We’re a family.
He’s our son and we’re his parents and none of this would have been possible without you.
As soon as Graham released me, I told him I needed to write this email. I want Matteo to know that not only does he have a mother and father in me and Graham, but he has an extra mother and father who care for him as deeply as we do. A biological mother who cares enough for him that she sacrificed her own happiness to see him have a life that she, for whatever reasons, felt she was unable to give him at the time of his birth.
We would love for you to meet him someday. Feel free to call us at the number below, or email us if you’d prefer. We would be honored to finally have the opportunity to thank you in person.
I’ve attached some photos of him. He’s the happiest little boy I know and I can’t wait for him to become a significant part of both of your lives.
Thank you for our miraculous gift.
Sincerely,
Quinn, Graham, and Matteo Wells
We hug.
We hug and we cry. So hard.
Chapter Six
I don’t even know how to describe this moment Six and I are sharing. It’s the best thing that’s ever happened to me. I don’t know that I’ve ever cried tears of happiness. I don’t know that I’ve ever seen Six cry so hard while laughing. We’re just a big, stupid mess and it feels really, really phenomenal.
Every time I start to speak, we cry. Every time she starts to speak, we cry. We can’t even talk and it’s been five minutes since we finished the email.
We keep waiting for the attachments to load on my phone, but they’re taking forever, so Six grabs her laptop. I log in to my email and hit download.
When the first picture loads, there isn’t even enough air in the room to fill our collective gasps.
He looks just like me.
But he also looks just like her.
It’s so weird and amazing, seeing this life we created and it somehow makes me feel even closer to her.
“Oh my God,” she whispers. “He’s perfect.”
“Scroll down,” I say, too impatient to wait for more of him now that we got this small glimpse of him. We open up every picture. We zoom in on his features. He has Six’s mouth and my eyes and a headful of brown hair.
We even zoom in on his surroundings. It looks like he has a big backyard. A whole playset he’s still too little to use. There are five pictures total, and after we look at them each twenty times, I say, “We should call them.”
Six nods. “Yes.” She clenches her stomach. “I’m so nervous.”
“Me too. Me too, babe.”
She sits on the edge of her bed and I stand and pace while I dial the number Quinn listed in the email. I put it on speaker and when it starts ringing, I sit down next to Six.
“This is Graham.”
“Hi. Hey, it’s me. Daniel. We just got your wife’s email.” I feel like I should say more. Like thank you or we love you or can we come meet him tonight?
“Great,” Graham says. “Let me grab Quinn.”
The line goes quiet and Six and I look at each other nervously. Then a woman says, “Hi. This is Quinn. Is this Six and Daniel?”
“Yes,” we both say at once. “Thank you,” Six blurts out. She’s crying, but also smiling bigger than I’ve ever seen her smile. “Thank you so much. He’s so perfect. We’re so happy to see him so happy. Thank you.” She covers her own mouth so she’ll stop talking.
Quinn laughs. “Thank you,” she says softly. “I meant every word.”
“Where do you guys live?” I ask. “Are you still in Italy?”
“Oh. No, I forgot to mention that in the email. We moved back to Connecticut a few months ago. We wanted to be closer to Graham’s parents.”
“So Matteo is here? In the same country?”
“Yep.”
Six wipes at her eyes. “And you really don’t mind if we meet him?”
“We would love that. But we know very little about either of you. Could you tell us a little about yourselves first? Where do you live?”
“We both go to college in Dallas,” I say. “Six wants to be a psychologist.”
“Psychiatrist,” Six corrects between tears.
“Something that ends in ist,” I say. “I don’t know what I want to be yet. We’re both freshmen, so we’re figuring things out as we go.”
“And you’re a couple? Still?”
“Yes. Well, we weren’t technically a couple until after the baby was adopted. But we are now.”
“I love that,” Quinn says.
“Daniel is the best,” Six says. “You’ll love him.” She looks at me and smiles. I squeeze her hand.
“You’ll love Six more.”
“I already love you both because of what you’ve given us,” Quinn says. “Well, we know you guys are dying to meet him, but we don’t want you to miss too much college. We would say come next weekend, but we’d like you to be able to stay more than just a day or two. How does Christmas break sound? It’s just a few weeks away.”