me. We go home. We get the kids settled and Halo starts dinner. I get the mail and once again it was full with fan mail.
      After dinner Halo does the girls nails while I look through the mail. Andrew plays with the Legos. I read all the letters and put them on my dresser once again. I go back to the living room and Halo is still busy with their nails.
      When they are done we make cookies. Andrew helps us. When they are done with cookies we have ice cream and popcorn. We watch a movie and after that I put them to bed. I put Andrew to bed and Halo and I get ready for bed. We lay down.
     "You know I think Ava likes you." I say.
     "Well that's not hard." We laugh a little.
     "Yeah true." We cuddle in bed until we fall asleep. I get up the next day and go to the kitchen. I start making breakfast. Andrew gets up and so does Halo. Right as I start putting breakfast on the table the girls get up.
     "Good morning ladies." I say.
     "Hi." Emily says.
     "Hello." Ava says. I sit down and Halo reaches down and hands me a shirt.
     "Why do I want this?"
     "I don't know just though it would come useful." She says shrugging.
     "Well you thought wrong." She gives me a look I put the shirt over my shoulder. We eat breakfast and I give them all a cookie. I sit down on the couch and Emily and Ava play. Ava's mom texts me.
     "Okay girls Ava's mom won't be here until around noon so what should we do." I say.
     "I don't know." Emily says.
     "We can go to the park it is a nice day out." Halo says.
      "What do you think?" I ask Emily.
     "Yeah Ava do you want to go to the park?" She says.
     "Yeah."
    "Okay then we need to get dressed."
Ava and Emily get dressed so does Andrew I help him out as he does so. Halo gets dressed and so do I.
     "Halo where is that shirt you gave me?"
      "I don't know.L
      "Me either." I walk to the living room and look for my shirt.
     "You would lose your head if it wasn't attached to your shoulders." She says.
     "Most likely." I find it and put it on. I put what we need in the back pack and we head to the park. I play with Andrew while Halo plays with the girls.
     "Can we swing?" He asks me.
     "Yeah." I say to him.
     "Okay." I set him on a swing and push him I sit on one next to him and swing to. He laughs and smiles. Halo plays on the bars with Ava and Emily. Around 11:30 we go back home.
      I make lunch for the kids and when they are done eating Ava's mom shows up. I hand her all of Ava's things.
     "Thank you for having me." She says.
     "Thank you for coming we love to have you anytime." She smiles I give her a hug.
      "Thank you." Her mom says.
     "You are welcome I hope she had fun."
      "I bet she did."
They leave and I lay the kids down for a nap. Halo and I clean the house up. We lay on the couch when we are done.
     "That was fun." Halo says.
     "Yeah it was." We just lay there until the kids get up.
     May comes around and everything is going great. Emily has a field trip to the apple orchard and I volunteered to go as a shaperon. I will be with the group the whole time. I am there to make sure everything goes smoothly.
     I get to take her home when we are done. We have to bring a bag lunch. It is this Friday. I am taking off work to. Zac's mom is doing better his birthday is next month. Zane is getting so big he is 10 months he has started walking if he has something to hold on to.
     He says 2 words hi and daddy. Andrew is getting big as well. Emily is growing like a weed. School ends June 1st in 2 weeks she graduates from kindergarten. The school is holding a ceremony and is giving them caps and gowns as well. She is so excited but sad school is ending.
     Halo and I have been together for 9 months outside of little arguments that couples have we are doing great. She wears the bracelet and ring I got her everyday. I have been having nightmares lately about me being stabbed.
     I wake up sometimes in complete break down mode. Halo calms me down and helps me get back to sleep. I thank god for her every day. Thursday is the night before the field trip. Halo and I pick the kids up from Anna's. We go home.
     When we get home I do my routine. Then I grab two lunch bags. I put peanut butter sandwiches in each of the bags. I put some chips and a fruit cup in each bag. I put a small gatoraid bottle in each bag. I get my back pack and I put out lunches in that.
     I put my sweater in the back pack and a small first aid kit. Emily picks out her outfit. Jeans with her converse high tops and a shirt with a pug on it that says selfi. She is wearing her sweater to.
     I am going to wear my tennis shoes and some jeans. I am going to wear my red button up plaid shirt. It is about half length down my arms. Halo makes dinner and I give the kids a bath. I clean the kitchen while Halo puts the kids to bed.
     The next morning I wake Emily up. Halo gets Andrew's car seat and puts it in her car. Emily and I get dressed. We eat some breakfast and I grab the back pack. Emily and I leave we go to the school.
     We go inside and to her class room. I am givin a list of the kids in the class, a map of the apple orchard, and the schedule. Emily sits in her desk and I stand by her. We leave the class room and get on the bus. I sit next to her Ava sits with us.
      "I'm excited." She says.
      "I can tell." I reply to her looking at some things.
      "How long is the bus ride?"
      "About a half hour."
      "Dang it."
      "Yeah I know."
      "Can you do my hair?"
      "Sure." I grab a hair tie out of the back pack and put her hair in a Dutch braid on each side of her head then end it in a pony tail. Her and Ava switch seats and I do Ava's hair to. They switch back.
      We start to see the apple orchard I turn my phone off when asked to by the staff. We start to get off the bus. Ava is staying with Emily and us. I grab Emily's hand and Ava grabs her hand. We get off the bus.
     We listen to the directions. We will take a tractor to where we go. First we will go through the apple trees and learn about them. I stand in the front of the line and I'm responsible for helping kids into the tractor.
     When that's done I get on and Emily sits next to me and Ava on my other side. Emily had a smile the whole ride.
     "This hay is poky." She says rocking back and forth to keep the hay from poking her legs.
     "Yeah I know." I say, I don't really notice.
     "How do animals like this?"
     "No clue." We finish our ride and get off we learn about apple trees and the kids answer questions.  Next we go to the place where they make apple products like apple cider and juice and much more.
     The kids get to try the things and learn about how it is made. Then we go to the area where the soil is made. The kids get to hold worms and learn how they make soil with left over foods, worms, and newspaper. 
     Emily holds worms, Ava had nothing to do with it. Then we sit down and eat lunch. It was 1:00. When we are done it is 2:00. The kids got to play on the play ground they have. We go back to the apple trees and we are each givin a bag.
     We get to pick apples and take them home with us. I help get apples off the trees since I'm so tall. When we are done we get back on the bus. We go back to the school. We leave and I go to Anna's. I get Andrew and his car seat. We go home.
     "I had fun." Emily says.
      "Yeah I did to." I say, I am glad I got to do this. Halo comes home and I make dinner while Emily tells her about the trip. She then comes into the kitchen and puts a stack of envelopes on the counter.
      "More." She says.
      "Are you serious?" I ask her.
     "Yeah."
     "Okay then." After the kids are in bed I look through all my mail. Halo and I talk about the day. I do my work I missed today. I don't have much because I worked on what I could all week. When I am done Halo and I go to bed.
*Graduation*
It is Saturday we get up the graduation is at 2:00. We eat breakfast. Halo and I clean and do what we need to do for the day. Emily is so excited.
     1:30 comes and Emily gets dressed in her cap and gown. She has to give it back after the ceremony. We go to the school and into the gym. Zac, Zane, and Anna are there.
     We all take are seats and they start calling names. We wait and clap after each person. We keep waiting until Emily's name is called.
      "Emily Parks." The principal calls. We all clap and she goes up to the stage she gets her diploma. She comes back down and sits down. She has a huge smile on her face. I can't believe she is done with kindergarten.
     When the ceremony is done they have crafts for the kids. Zane does some finger painting. Emily and Andrew do some finger painting to. Zac wipes Zane's hands with diaper wipes as soon as he is done so the paint don't dry on his hands.
     When the kids are done with their crafts we clean them up. We go out for dinner. Emily choses the place. We get a table and order our food. Zac feeds Zane some Gerber bits and Gerber food.
     "She is getting so big." Anna says.
     "Yeah I know I can't believe it. It seems like yesterday I was told I had a baby sister." I say.
     "Yeah I know."
     "So Emily do you feel older?" I ask her.
     "Kinda I can't wait till next school year."
     "Well slow it down kid." We all laugh. I hug her. We finish eating and split our seperate ways. We go home and the kids get baths. 8:00 Halo and I lay down in bed. We kiss a couple times. Halo and I hold hands. We slowly kiss into a small make out session.
*Morning*
I wake up with serious bed head. I put on some shorts and try to fix my bed head. Halo comes into the bathroom and wraps her arms around my waist.
      "This bead head won't go away." I say.
     "Take a shower and then it will go away I have my bed head to this is going to suck."
     "Yeah true come on."
     "What?" I turn on the shower and lift her white t-shirt over her body. We kiss and laugh I take my shorts off. We get in the shower. I wash her hair.
     After our shower we get out and dry off. We wrap our towels around us. Halo brushes through her hair. We get dressed and make breakfast. When we are done with breakfast I do dishes.
​​​​​​​     The kids get dressed and we go to the store. We go home and put everything away. We eat lunch and lay the kids down for a nap.
     "So I was thinking we should go on a vacation." I say suddenly.
     "Where?" She asks.
     "Umm I'm not sure lets just drive and go into a big circle." I say. "Everything is always so planned out. Let's not plan anything."
     "That sounds fun."
     "Yeah take like 2 weeks off of work and just go."
     "When?"
     "Go to work this week and take off the next 2."
     "Sounds like fun."
     "So you wanna do it?"
     "Yeah let's do it."