The Love Family: Chapter 2

When we last left the Love Family, Asia had just accepted a substantial cash gift from Annie McLauren to help her ever-expanding family. Annie had also promised Asia that she had another surprise in store for her...

The next morning the doorbell rang at 7:30am. Already up and dressed (because she had to feed baby Daniel), Asia quickly answered the doorbell... "I wonder if this has to do with Annie's surprise..." she thought to herself.

As Asia opened the door she was assaulted with a wave of intense thrift-store perfume. An terribly dressed elderly woman stood on Asia's doorstep clutching a rumpled purse.

"I'm Mrs. Holger, I'm your hired nanny," the senior citizen murmered. Inwardly Asia cringed. Personally she trusted no one with baby Daniel outside of herself, Orlando, and Vamsi but Asia knew that Annie was only trying to help lighten the load.

"Good-morning Mrs. Holger, so glad to have you here!" Asia decided to give the elderly woman a shot thinking... what's the harm?




Asia soon regretted her actions... she wondered where in the hell Annie found this nutcase! The first sign that Mrs. Holger was batty was her refusal to have skin-to-skin contact with Daniel.

"Babies are full of germs... I will look after your son, but I will not touch!" she insisted.




Asia's second warning signal came when Mrs. Holger let Orlando's borderline schitzophrenic college buddy George into the house. Asia hated George mainly because he refused to wear any type of clothing aside from cut off jeans... but also because he refused to bathe and was married to the town jump-off. "Disgusting" Asia muttered watching George and Mrs. Holger ham it up...

"What an utterly charming gentleman" cooed Mrs. Holger as Asia fumed in the corner and passive-aggressive Orlando attempted to usher George out of the house.




The third and final straw for Asia was Mrs. Holger's complete disregard for personal property. The woman insisted on banging on Orlando's vintage drum set and panhandling her employers for money! After seeing Mrs. Holger playing on his drums, Orlando quickly fired her and kicked her out the house.

"Where did you find this nutcase?" he asked Asia.

Asia hesitated... if she answered "Annie," Orlando would know that she took a financial gift from someone else. But if remained silent, Orlando would once again doubt her intelligence and her abilities to make wise decisions. She decided the latter was the safest bet and she would earn Orlando's respect in some other manner.



"Don't worry about it Orlando" Asia said wearily. "I made a mistake and went with a poor agency... I'll just continue to look after Daniel myself." As if on cue Daniel started screaming his head off, demanding a fresh diaper and a new bottle.

All at once it felt like too much for Asia. She was exhausted, and her back and her feet hurt. Even worse, the past few weeks had been so tense and terse that she felt a sinking weight in her belly that had nothing to do with the baby's kicking. It was a new kind of feeling, one that left her feeling tired all the time and depressed.



Sensing something completely off about Asia's mood, Orlando volunteered to take over the house chores for the evening. Asia was shocked to see Orlando dusting, vacuuming, and taking out the trash. He even changed Daniel's diaper - a chore he once swore that he'd never allow himself to do.




"Asia, you need to rest" Orlando said gently as he lifted Daniel out of Asia's arms. Asia felt her eyes well up with tears. Who was this gentle, kind, caring man? Was this the man she fell in love with during college? The one who used to attend Temple with her and cook her sunday brunch?

As Asia lay down for a nap on the couch she contemplated her position in life. As she drifted off to sleep she thought "maybe this is the re-invention of our relationship... maybe we are communicating!" And yet, despite such happy thoughts, Asia still couldn't shake that hopeless and overwhelming feeling that lay on her shoulders.




Desperately attempting to cheer Asia up, Orlando put Daniel down for bed and cooked Asia's favorite meal of Salmon and roasted vegetables. As he prepared the food, he tried to remain positive thinking - "everything tastes better when seasoned with love!"




Asia meanwhile couldn't snap out of it. Waking up from her nap, she went to freshen up in the bathroom. As she stood looking at herself in the mirror, the tears rolled down her face until she was crying hysterically. Unwilling to let Orlando see herself in this state (and unwilling to explain the unexplainable), Asia quickly took a deep breath and tried to pull herself together.



As Asia walked over to the table, she couldn't help noticing that Orlando burned the food. Well, at least he was trying to help around the house. Asia tried to smile and said "Wow, doesn't this look delicious!"

Orlando's face lit up as he said "thank you, I know it's your favorite!"

Inwardly Asia gagged. The thought of eating the food repulsed her. She wondered if she had lost her appetite or if it was because the food just looked so unappealing...frankly she didn't care.




During the meal, Orlando tried to bring up the topic of Asia's mood swings.

"Honey, I've noticed you're not your usual happy self... I want you to be happy"

Asia was silent.

Orlando continued, saying "I'm serious about this, tell me what I have to do to make you happy."

Asia realized that this was a huge window of opportunity - this was the chance she had waited for... to have Orlando treat her as an equal, discuss important issues with her, and discuss the possibility of moving and increasing their finances by letting her change career paths.




And yet Asia couldn't bring herself to say anything other than, "I'm just kind of feeling down... under the weather. Maybe it's the baby?"

Orlando looked skeptical but decided to keep his opinion to himself. The two kept eating in silence.

Silently Asia kicked herself. How could she pass up this insane opportunity?! What was wrong with her? Asia felt like she was going insane.



Getting up to clear the dishes, Asia started trying to increase her confidence. As she sat back down next to Orlando, she said... "I think I'd like to...."

Her voice trailed off. She couldn't finish the sentence. Why was it so hard for her to talk to Orlando? What was going on with her? Asia choked back the tears while Orlando quietly finished his meal.




As Asia went to sleep that night, she thought about how everything in her life had become so crazy in the last few months. She felt panicked and pressured - like there was no way she could deal with being a mother to two babies under the age of 2. As she cried herself to sleep, she wondered what she could do to make herself get out of this depressive state.




A month passed and Asia was now 9 months pregnant, and a week overdue. She and Orlando still had no idea the sex of the baby, although Asia strongly believed that it was a girl. Orlando believed that Asia's mood swings were gone, but what he didn't realize was that Asia had taken to hiding her crying fits from him by sobbing while in the bathroom, or while Orlando was at work.

Around 8am, Asia and Orlando sat down for breakfast. Daniel was still sleeping for once (although Asia knew he'd wake up soon and be screaming for his breakfast) so she was savoring the quiet time with Orlando. Once the baby came, she knew that time would disappear. Orlando was trying to eat quickly since he had an 8:15am staff meeting at the high school, followed by a day-long field trip to the Parsnip Plains History & Politics Museum.

"Now Asia, I'm going to be gone until about 6pm. Call the office if you have an emergency, my cell phone doesn't get service in the Museum."

Asia nodded. She felt a mild burning sensation in her chest... "must be heartburn" she muttered under her breath. She tried to cough and clear her throat.

Orlando paused mid-bite and said "is everything ok?"

"I'm fine, I'm fine! Now go, before your late." With that blessing Orlando ran out the door and headed off to work.




But everything wasn't all right. The burning sensation that Asia thought was heartburn continued. Coupled with her foul mood, and her depression, Asia pretty much felt like crap.

As she sat on the couch watching soap operas and keeping an eye on Daniel, she wondered if she could be having contractions.

"But this feels so different from my first labor with Daniel..."

Shrugging it off, Asia attributed her physical pain to Orlando's bad cooking. She tried to relax and enjoy her show.




But with Daniel around it was almost always impossible to relax.

"MAAAAAAAMAAAAAAAAAAAA" he screamed!

"What, what do you want?"

"MAAAAAAMAAAAAAAAA"

Asia was bewildered and beyond frustrated. She had just changed Daniel and fed him. What could he possible want?!

In a moment of panic, Asia pictured herself shaking Daniel to get him to tell her what he wanted...quickly horrified at her thoughts, Asia shook herself out of it and moaned. She was feeling worse by the second.

She also realized that Daniel just wanted Asia's attention and affection (as usual).

As Asia stroked Daniel's head she whispered "I'm so sorry, I love you Daniel... I promise, I'll be a bettery mommy!"

Daniel responded with a "MAMA," a gurgle, and a smile.

Hoping that some tea would help clear her mind, Asia moved into the kitchen to put the kettle on to boil.



As Asia went to fill up the teapot with water, she felt an excrutiating pain cut through her belly.

"AHHHHHHHH!!!" she screamed... the pain was unlike anything she every faced with Daniel's birth.




By now Asia was panting... the pain continued and Asia realized that she HAD been in labor since Orlando left early in the morning.

"Oh GOD" she screamed as Daniel watched his mother in confusion.



Asia realized that giving birth on the floor of her kitchen was not the plan she intended for this baby... so she dragged her pain filled body to the phone and called 911...

Within minutes, her kitchen was full of paramedics dragging her and baby Daniel to the hospital...




Miraculously Asia was fine... her obgyn told her that the excessive pain she felt during labor had no physical explanation...

"Every pregnancy is different" he offered.

Asia personally thought it had something to do with her moods of late, but she didn't mention it to the doctor.

Asia did so well in recovery that they let her leave the hospital within hours of delivering the new baby! By the time she, Daniel and the new baby got home, Orlando STILL wasn't back from his trip.

"Bastard" Asia thought then quickly apologized to whatever higher power was listening.

As Asia sat in the kitchen, feeding baby Daniel and rocking the new baby, she felt a deep emptiness where love used to be. An emptiness that surrounded her husband, and her children.

Why was Asia so depressed? Well there were clearly many reasons....




With the biggest reason being that the new baby was a BOY. That's right, another boy... a 9lb 8oz baby boy. Asia was horrified that her thoughts of having a girl had been wrong and doubly horrified at her own thoughts!




As we end this chapter, Asia is in turmoil. As she settled the baby down to sleep, she wondered how she was going to handle this mess, and when Orlando would come home...what will I even name him?

As she walked out of the room, a name came to her. She thought maybe this name symbolized hope for her and the new baby, and her working out her unhappiness issues.

"Israel" she thought...

"What a fitting name"

And with that, Asia put the baby to sleep and left the room.