Gen 2-Chapter 7: home is where the heart is

Construction on the isle started almost immediately after Ande was born. Adam had ordered some things from the city and before I knew it, the foundation for our house was down. The entire island was ours to explore and build on. I had gathered some things to start a garden and Adam worked to at least get the walls up to our tiny home.

Collette and Asa were patient with us but soon enough got fed up with no having anyone to talk to and aged themselves. They couldn't get out fast enough. The city was where they wanted to be and that's exactly where they went.

"Della!" Adam called from across the yard, where Ande was sleeping. I raced over to them, in fear of something being wrong. "Della, I had an idea! What if we went exploring..." He pulled Ande up onto his shoulder. "Take a little break from all this stupid work?" that actually sounded really nice, I pulled my shoes on and threw all my harvests into a basket before we set off.

"This place is beautiful!" I marveled as Adam took a picture of me in front of the waterfall. "You know, maybe this island is just what we needed." I said, sitting Ande on the ground to soak in the sunlight. "Our family was perfect before...but I think now we're beyond that! I mean look at this place!" I spun in a circle and just about fell over the edge into the little lake that was glimmering behind us. I caught myself just as quickly and Adam was right there, steering me to a place where my klutziness was least likely to kill me.

"Catch!" I struggled with all forms of ball. I fail at Volleyball, I'm always the one who gets hit in the face. Basketball I've always hated due to the physical-ness of the sport. I don't mind football as much, I like playing it but watching it puts me to sleep. Baseball isn't bad, I've never been that good at it because of my hand-eye coordination that always seems to be off. Adam and I spent just a little longer throwing the ball back and forth. I mean, there's nothing else to do here.

Adam went back to work sooner than we wanted but night was falling and if we wanted to have a house to sleep in, then we had to work a little bit harder. So he went into putting up walls as I unpacked things from boxes that would go into Ande's room as soon as it was built.

"Its not much, but so far...this is our house!" Adam has a cheery attitude about it all. Even while he was showing me the empty walls of our new house that he built with his bear hands from the ground up. "We can do some painting tomorrow and it'll be the cutest nursery you've ever seen!" Ande was our first priority, so even before seeing our room...it was the nursery that was first on the tour guide list. "There will be a wall from here to there, that will separate our room from the living room!"

Ande started to cry in my arms and reached out for Adam who took her without a second thought. I could already tell that my little baby was going to be a daddies girl. This was truly new to me though. None of my challenge children have had father figures in their life. He put her to bed and turned on a tiny night light that glittered on her night stand before saying "Sleep tight princess."

There was one tiny thing that I have been putting off...I don't want judgement but it was time to do so. I mean, I will probably get yelled at for not calling right when it happened....but I'll get over it. So I picked up the phone and dialed her number. "Hi mom.." The conversation went smoothly until I told her that I got...kicked out of sunset valley. Then she handed the phone to my dad and had me re-explain everything.

3 Months later.

"Happy birthday to you! Happy birthday to you! Happy birthday dear Ande! Happy birthday to you!" me and Adam stood around cheering as our little girl aged into a toddler. It had been 3 months since she was born and we had built a home from the ground up. My produce helped with money and Adam had been building houses around the island. He had found his talent when he finished our house and I fell in love with the beautiful brick walls and wood floors. My parents were planning on moving to the island as soon as he finished their new home.

"You are so beautiful!" I said to my little girl after putting down the curling iron. "Just look at you!" She giggled. "Mommy. Get daddy!" sat down on the counter and looked at herself. I made sure she was sitting up far enough so that she didn't fall off and stuck my head out the door. "Adam, Ande wants you to see her pwetty hair."

He looked exhausted but he still got up and pushed open the bathroom door. He swooped Ande into his arms from the counter and looked into the mirror. "Look at you!" That cheery tone that had taken over since Ande was born was wiped away with exhaustion. He brushed her curls back and kissed her little forehead while saying to her. "You're as pretty as your mommy.."

I felt bad for making him stay up so late these past few nights to help me with the last few decorations for Ande's room so I plucked her from his arms and took her to bed. I looked at Adam and said "Go to bed, I'll be there in a few minutes"

I took the squirt to her pink decked out room and laid her down. Her eyelids got heavy and she struggled to stay awake. And I was almost sure that the last words she muttered before falling asleep were "I want daddy." Funny how everything mixes itself up, huh?

By the time that I got into my room, Adam was sound asleep. Still in his clothes and shoes. I sat up on the bed next to him and kissed his ear before saying "Goodnight, love." He woke up at the touch of my lips and stared at me. "They say the first year is the hardest..." He started. "But its been the happiest year of my life." I smiled at my loving husband. "You know, you could always take tomorrow off...Maybe we could invite over a few friends. Have a little party in our new house?" "That doesn't sound like a bad idea." "I'll let you sleep in. I'll do the morning chores and take care of Ande and when you wake up, I'll get you some food and then we can invite a few people over?" My heart skipped as he pulled me into his arms. "That sounds absolutely amazing." I leaned in for a little kiss and he swept me up in that special magic that always took me by surprise. They say that the newly wed phase wears off but I'm not seeing that happening to us...I prayed that we would be happily in love forever.

*~*~*~

"WONTON! NO!" Our new kitten had taken up a hobby of destroying perfectly good chairs and then walking away like she owned the place. Bobby, Peter and Jackrabbit the unicorn were all taken away when we were sent here because of all the cats that roamed this place. Of course, they wouldn't have been a problem because all of them but Jackrabbit were inside pets. Lucky for me though, all three of them went to live with Kalyn, one of my best friends back in Sunset Valley.

"So what do you guys say? You wanna come spend a day on Langly island?" Vanessa, Kalyn and Seth were on a 4 way call with me. It took us so long to connect that I had almost burnt Ande's food. "You can meet our daughter! Sounds tempting, huh?" I joked around with them for a few minutes before they agreed to take a flight over to our little isle. They'd be here within 2 hours so the house needed some touching up.

“DELLYPOO!” Kalyn freaked when she saw me coming out of my house. “why didn’t you tell us you moved sooner?” “We were busy with the building and with Ande…” I started and Vanessa started to freak out. “ANDE! GIVE HER TO ME!” She rushed up my stairs and into my house. “Well…” I said to Kalyn. “wanna come inside Nessa?” we giggled and started up the stairs. Seth showed up soon afterwards yelling at Adam to come help him get some things from the car.

When we got inside, Vanessa had Ande in her arms and she was squeezing the heck out of her saying stuff like “Hi! I’m your aunt Nessie! Don’t forget it because I’m the one who’ll be buying you all the expensive gifts!” I rolled my eyes at her and laughed as Seth and Adam set up a tree house out in the yard. “Biggest gifts, eh?” I said pointing outside. Nessa gave Adam and death glare and said “You may be a widow soon, Della.”

“He took me up in a plane and down on the ground, written out in candles…It said ‘will you marry me?’ And I screamed YES!” Me and Kalyn jumped around in a circle chanting something about Vanessa getting married. “Vanessa and Gabe sitting in the gutter, eating peanut butter, kissing each other. K. I. S. S. I. N. G.!”

Vanessa sat Ande down on the ground and punched us both saying “Stop it you immature children!” Her sentence was cut off by the bucket of water that was poured over her head. Kalyn was next but I ran into my room to avoid Adam and Seth’s attacks. I popped my head out and Vanessa had Seth and Adam on their knees cleaning up my floors. I was quite proud of her for that one.

“GO GO GO GO!!!!!!” I scoffed as the boys wasted their day watching football. “TOUCHDOWN!!! WOOOOOOO!” A minute of silence was a little bit to much to ask from these two. They jumped up and started screaming as the Llamas won the first game of the season. "LLAMAS! LLAMAS!" They chanted over and over again as the game was changing to a new show. Seth pressed the little magic button on the remote that switches it to video games and instead of screaming about touchdowns and field goals it was "GO GO GO! I'M GONNA WIN."

"What a couple of little boys." Me and the girls sat up to the table talking about everything that has happened since I left sunset valley. "Your mom and dad have been thinking about giving you a little sister." My mouth dropped at this and Kalyn burst out laughing. "I'm joking. 113 is enough...Probably too many... but you know, we wouldn't have you if she'd have stopped." I smacked Vanessa's shoulder because she was sitting there mocking the face that I made when Kalyn pulled one over on me.

"Kurdy...Kurdy!" Ande had a problem saying "Kitty." It always came out like she was calling her purdy. Only instead it was Kurdy. So when she started to pet Wonton she screamed "KURDY IS PURDY!" And started to laugh before pulling the cat into her arms and petting her until she fell asleep.

Before sending my guests to bed, I took a small picture of each of them and started to repaint it on a wide canvas. I wanted my best friends faces on my wall so when they aren't here I can still sort of have them around. The paintings turned out kinda weird but I still loved them no matter what.

I went to bed next to the love of my life as 3 other people snored in the living room and one tiny little soul graced the nursery. The house was quiet but at the same time full of noise...I fell asleep listening to everything.