Our "engagement"... what really happened. Part 4

Part 1
Part 2
Part 3

I thought I was done with this "series," but it has come to my attention that I haven't finished it completely. 

Questions are being asked.
How did the girls react to moving?
How did the kids find out we were married?
How did they react to that?
Why did we stop keeping it a secret?

Valid questions, indeed.

West is excited for this story to be told.  The part where we finally decide to let the cat out of the bag, it's a good one.

Moving, again, was a challenge for us.  The girls had yet to attend the same school two grades in a row.  When I bought my house I foolishly made the promise to them that this was it.  We had a home and we weren't moving again.  They made friends.  They visited neighbors.  They loved it.

After West and I got married I started breaking the news to them slowly.  Saying things like, "wouldn't it be nice to not have to make this drive?"
"Wouldn't it be fun to live with Jayme and Sean?"
And they all agreed.  When I finally told them that we were indeed moving to West's home three of my girls were excited.  They could see that it would be better that way.

Brynn, however, did not.  That girl does not like change.  She likes things a certain way, in a certain order, and if it changes...
she melts down.

Moving?  Again?  But you promised we wouldn't.

I have not made that promise since.  How could I?  Life changes. 

It took Brynn a few weeks, but she eventually came around.  Before you feel too sorry for her, she had friends coming over to the house to play after school on her very first day after the move.  She found her groove immediately.

She hasn't looked back since.  Very often anyway.

In the month it took us to prep my house to move out of it, we were also prepping West's house for us to move in to it.  We turned a big basement room into a bedroom for the three older girls.  This meant painting and building a triple bunk bed.  It also meant moving Jayme out her current room and prepping that room for the two younger girls. 

There was a lot of chaos for a very long time.

A very long time. 

As far as the kids finding out we were married... I handled it like I would handle the question "is Santa real?"  On an individual basis as they thought to ask.

My mom found out during a phone conversation.  I can't even remember what was said but she asked me something and I hesitated...

"Did you get married without me?"

Our one year anniversary came and we couldn't even celebrate it "out loud."

Carrying a secret like that gets heavy.  And it isn't very much fun.  I wanted to claim my man.

Our decision to fully let the secret out came down to one conversation:

One day West's ex tells him that it would be nice if I started to use my real last name instead of his last name.  She claimed to be getting my mail.  First of all, what business is it of hers what name I use?  But since we're on the subject, and since you've so kindly brought it up...
"My last name is her last name.  We're married.  Perhaps, to avoid confusion, you should use your last name and not mine."
The thing is, I could really go off on this story.  But his response was so spot on perfect.  She tries to call me out for not having the right to use his last name when in reality it's her who doesn't have the right to it any longer.

Do "ex" stories get any better?

As it was, now that his ex was armed with the information that we were indeed married, we felt we had better just tell everyone.  We felt it would be better for us if our family and friends heard the news from us, and not through the grapevine because of her.

And then there was the kids.  Jayme and Sean.  We needed them to know from us, not her.  So we called a family meeting and sat down with all six kids and told them that we were married.  And that we were a family.

The response was overwhelming.  They literally cheered and clapped.  And then, as most things go in our house, we erupted into a giant family wrestling match right there on the TV room floor.

Then we started making phone calls.

And then we turned to facebook.  Because nothing's official until it's posted on facebook, right?

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