Now There Are Two

When Lyndee was 9 months old, Don's oldest brother asked us if we would come to help him with a church he had just started.  We prayed about it, and God seemed to lead us in that direction.  This time, instead of $50.00 a week salary, we were going to zero a week salary.  Don would get a job, and would also help build the church.  But we had learned FAITH, remember?  So, we packed up a few possesions, sold the rest and off we went to Alabama.

Did I mention I am married to an Alabama boy, born and bred, as the song says?  He is from a long line of Alabamian's.  Me...I was born in Miami. I tell Don I am more southern than he is, but he says Miami people are either Yankees gone down for sunshine or Cubans who went north, and since I'm not Cuban I must be a Yankee.  I am not a Yankee, having lived my whole life in the south and my family roots are southern. (Nothing against Yankees here...just saying...)

Well, even being married to an Alabama boy, NOTHING had prepared me for actually living there.  I mean, that is TRULY deep south...deep, deep, south.  

On our way there, we stopped over night in a hotel, and as we got up the next day, my back locked.  It did that from the very beginning of my pregnancy with Lyndee, and stopped when I had her.  I looked at Don and said, "Honey!  I think #2 child is on the way!"  He gaped at me like I was holding a handful of C4 and he wanted to run!  "How come you think that?" he asked when his speech capabilities returned.  So I told him.  His reply was kind of an "Psssh!  Is that all?"  We finished the move and arrived in hot, humid, summer Alabama. 

Don's brother had obtained a rental house for us.  It looked nice, was affordable (if Don got a job!) and we moved in.  Now our precious little Melynda was about the best baby as far as disposition goes, but she never slept a night until she was 15 months old.  She didn't cry or fuss, she just never slept longer than 2 or 3 hours at a time.  Then she wanted a bottle.  I say this, because that first night, I got up to get my baby her bottle and mice were skittering here and there playing with all the roaches.  Let me make this clear...2 things I absolutely can not stand are mice and roaches.  The thought of them curdles me inside!  And here we were, living in their playland!  I screamed hysterically, scaring Don out of at least 10 years of his life, and then I jumped on a chair...causing a roach to hastily depart from said chair.  I was telling myself, "This is a nightmare, this is a nightmare!"  But the wail coming from Lyndee's little room (I scared her, too) told me it was for real.

Don finally got us both settled down and we started dozing back off, when the most horrendous cacophony of sounds brought us upright in the bed.  Did I mention the train that passed within 3 yards of the house?  No, I didn't because, well, we didn't notice the tracks as we were hastily trying to get our few possessions in before total dakrness fell.

It was a very rude awakening!  No wonder the house rent was so cheap!  The main loading dock for that train was about a half mile away.  It would load a car, advance and then slam on its brakes causing all 1001 cars (I really do think there were that many!) to slam...WHACK WHACK WHACK WHACK...all the way down the line.  It went on forever, it seems!  But, finally, it did stop.  We started to doze again, and a donkey started braying like a mad thing.  Did I mention there was a farm veterinarian right next door?  Ya...it was something else!  Alabama!  Gotta love it!  Can't even say the word without those memories.

We had been there about a week when I made an appointment with an OB to verify my suspicions of a new edition.  Sure enough...#2 was officially official!  When I talked to Don's mom, I mentioned the name of my OB, and she said, "That was the name of the doctor that delivered Don!  He was head of the clinic way back then (24 years earlier).  I was convinced it couldn't be the same doctor, but...it was!  Yikes!  That guy was no spring chicken!!  Anyway, we couldn't afford to change doctor's, so...
 
Don had had time to get used to the idea, and he had found an all night job in a denim factory, of all things, and life resumed.  Sort of...poor Don would barely get in each morning, drop into the bed, when the train started loading.  I wasn't sleeping because of my fears the mice or the roaches, or both, would get my baby, and possibly carry her off, since they were so numerous!  You can imagine what it was like around there!  Plus, you know how tired you are in early pregnancy.  I was 21, expecting our second child, alone all night in my idea of an earthly hell...ya!  It was fun!  NOPE!

The months passed, and once again I was enormous, and once again people were staring.  When I was about 5 months along, a sweet old man from the church said the baby should be there any day.  I laughed and said, He's not due until 17 February...4 months away.  He said, "No way!  That can not be!  We will have to get you a wheelbarrow to carry that load around!"  He said this all the way until my due date...which came and went..again! 

We moved to another house on the same highway, but in town, just at a stop light.  This house was a lot bigger, brighter and we loved it.  It was the typical old southern house with the big, covered veranda porch.  We had a porch swing.  Lovely!  Except...we had a tenant.  Don had gotten a new job, this time making gaskets.  He would leave around 7:15 every morning, so we would usually go to bed around 10 PM.  One night, we heard the scurry of little feet tearing across the bedroom carpet.  Oh NO!  I was thinking mice, again.  The next day, I heard this crunching, chewing sound coming from the little extension off of our room.  I went to see, and there was a hole chewed in the wall.  Not a little hole, either.  My blood froze!  I snatched Lyndee up and closed the bedroom door and we stayed in the LR and kitchen all day.  That night, again, we heard it chewing and then scurrying across the carpet.  We decided to move into Lyndee's room and keep that room closed off until we caught the beast. 

A friend told us it had to be a wood rat.  They are common in Alabama, and the woods were right behind us.  So, Don bought a huge rat trap, baited it and we waited.  The next night we were having family devotions when we heard the trap snap and heard all this crashing and banging around and then silence.  We went back to see and, to our horror, though there were a few spatters of blood here and there, it had managed to shake off the trap.  Then we put out D-Con.  Nothing happened.  It still lived on. The unwanted tenant had now taken on gigantic proportions in my mind! 

Don got home about 4PM, bathed, dressed in his good clothes, ate his dinner and took off for door knocking, to invite people to church.  So, again, Lyndee and I were pretty much alone.  One day, I could hear that rat chomping and stalking and I think I cracked a little!  I put Lyndee in her little chair and grabbed the broom, ready to do war for my home turf.  I actually saw the beast!  It was as big as a rabbit!  I swung with all my might and that thing hissed and charged me!  Big as I was, I went flying, screaming out of there.  Call me a sissy, but hissing, rabbit sized rats are just NOT my cup of tea!

Anyway, some kind soul finally told us rats have to drink water to activate the D-Con, so we obligingly put water out for the tenant, and shortly thereafter, he was no more!  Peace settled on our little world until the day we had an electrical storm and scared starlings flew down the chimney  into the living room, flying crazily at us as they tried to escape.  That was easy to fix...we opened the door and they were gone.

March arrived warm and bright. Still no baby, so the doctor said, "Take a spoonful of castor oil every morning until it makes you go into labor."  A SPOONFUL!  I wish someone had told me that before I drank the whole bottle with Lyndee!

The 8th of March I decided to take Lyndee out in the yard to play.  It was truly a gorgeous spring day.  I spread a quilt and we got down on it and were playing.  I suddenly realized our yard was steep, running down to the highway.  I thought, "Hmmm...if Lyndee playfully took off running, she could fall down that hill to the highway.  I decided we should go back in, but I hadn't counted on the fact that I was so huge and getting up wouldn't be easy.  While I was trying to get up, rolling around like a beached whale, a pain hit me.  I finally got rolled over enough to get up on my knees, and pushed myself up, took Lyndee's hand and we went back inside to wait.  Don came in very tired and I hated to tell him I thought I was in labor.  It was a Friday, and he didn't work his job on Saturday's, but was supposed to work on the church building that was going up.  So, I thought I would just wait  to say anything since Lyndee had taken so long.  About 2 AM, the contractions became intense.  I woke Don up, and off we went.  Don didn't learn from the first time, and again, we made it in record time.  And again, we waited and waited.  At 1 PM, they came in and said, "This is taking a long time, so we are going to give you something to knock you out.  They did, and I was out cold.  Our precious little boy, Cristofer Shawn, was born at 6:25 PM.  He was healthy, beautiful, but we didn't see his eyes for 4 days.  Remember me saying the same doctor delivered Don?  Well, he was old school.  Even though I was barely conscious they gave me gas so I wouldn't wake up during the delivery!  Ya...old school!!  I didn't even know I'd had a baby or what it was until about 9PM that evening!  But he was safely delivered!  Unlike his sister, he slept 12 to 13 hours a night, from birth.  I wonder why????

Wow!  This was long!  Sorry!  If you managed to stayed tuned until now, the next walk will be our French adventure.  God bless you all, and have a great Sunday!