Episode Twelve: MacGregor Chronicles

“Oh, hon.” he kissed my forehead and hugged me tighter.

“That's what we've been doing all of this for isn't it? Working all this time, paying off our debt, building our house. We've done everything we set out to do. So why don't we have any children?”

“Well, do you want to go to the doctor to see if he can tell us what our options are?” Will suggested. I nodded. We hadn't done anything to prevent my getting pregnant for almost thirteen years now and I had not become so. For a long time I feared that we would not be able to have children of our own. We had even discussed the adoption option, but for the past six years we had put the whole scheme out of our heads until we could afford a child either way.

The following week we went to our regular doctor to be checked out and to get a plan down for conception. We decided that if we could not conceive on our own within six months, then we would go to fertility medications. On the fourth month on our own, I found myself with child. We were thrilled and scared. We knew the likelihood of miscarriages for women over thirty and took this very seriously.

Unfortunately, in spite of our carefulness, I lost the baby after ten weeks. I was very sad for a long time, but I did not allow depression to set in. During my sadness something very unexpected occurred.

I received an email, from my father. He was in the states again and wanted to see me. He and his wife, my step-mother, Janessa had moved back to the Philippines to be closer to her family five years earlier. Now they were back and my father seemed desperate to see me.

I could not help but agree to see him, the wording of his email was something I could not ignore. I replied with my consent to meet him at a small dinner in town the next week. I would never invited him to my home and refused to go to his own living area. A couple of days after the agreement to meet there was a buzz from our gate late at night. We weren't expecting anyone. It was pouring rain out and we had decided to stay in for the night to enjoy the storm. When I answered a weak voice with a still fairly strong Asian accent responded. It was my Janessa, someone from town had dropped her off and she was standing there in the rain. Willard immediately want to get her in his car.

How had she gotten here? Why was she alone? It had to be important. When the Willard returned with Janessa it was plain to see the urgency. In her arms was a tiny baby girl, she looked to be maybe a few weeks old. Both my stepmother and my new baby sister were soaked. The baby, Charlotte, was crying and chilled. We did everything we could to dry and warm them both. I took Charlotte while her mother took a warm shower. The soaked clothes of each went into the washer, then the dryer. I borrowed Janessa some warm pajamas and socks to wear, though they were a bit big on her because of the height difference. The tiny baby girl I stripped down and wrapped a soft cotton blanket around her. Thankfully my stepmother had diapers in a diaper bag that was with her. By the time Janessa was warm and dry, her daughter was as well. Charlotte was sleeping comfortably in a large woven basket lined with towels.

When the first entered the house my fathers wife tried to explain everything right away, but she would forget herself and begin to speak her native language and nothing was comprehensible to Willard or me. I asked that the two of them be dry, warm, and calm before anything further was said. Now that this was accomplished we all sat down in the fire side room with some tea and talked.

“Where is my father?” I asked starting out.

“He is dead. He died of tuberculosis three nights ago. He knew that it would take him this time, that is why we wanted to see you.”

I was in shock already. The man whom I had had so much trouble forgiving for his psychological abuse throughout childhood was gone and I didn't know what to think or how to feel.

“We wanted to ask you to take Charlotte. I am dying also. I had viral-cardio-miopathy. The doctors gave me six months, but I already almost died giving birth to my little girl.”

“Why us? Why did dad want me to have her?”

“He loves you. He knows that you will teach her about God and that you will love her. He always said that you would be a good mother. Her middle name is Jane, after you.”

“I'm not saying that I don't want her, but where is your family? Don't they want her?” I inquired still not grasping the whole situation.

“ My family is gone, all of them dead. Your father and I, we left Manila just days before my village was burned to the ground by a local militia. We could not fly because of the baby, we had to take a boat to get here.”

“You sailed here, from the Phillipines, dad had TB, you where pregnant and have heart a fatal heart condition.”

“Yes.”

“You do understand that no insurance in the world will cover your hospital bills because what you have is genetic and chronic right.”

“We came here to go to the Mayo clinic, to ask for their help. One of your fathers friends offered to pay the bills in full. I understand that I may not live long enough to have a transplant, but I do want to know that your sister is safe and well.” Janessa explained.

I looked at my baby sister, then at my husband, then at my stepmother. We had no choice, with my father gone and his wife dying, this child had no one to care for her. Even for as angry as I had been with my father, it was not the fault of this sleeping child before me. She was so small and looked a bit ill herself.

“We will take care of her.” Willard answered suddenly. He was not the kind to make snap decisions like this, but he saw the need and the urgency. A smile came across Janessa's pale face. She was only a few years older than myself and looked even younger. I had always wanted to be close to her, but I didn't want anything to do with my father. Now I would be rearing their child, as my own. I hugged her as tears began to stream down both our faces.

Episode Twentytwo: MacGregor Chronicles

A civil war broke out not long after the new president was sworn in. State founded militia troops popped up all over th country. Civil and individual rights had been whittled away by frivolous laws for years. The government had it's hand in everyones personal lives. Delegation of morals and ethics it saw fit to rule and reign. The sleeping rebellion was awakened and flared up quickly after long smoldering, in turn it was a long burn.

In this time also, the church arose, retaking it's place in society. It's members took in orphans and widows. They fed the hungry and clothed the naked. The country had divided into various groups took hold, but in the end two factions remained. There were the 'United People' and the 'Governmentals.' All else fled or remained in hiding.

The revolution seemed inevitable to some, after the long war that had been going on for the last decade or so.

The lines between rich and poor were abolished, middle class was now non-existent. Education was also reformed, public school was reserved for the lower tax brackets, yet even so, education was not entirely free to it's attendance. Some rich families, rather than sending their children to the new private schools, chose to hire governesses for their children, others home schooled. Now and then a well established family would undertake to be a benefactor to a lower class child whom showed some potential in a given area. Private school standards were high, rules were more strict, and uniforms required. Some private schools were supported by a given religion, some were not. There were chain schools, like state universities, that were associated with one another, yet were still independent of each other in many ways.

Many previously government run and funded programs were eliminated. Some laws were altered considerably, others rendered extinct. Anything that even seemed like a socialist program was shut down and alternatives were brought back from the past or new ideas were proposed, yet everything was done by the cooperation of the people and voluntarily.

People were expected to think for themselves, and take responsibility for their actions. Frivolous law suites were dismissed out of hand. Only five appeals were allowed by convicted felons who were sentenced for corporal punishment, this now was considered a fair punishment nationally for certain crimes.

Many rich began to sponsor families from foreign country to immigrate to the states. The new residents were given work in lower class positions, usually farmers, servants, and child care providers for the rich.

The government reverted back to it's original state, capitalism reigned over all. Repeat criminals face more server punishments. All peoples still had equal rights, no matter what race, creed, or religion. Taxes were only to support the military, otherwise were funded in other ways or gone. Sales taxes were gone. Roads and construction were paid for by those who chose to use the new toll ways. Public transportation was altered to privately owned companies, fleets of buses and taxi's still made their routes and calls.

Our children attended a private school called the Wesleyan Academy of Classic Education or WACE. It offered everything we could ask. There was a deaf program for Charlotte, this was what brought us to it from the beginning. This school also taught, as it's regular curriculum, Latin, Greek, and Hebrew, etiquette and finishing courses for both boys and girls, and a wide array of extra curricular activities. Class sizes were small, parent involvement was high, and every teacher was well qualified and certified for their position. Preschool through grade twelve was offered, and nothing seemed lacking. I chose to home school our biological daughter through the third grade, but Charlotte began preschool as soon as she was old enough and a spot was opened.

The school mascot was a lion, their colors bright green, gray, red, and yellow. The school store provided everything from books and book bags to wardrobe from head to toe for every occasion the school offered. Everything was of the highest quality, nothing was over looked.

WACE was also a boarding school, it rendered it's boarding services to fifty per cent of it's enrolled students. Because there had not been much time since the reform, not enough private schools had been built to accommodate the number of children who had previously been educated in the public forums. As a result many upper class parents were forced to put their children in a boarding school, even if their children could come home for weekends and holidays. There wee also a number of children hosted by other parents of enrollees, kind of like foreign exchange students. The students parents paid for the tuition, clothing, travel, and spending money, but the host parents covered room and board. Will and I took in the twin sons of some friends of ours, after our own daughters were in junior high school.

Boys and girls wore their respective uniforms. Boys could wear pants or shorts, girls could wear a variety of skirts, jumpers, and skorts, but on Fridays they were allowed to wear pants or shorts if they chose. There was a vast array of cuts and styles for both genders to chose from, though the variety lessened for their physical education uniforms, outer and foot wear. The only distinguishing marks for any attendant to this school was the number of combinations they could come up with for their individual daily outfits from week to week. Some alternated between two or three sets of clothes, others seemed like they never wore the same combination twice in a month.

Our girls owned one of everything, in each color that the school store had to offer in their size, this made larger but less frequent loads of laundry, and shopping was a snap. The girls never wore the same sizes, being five years apart in age, there was no issue with knowing what items belonged to whom.

Episode Eleven: MacGregor Chronicles

In the year 2007, while Will and I were still living in Wisconsin, I read a book entitled “Rich dad, Poor dad,” by Robert Kiyosaki. I was hooked, I had to learn everything there was about investments of every kind. Real estate investing particularly interested me. From mutual funds to vacant lots, to apartment buildings. We began small, then as the money grew, we built our empire. We always kept in mind that no matter what choices we made, God was still the ruler of it all, but He guided us as well. We knew the value of giving back also, not just in funding, but in time and in every other was we could give.

Within a few years, not only were we out of debt and rebuilding our credit, but we had gained several assets and were able to work from home. Will started his radio imaging company just before going back to college for his bachelors degree in radio broadcasting. I handled our banking and investing. I took classes and went to seminars every chance I could find. I found every manner of learning that seemed directly or indirectly related to the subjects that interested me. I was not out to gain a degree or certification, just a new and better way to invest.

Over the course of these few years before we built the house, we re-entered the para-church organization that had gone on hiatus before we had moved to Wisconsin. Our goal was to eventually build a place where the leaders of the organization, and any one else who may need a break from the world, could go. It was a sort of camp, a refuge from the spiritual war that they we fight daily. Anyone could come to stay for a night, a week, how ever long they needed the break. This was not a place for conferences, classes, or pow-wow's, this would be a place for individual counsel and spiritual rehabilitation. A place to seek God, recenter, focus on Him. A place to get away from the noise of opinions and spiritual racket of every day life.

The idea of the Refuge had come to me on our way back to Wisconsin from a cousins wedding in Minnesota the spring of 2006. I saw our house on a large lot of land, with five cabins, and a small stable. Each cabin would only sleep about four people comfortably. Solitude was the aim in all of this. Will and I understood the importance of getting away from everything to find direction. God had separated us from the organization for some years to show us things that we otherwise would not have been able to understand. We knew how vital it was to every leader, and non-leader, to get away for life for a while, to get back to the basics.

When the opportunity came with the right time we found a property just outside a small town. It was a prime location, not far from the Twin Cities, the organization headquarters, and my family. The sleepy little town of Berkshire offered everything we needed, it was perfect. We bought the five acre plot of land, sectioned off an acre for our own house, then donated the rest to the organization. Other donations were made by small committees of outside contributers for the construction of the cabins. Each committee chose from one of five floor plans, and designated the interior design for their specific cabin. Everything from blue prints to furnishings were donated, it was Will and my job to manage the property. We decided what companies to hire for the grounds keeping, maintenance, and housekeeping. We never had to fix a toilet or mow the lawn, we were just middle management. The Refuge was a small part of the non-profit organization, everything was donated, and nothing was ever lacking. Many of the people who came to the Refuge gladly donated how ever much they would pay to stay in a hotel with similar accommodations. We kept track of and the donations, paid for the services and supplies we needed, then sent excess funds to the main office along with a financial report.

Episode Ten: MacGregor Chronicles

Announcing that we were finally to have children was a big event for us. Will's parents had all but lost hope in us, but my parents knew it wouldn't be much longer after we built the house. Will called his parents to tell them the news before we even had our first meeting with my midwife, despite my attempts to dissuade him. We told my parents a week later at a previously arranged dinner at my mother house. My mother expressed herself in her usual way, but I knew that her concern was less than her happiness for us. I reminded her that I would now need twice the bedding that I had asked her to make years earlier. She wondered if I still wanted the Noah's Ark patterns that I requested then or if I would want something different for each of the twins. I told her that I still wanted the Noah's Ark for one, but I would have to get back to her on if I wanted the same for both.

For the first week after we found out, Will would smother me with kisses all over my face, then my stomach. I giggled and laughed and played along. Doctors visits became routine and I grew. When I began to show, Will would slather my stomach with lotion and love on me constantly. He had the pregnancy glow almost as much as I did. He began to strut when we were out together. I shook my head and sighed. My moods would swing all over, but he held me when I cried and forgave me when I was crabby.

Some weeks later, at a doctors visit, we were informed that we were going to have one boy and one girl. From there the shopping commenced. I ordered many items on-line, I requested a few more hand made items of my mother, and the rest we shopped for on Saturdays only. I slept in the family room for a couple of nights while Will painted our front guest bedroom to turn it into a nursery. He had always bee quiet protective of me, and now he was more than ever. Every precaution was taken to the extreme, any warning the midwife brought up was enforced. I was forced to sit in the back seat of the car, not allowed to drive anywhere. He almost forbade me, at one point, to leave the main floor of the house. I consented for a while, knowing that eventually he would come to his senses, he lasted almost a week before he was too lonely in bed one night. I was waited on hand and foot, sometimes I took advantage, other times I argued. I warned him that he was going to ware himself out, then when the babies were here he wouldn't have enough energy to help. As the weeks wore, he slackened on some things because of my irritation, but with others he stood firm.

I was glad to be pregnant during the fall and winter. I was due on our anniversary, but was assured that I would probably be two or three weeks earlier. The nursery was finished by the first part of April. I was thrown two baby showers in Minnesota, one by my family, the other by our friends. My mother-in-law planned another shower for us at the end of June. Will's side didn't believe in baby showers until after the baby was born. We arranged for our friend, Carissa, to come help us for a while after our son and daughter were born. My first choice had been my mother, but she wouldn't be done with school yet. Carissa would leave her husband, Wyatt, and their ten year old son, Jake, at home, but they would come visit often. She would help mostly with house cleaning and food preparation.

In the back of my mind May 18 was the date I wanted to have my twins. It was my the date my grandfather and his twin had been born almost one hundred years earlier, it seemed right. On that very morning, I woke at five o'clock thinking I had to use the bathroom. I waddled, as all very pregnant women do, to the bathroom, groggy and blurry eyed, then a strange sensation. I was a rare, yet rather comical explosion.

“Hon. Willard.” I called. A grunt came from the far side of the bed. “Will, your children want out.” another grunt. I grabbed a towel to clean myself up a bit, remained calm, contained the mess, and got dressed. I waddled over to my beloved sleeper, shoved his shoulder over and announced that we had to go.

“What?” He was never very quick to wake.

“Your children want to escape.” I said in a firm, less calm tone.

“Children? Babies!”

I called my midwife before Will was even completely awake and she arrived no less than twenty minutes later. I was glad we had chosen to have our babies at home where I was comfortable and knew that I had all the time in the world to do things in the way I felt was best. 

Grace Abigail, our daughter, was 16 inches, 5 pounds 8ounces. Her brother Clayton Willard, was 17 inches 6 pounds 2 ounces. Both with daddies big blue eyes and thick dark eyelashes. Grace had a thick mat of dark brown hair, Clayton was bald like I had been. I was able to put a little pony tail in Graces hair before we even left the hospital. Clayton had a tiny blue and orange baseball cap that my mother had brought with her to see her new grand-babies. The appropriate calls were made a few hours after I had delivered, various people assured visits and others, like Will's parents, let us know that they were on their way.

I was so thankful, especially in those first weeks for the few books that I had read about training babies. They both, rather quickly and easily, latched onto the routine we had set up for them. Within a couple of days they were sleeping through the night and knew when it we time for what, be it feeding or sleeping. Grace was more laid back like Will. Clayton was more quirky and high strung, like me. Wills voice was everything to them. Whenever he spoke, both of the babies listened. I was glad to find that both of our children loved to snuggle. One day the four of us were sitting in the fireside room. Will with Grace and I with Clayton. All four of us had fallen asleep, both Will and I had a baby on our chest. Carissa took a picture, we used it for our Christmas greeting that year.

Episode Nine: MacGregor Chronicles

After investigating the pavilion for a bit, I walked the path to the deck, then entered the house by the back door. Will was sitting in the kitchen on a bar stool eating a sandwich when I entered.

“Hey Mister.” I greeted him.

“Hi hon.” He responded.

“This might seem silly to ask, but have you seen all of that out there?” I inquired still amazed by everything.

“I have a question.” He stated.

“Yes.”

“Are you going to be like this when we build our vacation house next year?” He asked. I stared blankly, like a deer in headlights. “I will take that as a yes, and I think you need to see a doctor.”

“I think I need a nap or something.” I agreed.

“Or something.” He repeated.

“Hey, meanie. Why don't you have trouble wrapping your brain around all of this?” I sassed.

“Because we've been planning all of this for years. Why should I be so surprised that our plans succeeded?”

“Well, I guess.”

“This has been our dream, what we have worked for for so long. The only thing we don't have now is children.”

“Yeah, why is that?” I asked.

“Because we have been working to attain all of this. So we can be home, you can take care of them and we could be financially independent.”

“But you still work.”

“I work because I love what I do. The financial aspect of it is secondary. We invest what I make and that is how we live. You write and invest, I have my recording studio.”

During this conversation I began to make myself some lunch. In spite of my choices, I decided on something simple. I had shells and cheese, spinach, chicken nuggets, and pears. This was a meal I had apparently become accustomed to in our poorer years. The only difference now was that I was able to use fresh ingredients and make everything from scratch, rather from a can or box.

“So you're saying that we have everything in order and that all we have to do now is have children?” I replied as I placed a handful of fresh spinach into a steamer.

“Yes, I guess you could say that.”

“So, what are we waiting for?” I smiled.

"Well I would suggest that you get some of those supplements you have gotten in the past and let's go ahead and try." he consented. 
Not a three months later I found myself pregnant, with twins. My midwife was a fantastic woman of great experience and wisdom. She suggested a doctor she knew for when we wanted to find out the gender of the babies; at that point though we were just happy and didn't care about gender yet. Ultimately I did want to know gender before they were born because I didn't like the idea of either girls or boys spending their first three to six months of life in gender neutral clothes. No matter what the rest of the world said, we wanted our daughters to be girls and our sons to be boys, in the trues sense of the terms.

I was thankful that because my eating habits were already good that I didn't have to change anything. I was warned about my usual exercise routine and to was eventually restricted to certain activities. Being in my thirties and carrying twins brought greater likelihood of being put on bed rest later in the pregnancy.

Episode Seven: MacGregor Chronicles

So many things had passed that I found it difficult to keep up. Every now and again I would have a flash back, that would help me to remember how I came to my present place in life. Slowly the gaps filled. Strangely though, none of the memories were negative. There had to be some things that had happened in the last sixteen years that were not so great. I knew myself too well enough to know that I don't learn the easy way. Tribulation is what eventually makes a marriage strong or tears it apart, we were impenetrable even. All of the hard times had paid off, but where were they in my memory. I dismissed this at last, believing that eventually all of my memory would fill in and I would be whole again. There were so many private jokes between us, numerous games we played in our affection. There were understandings and so many things that didn't need to be spoken, just because we knew one another that well.

I spent the greater part of Monday morning exploring our yard, all five acres of it. Much of the area was wooded and I discovered that there were eight other buildings on the lot. Among the eight were five well kept cabins, a stable, a chapel, and an other garage. There were cobbled roads and trails everywhere through out the estate, with a nine foot cast iron fence about the perimeter. The main gate where we had entered the night before had two great stone pillars on either side of the drive, and a large metal “M” for MacGregor in the middle. There was an intercom for visitors and a key pad for us on the other side for opening the gates upon arrival. Once on the other side of the gate you had the choice of heading straight to the main house or you could go either right or left. Turning to the left would bring you past three cabins, evenly spaced apart, with parking and foot paths between them. Each cabin was different, but all were of about the same size. Turning to the right would take you to two more cabins, then a small stable with a shed on the back. Between the cabins on the right and those on the left was a wooded space about as big as two football fields, with a couple of foot paths dividing each of them and a driving path between the two sections. Everything looked well planned and neatly kept. The three roads all came together on a lane before the main house, and a ten port parking area was at the back of the main carport. Two octagons, one just the inside of the main gate and the other directly before the main house were connected by the center drive.

Beyond the extra parking area was a hill with a small chapel at the summit. The back yard of the main house was a flat grassy yard, wide and long. From the top of the hill I could see the whole yard, a lot of trees, and my house. On the back of the house was a sizable deck with an above ground pool at one end. The pool was set exactly outside our kitchen window. Also on the deck was a large table with comfortable looking chairs and an umbrella. A red stone path from the bottom of the stair down from the deck, ended at a twenty by twenty foot pavilion. The floor of the pavilion was of the same red stone as the path from the deck. The structure was of sturdy metal with an attractive olive colored cloth covering the top and sides. The wall cloth could be pulled back and tied like curtains, or pulled together by hidden zippers to completely enclose the square. In the middle of the pavilion was a footed fire pit, with table edges around it. There were also tables and chairs, a small wet bar in one corner, and a couple of chase lounges. It was not crowded, but comfortable and relaxing.

Episode Twenty three: MacGregor Chronicles

I finished the first book of my own writings, then looked at the clock to find that it was going on four thirty in the afternoon. Small wonder that I was so hungry, I had missed lunch all together and it was almost dinner time. I entered the kitchen moments later only to see my darling husband already working on dinner.

“There you are,” he greeted me, “come here I need a hug.” He wrapped his arms around me and squeezed, I responded likewise.

“What are you making?” I asked.

“The same thing we've always made as our first meal in a new place, spaghetti and meatballs, and French bread with cheese.”

“That's right, we couldn't have it last night because of the party so now we're here.”

“Sounds like you have everything in order again.” he responded.

I smiled and nodded, “I'm getting there. Thankfully I have you to keep me sane in the weird transitions of life.”

“That's my girl.” Willard said, kissing my forehead.

“You know what?” I asked.

“You love me?” he answered.

“You know this game?” I laughed, “You know what else?”

“I'm cute.” he laughed back.

“You do know this game!” Yet another joke or game between us that I had to rediscover and it was fun. I looked at me as a man who was completely head over feet in love. I smiled, then almost cried.

“Oh no, what's wrong hon?” he asked as he put his arms around me again.

“Everything is just so perfect. The house, our life, you. I couldn't possibly be happier or ask for more.” I cried. He laughed and gave me an extra little squeeze before letting me go. He had to attend to the pasta water at this point, and I had to wipe my eyes.

“Hey,I got a bottle of your favorite wine to go with dinner.”

“You did? You really are the best.” I smiled, then kissed his lips.

“I have everything under control here. Do you want to set the table?” he suggested.

“Sure. What do you say to christening the China?” I inquired.

“I wouldn't have it any other way.”

“Better and better.”

Dinner tasted great and the conversation was wonderful. He told me about his newest project and I let him in on my having spent the day reading my old journals. We laughed and everything seemed very normal. It was as though we had always been this way, and we had lived in this house forever. This was the start of many new things for us, the opening of another chapter to our lives. It seemed strange though that for the first time we were celebrating our final move and the anniversary of the first day we met on the same day. For dessert we had chocolate chip mint ice cream, as was our tradition for the day we met. This had been my choice of treat at the social where we were introduced.

As we cleaned up the kitchen after dinner and dessert, we had yet another one of our famous conversations that helped to build our marriage into the fortress that it had become. To add to all of this Will turned on some Frank Sinatra for them to dance to when they finished up. Over the years it had been Willard's thing to sing along with old blue eyes for my entertainment. When I was down or for the sake of celebrating our good fortune, Will and Frank would sing for me.