Life Choices, Challenges and Changes

June 2017

Sitting in the nursery with the baby monitor on, Rory is nursing her infant daughter, Lorelai Ashlyn. The four-month-old infant is almost asleep as she gently rocks her. Rory can hear the gentle breathing of her two-year-old son Liam Finnigan asleep in his bed in the other room. She smiles as she thinks about her life now. It was so different from what she dreamed it would have been when she graduated from Yale in 2007

Rory gets up and gently lays her daughter in her bassinet and picks up the monitor, and making sure she can hear both children, she leaves and walks through her home to the kitchen. As she walks through the family room, she bends over and picks up the stuffed Thomas the Train that her son had left on the couch. She carries it to his room and lies it beside him. She gently places her hand on his forehead and smooths the curls. How he looks just like his father, she thinks. She quietly leaves the room and walks into the kitchen and starts the coffee pot. Her best friend, Steph McCrae will be over soon bringing home her son Lucas from preschool. Her phone rings and smiles when she sees who is calling.

"Hello, exotic one," she purrs playfully into the phone.

Her husband chuckles and says, "Kitten, do you miss me?"

"Always, so will you be home on time tonight?"

"Probably a little earlier. I don't like being far away from you. I am just calling to tell you that Mum and Dad will be in later this afternoon so that they will be stopping by for supper. They want to see the kids and their favorite daughter in law and son of course."

"Finn.... What am I going to make?" she whined into the phone.

Even though they will be married five years in December, her cooking skills still consisted of making coffee, and dumping items from the freezer on a cookie sheet and putting them in the oven. Finn had stopped her from feeding their children pop tarts, but she keeps a box hidden for those times she has her cravings for something sweet.

"I have steaks and shrimp in the freezer, so we can start the Barbie. You need to take the shrimp out now and put it in the colander and run water over it slowly, so it thaws. Take the steaks out now and put them in the refrigerator. There are ingredients in the refrigerator for a salad and of course, potatoes, we can put oil and foil on them and put them on the Barbie," Finn explained to her.

"Have I told you how much I love you today?" she said smiling. Thinking how wise her mother was when she told her to marry a man who could cook.

"How much? Because I love you more," he replied huskily, "Oh, Love, I must go. I will be home by three thirty. I love you kitten." He looked up as he saw his best friend Colin walk into his office.

"I love you too, Finny." and she ended her call.

She poured herself a cup of coffee and looked at her refrigerator where the pictures of her family were proudly displayed.

Picking up the family picture of the five of them she places her finger on the photo; then she traces the faces of her two boys. Lucas Richard is four and a half years old, 18 months older than Liam, he has her brown hair and has gray-blue eyes. Then there is Little Liam, the charmer, his father's clone, except he has her blue eyes and his father's reddish-brown hair.

Looking at the photograph she remembers how Lyn began to fuss in her arms while Robert was taking their pictures. Liam was standing beside her climbing up on her lap and he leaned over and kissed his sister on her forehead. Just like his father he never wanted to see anyone upset. Already at two he was the instigator of mischief but would comfort his brother if he was upset.

Robert has taken all their family photographs. After graduation, Robert began to focus on photography. His natural talent led him to a successful career as a photographer. He has had a few galleries shows in both Manhattan and Long Beach California. With the success of these shows, he became a very popular photographer, and he flies between California and New York taking pictures of famous people, movie stars, and models. However, he tells Finn, Rory, Steph, and Colin that their families are his favorite subjects to photograph.

Sitting in the kitchen, sipping her coffee she thinks back to her graduation day from Yale and those men who became such an important part of her life.