The Great Pickling Caper
Continued from previous post

Time kind of got away from us during the pickling process, and suddenly, it was time to pick up our son’s birth mom. My sister-in-law and I jumped in the car with Ben and drove to the birth mom’s workplace.

“You wait in the car while I go up and talk with her and explain why we’re late,” I instructed.

I zipped up to her office, where she was waiting for me. We chatted for a few minutes and I explained the pickle dilemma. Then I casually said, “Oh, by the way, Ben’s out in the car. Would you like to see him?”

Her face turned deathly pale. But after taking a few deep breaths, she said, “Yes, I think I’m ready to see him.”

We walked to the parking lot, where she met my sister-in-law. Then we opened the door and there sat Benny, in his car seat. We introduced him to her, and he chirped, “Hi!” in his cheerful little voice.

Meanwhile, his birth mom was hyperventilating. “This is so weird,” she said. “Here he is! He’s right here!”

Then I said something I’ve never regretted. “Would you like to come over to my in-laws’ house and join us for dinner? I’ll warn you, there are a bunch of us. We’re making pickles and the kitchen is a wreck, but we’ll be having a picnic in the backyard.”

She took another deep breath and said, “Yes, I’ll come.”

So off we went. We pulled into the driveway and got out of the car. There must have been at least 15 family members milling about, with cousins chasing each other, screaming, all over the yard (typical Christianson family scenario).

As people gradually became aware of the presence of an additional dinner guest, they came over to meet her. No one had the slightest doubt as to who she was, even though they hadn’t known she was coming. That’s probably because Ben looks exactly like her!

That day, she was welcomed into our family, not just as a friend, but as a family member.

In the next post…Doing it all again