Five Days, Three Babies

I drove as fast as I possibly could with the terrible fog and without being (too illegal).  I called everyone I knew:  "We have a new baby!"  I gave as much information as I had (which wasn't much).  The sticker was also that I had NO IDEA how to pronounce his name.

Was it EE-brah-ham?  EYE-brah-heem?  ABE-ra-ham?  Nothing would be worse than to call this little boy the wrong name.  I knew we would have to come up with a cool nickname.

But what to pick?  It had to be something that was made up of the letters in his name.  Abe wouldn't do, especially if he was EEbrahham or EYEbrahheem.  Abe was an old man's nickname anyway.  This cutie needed something cool.  My mother suggested "Bran" but I pointed out that there were no Ns in Ibrahim.   But there WAS an M.  BraM was a cool nickname, was made up from letters in his name, AND Bram Stoker was named Abraham too.   Cool on multiple levels! 

I called home to check on the baby and try out the nickname on Darryl and Tiernen.  They liked it.  Bram it was!

The drive took WAY longer than six hours.  It seemed like a hundred.  While I was driving, The Agency called again.  It was one of the on call staff.  No way were they calling for another placement!

"Hi, this is XXX from The Agency.  We have a 17-year-old girl who needs a placement --"

I stopped her right there.  "Do you realize we just got a placement not even five hours ago."

"This would only be for  a few days, at most."

"We don't have a space fora  17-year-old.  We only have space for babies..."

"Are you sure?"

"Very," I assured her.

I kept driving and laughed to myself:  when it rains, it pours.  I also wondered if I would have been able to say no if it had been a 17 MONTH old and not a 17-year-old.  I wasn't sure.  Darryl and Tiernen both would have killed me.

In five days, I had three babies: Baby O, who left us, Kat's new baby, and now baby Bram, who we had no idea how long he would be with us.

Then I started thinking about what the lady from The Agency had said:  "He has two older brothers... they are with grandma..."  What if grandma was just getting things ready for the baby and we only had him for another ten days (or shorter).  I didn't think I could deal with that sadness again so quickly.  I decided then and there that Bram was a "short timer" and that I wouldn't, couldn't get too attached.

Bram always loved his Darry

When I got home though, it was too late.

We already were.