Although eight-year-old Edwina Ludlow had gone out to play at periods with her siblings and friends in the backyard, her grandmother Mrs. Ludlow noticed at about the same time seven-year-old Amanda noticed that Edwina kept coming back to the front window and pressing her face into the glass, looking down the road.
Amanda just plopped down next to Edwina, and put her face into the glass, and got an instant hug from Edwina.
Mrs. Ludlow just decided to join the looking party.
“I think that window is big enough for all three of us,” she said, and the two girls moved aside to let her in the middle.
The instant Mrs. Ludlow touched her forehead to the glass, the two little girls started crying from relief of being understood.
“Y'all were waiting like this with your court-appointed guardians for me and Papa to come and get you that last time, for good,” Mrs. Ludlow said.
“Yes!” they cried, and climbed up onto her and bawled all over her.
“And we had a delayed flight because of the rain, and that made it even worse,” Mrs. Ludlow said.
“It's like this adoption is never going to be done – we need you as our mom, and we need you now!” Edwina said.
Mrs. Ludlow sat on the floor and just snuggled the two girls for a while until they were calmer, and then said, “It kinda looks like I'm already here, though!”
The two little girls considered that.
“Well, yeah,” Edwina said.
“All that is going on between Big Loft, VA, the county seat of Lofton County, and Richmond, VA, the capital of Virginia, is paperwork. We're already here, darlings. We're already here, and unless somebody can snatch up your grandfather and I, we're not going anywhere. Go on back out and play – we're already here.”
“See, this is why we need you, because having someone who actually cares to make it all better is so important!” Amanda said.
The two girls kissed Mrs. Ludlow all over her face, and then went back out to play – and, the instant they stopped looking out of the window, Capt. Ludlow's car appeared down the road.
“Watched pots never boil, and looked-for cars never arrive,” Mrs. Ludlow said with a chuckle.
Mrs. Ludlow opened the front door, then went to the back door, and said one thing:
“Papa's home!”
Just this one time, it was okay that all seven Ludlow grandchildren ran clear through the house screaming in their excitement, because, the woman who officially would be their mother had a mother and a grandmother's understanding, all at the same time.
I am with the girls, it is taking so long. But I am glad they understand Mrs L is already there. She is their Mother and Grandmother all in one.
Yep ... we are all just waiting on the state of Virginia to figure it out ... but the figuring is happening...