then to now...Part One

Well, thought I should keep writing, correction, I NEED to keep writing. It has been a more than a year since my last post...back then I was yammering on about the crazy-ness of returning from Korea and trying, somewhat miserably, to ease back into North American life, pheew!

SInce then much has changed.

Where to begin, after a time frame fraught with familial strife, and seemingly unending panic resulting (in my mother's words) from the "re-entry" back into the Western World. The re-entry process, and yes, I am using the phrase because it does call up some pornographic images, was difficult. The whole shibang having begun in May and culminating in June with our wedding, was quite something.
The post-wedded bliss left quite a hole in our lives and was quickly replaced by worry and angst over my US Visa. The homeland security barring me, a nice Canadian girl, from stepping into the states. So, I waited. Unable to stay at home ( read: unable to endure the absolute takemebacktosixteenevenlivinginthesameroom, ahhhhh!) I rented a rather dodgy sublet in beautiful Montreal.
I felt displaced, disproportionate, at right angles with everything. Yet, it began to feel comfortable, I began to breathe in and out, in and out.
Matt was coming to visit me every other weekend and taking the long drive from Boston, a six to seven hour stretch of mountains and road. God, I missed him with every aching molecule in my body. One of those visits yielded quite a surprise, pregnancy! Yeah, pregnant and alone, what fun!
Matt was working two jobs and I had picked up a nanny position with a wonderful family. We waited some more for the interview to be scheduled so that I could be with Matt. We waited some more. By the time six months had passed my belly had grown so much. Everyone kept asking when I was due thinking that it was probably in the next ten minutes.
Our first ultrasound appointment, Matt arrived new year's eve, the night before 2009!
The Quebecois hospital was mostly French speaking and while I fumbled along it did little for Matt who waited by my bedside as the sonographer stated matter of factly that there were "deux bebe" or two babies~
I saw the colour drain from Matt's face, he sat down and we both tried to absorb the shock of our twins growing in my huge belly.

We finally received notice of our interview date for the US visa, we arrived and me, in full bulbosity trying to work a maternity button up that was more than a little hard to button up. We went through the interview providing this document and that paper. I even had a certified US doctor measure my belly. I am almost convinced he was doing it to ensure I had "baby" in there and not padding, ugh!
April 16th arrived, there was a certified letter at the post office, I knew it was my visa. Finally, at long last, thank the heavens, wait...something wasn't right.
Later at the hospital, after the mucus plug had begun to fall out of me, after Henry's little bum was hanging so low in my pelvis, after a friend, my sister and phone-calls to Matt were made and, at break neck speed he arrived that evening, after all that. I was on bedrest and on major drugs to prevent my boys from being born. They were, unlike most things in our life, too early.