All is Found

59

After I got home from touring Thea and I spent the rest of October and the beginning of November getting the house set up. It didn't take long because Thea already did most of it when I was away on tour. We just put the last finishing touches on things.

Once the house was setup to our liking Thea and I talked about starting the adoption process. We conferenced with a family law attorney in Lindsey practice and he gave us the phone numbers of a few local adoption agencies. Thea and I decided that this would be our Christmas gift to each other. We spoke with three of the suggested agencies and found one we both really liked and made an appointment.

We fill out enough paperwork to fill a book. Once it was done we spoke at length with our agent and he went over all the details we needed to know and set up a home study visit. The home visit was the week before Christmas. Both Thea and myself were really excited about it and spent most of the night before cleaning the house. Our home study visit went well and our agent told us he would be in touch.

Christmas came and went and we didn't hear anything from him. We didn't think much of it because he told us it could be a while before he placed a child with us. So Thea and I surprised each other with two big announcements Christmas morning. Thea past her lieutenants test and is taking the open lieutenant position in the detective squad. I was shocked and so happy and proud of her. When she didn't bring it up after she took the test in mid-October I didn't think she passed so this was a pleasant surprise.

As for my surprise I told her that I'm going to Harvard to start my education degree. At first Thea didn't believe me. I had to show her my class registration for her to believe me. We both jumped up and down in excited for a little while with our good news.

It didn't take long before we started to get everything ready for Christmas dinner later. This is the first time we are having everyone over now that the house is done. Pat ended up coming over early to help Thea and I cook. We are having Nikki, Malia and Rory over for dinner.

When we got home from tour Malia and Nikki moved into a new apartment themselves. Nikki's plans are still up in the air with what she wants to do with herself now and is just enjoying herself living with Malia. It made me happy to know she isn't leaving for a while.

Dinner was nice and we gave everyone a tour of the house. When we brought out dessert Thea and I shared our good news with everyone including that we are starting the adoption process. Everyone was really happy for us and we spent the rest of the night celebrating.

December gave way to January and I started to prepare to get ready to go back to school. I made my schedule so I only have to go to campus twice a week for my classes and even managed to take some online. Right now I have to get all of my basic classes out of the way first before I could touch a musical instrument.

Along with getting ready for school, Thea had her promotion ceremony. This one was just like the one when she was promoted to sergeant. She was actually the only one getting promoted to lieutenant and I was so proud. I pinned the new gold bars to her lapels along with the new gold badge to her chest. Malia was actually getting promoted as well, she took the detective test and passed with flying colors. Nikki and Malia's parents were here for her as well and it was a nice day with them. Later that night the four of us went down to the bar and got to celebrate with the rest of the officers who were promoted.

I was actually getting all of my books together for my first week of classes when I got the call. Thea was at work when our adoption agent called and said that he had a pair of siblings for us to meet. A nine year old boy and his six year old sister. I called Thea up right away and she told me she would meet me at the agency.