by Tony Zimbardi—Le Mons

Déjà Vu

“Yes, yes, I understand. Yes, I’ll tell Tony.” Antonio’s on the phone as I’m standing at the sink doing last night’s dinner dishes. It’s the morning after we got the 11th hour news of the adoption finalization hearing being cancelled. Antonio hangs up and turns to me, “So, here’s the deal, honey. Some county clerk saw that there is a permanency hearing scheduled at the end of this month for the boy’s biological mother and her most recent newborn. Somehow, our case was lumped in with the case of the newborn, but they’re completely unrelated. It was a total error.”

I’m annoyed, but I sigh in relief. “Thank God! So does that mean we have a new date?” “Well,” he pauses, “Joe, our attorney, says there may be another complication.” I put down the dish, wipe my brow and turn to him.“What now?” I ask completely unable to hide my irritation. “As it turns out, the company that the County used to serve notice, fraudulently created signatures on a large percentage of cases; that could include the biological mother of our boys. If she wasn’t properly served notice of her parental rights being terminated, we could have to start all over again.” I put down the dishrag, wipe my hands and walk out of the room. I’m too angry at the situation in this moment to speak.

Antonio is behind me as I stomp through the house, he follows me into our bedroom as I turn and blurt out in a raised voice “This is déjà vu! This is exactly the kind of crap we went through a year ago!” “I know honey,” he says patiently. “But remember? That’s why the boy’s moving in with us was postponed last year at this time, because of improper service? And as a result, our social worker Sandra, served the mother herself; don’t you remember that?” “I do, I do remember that.” I begin to calm down. “Okay then, let’s get Sandra on the phone and let’s get to the bottom of this.”

“It’s two weeks from today, honey!” Antonio announces minutes later, hanging up the phone. “Sandra confirmed the proper service, managed the court clerk; and we have a new date scheduled for two weeks from today!” “Two weeks from today?” I ask. “Do you know what day that is?” “It’s the same day we leave for our vacation,” Antonio responds. “And you know what else? That day will be exactly a year to the day we actually met the boys for the first time. The circle will finally close!” Now I’m getting a little giddy, “Sweetie, It’ll be like going to the courthouse to get married in the morning and then hopping right on a plane for our honeymoon all in the same day!” Antonio chuckles, “Yes honey,” he says, “It’ll be just like that, like the four of us are getting married and going off on our honeymoon.”

In the next installment: The adoption is finalized.

Tony Zimbardi Psy.D. is a psychotherapist in private practice in West Hollywood. More of his writing can be found at www.drtonyzimbardi.com.