Halo

Round 32: September 2035 (Spring)

last update/next update

Aaron and Calvin Clarke are both 32.
(James is 60, Madelyn is 55, Abigail is 52, Maia is 33, Ethan is 29 and Rebecca is 26)

Narrated by Aaron Clarke

Calvin and I haven't been out on many dates lately but last week, we had dinner at Front Page Cafe, which is just a couple of blocks away from our new house.

Calvin is great in the kitchen, so we eat well at home but just having a meal without worrying about cooking or cleaning up afterwards was a nice change of pace for us.

I don't know if we'd ever eat out at restaurants if it was up to Calvin. As much as I love him, he can be a little cheap sometimes.

But he won $500 in the lottery, so I managed to talk him into splurging a tiny bit.

It can be expensive to eat out but we always have so much fun. I think it's worth it. Calvin is pretty set in his ways though, so the next time we go out, it'll probably be with the coupons Ethan and Maia gave us.

The coupons were specifically for use after 5pm and due to expire soon. Maia is way too exhausted by dinner time to go out to restaurants. Pregnancy is really taking it out of her.

The baby is due any day now and she and Ethan are both just really eager to meet him or her.

I am too, actually. Calvin has nieces and nephews from his brother and his stepsisters but this will be the first baby on my side of the family.

We're hoping to do something about that soon. For the past several months, Calvin and I have been living and breathing adoption.

We watched Rose and Joanna go through the whole thing when they adopted Sylvia but you don't realise how involved it really is until you start delving into it yourself.

I can't count the times we've met with our social worker, Rebecca, since we started this process and I still get nervous every time I know she's coming over.

The pacing drives Calvin nuts after a few minutes and he has to force me to sit down. He doesn't really get it; he only got nervous the first few times.

Rebecca isn't quite what I was expecting in a social worker and she still leaves me feeling a little uncomfortable.

I thought she would make every effort to put us at ease but she's very no-nonsense about everything and doesn't waste much time on pleasantries.

Rebecca is nothing if not thorough. She recommended we have a fence installed around our property and when we did so, she insisted on inspecting it extremely closely.

And I don't know what on earth she was looking for in our shower but she checked that out too.

Rebecca was the reason we got the nursery ready so incredibly early. We didn't want to take any risks but she actually looked surprised when she saw the room. Apparently, a lot of people don't bother until they're much further along in the process.

Rebecca has also grilled us on just about everything that could possibly relate to our suitability as parents: our routines, the neighbourhood we live in, our friends and family members, our jobs. Ideally, one of us will be able to stay home with him or her for at least the first few months or so.

Calvin already has three days off in the middle of the week but I work Monday to Friday, 10-6. I'm hoping my editor will be open to letting me go part time for a little while.

Abigail is a pretty understanding boss with most things, so I'm hoping it won't be a huge deal, when the time comes.

Rebecca has also talked to some of our friends and family, my parents being the last. They were happy to do it for us but also surprised at how in-depth the process is these days. It's very different from when they adopted Connor, more than 20 years ago.

Mum and Dad have been really awesome throughout this whole thing. Without them, I don't think we would have been able to get our house ready and have enough for the application fees.

They're very excited for us. Neither of them have ever been the type to nag us about getting married or having kids but Mum especially is totally ready for grandchildren. She's been talking about it since we announced we'd be adopting last Christmas.

But the interviews are over now, thankfully, for us and our references. We were expecting it to take a little longer but we're officially approved to adopt.

The last meeting we had with Rebecca, she told us that next time we talked, it would be to inform us that we'd been matched with a child.

I can't believe we could actually be parents in just a few months! It could take longer but Rebecca told us not to be surprised if the wait was a relatively short one.

I almost wish she hadn't told us that, because I think I'm getting even more antsy about it now. I'm in that nursery all the time, checking everything is still perfect.

Now that the adoption is feeling a bit more real, we're freaking out a little bit. We've done plenty of babysitting but the only living thing we've ever been fully responsible for is Ulysses.

It's mildly terrifying to think someone is just going to hand us a kid to raise but we can't wait to meet our child either.

Extras:
I had meant to go in and let Maia have her baby right after playing Aaron and Calvin but I ended up spending way too much time watching Ulysses get high on catnip instead!

I think the fact that his eyes are two different colours make him look mildly crazy, which I love!

And I did get Maia and Ethan's baby born in the end. That post will go up tomorrow. :)
Notes:

• Title is from Halo by Foo Fighters.
• Calvin rolled the Small Lottery Prize ROS this round. They could have used the Large Lottery Prize Elspeth rolled but they're doing okay now. Their financial situation is what made me finally decide to have them adopt a toddler though. The fee to adopt a newborn is $10,000, which they don't have. If they want a kid further down the line, they might be able to afford a newborn then.
• I cannot imagine Rebecca is the easiest person to deal with, especially for someone as meek as Aaron. She is also super-neat, so even though the shower was clean before she came over, she decided to give it another once-over anyway! I really love it when Sims act the way you'd expect them to.
• I'm doing a random roll thing with Aaron and Calvin, to see when they get matched with a kid, like I did for Rose and Joanna when they did artificial insemination. So when they do get matched, I'll write it into a related update, either their own or a family member's, depending on how long it takes. I'm hoping soon but we'll see!