Luke's Labor

This one is Luke’s labor. From the beginning he knew it would be – he wanted it to be. Maybe he was envious of my pregnancy and three-day labor. He has definitely outdone me, though, with his three-year labor. He has tirelessly filled out, kept up with and had notarized an enormous pile of paperwork—it has overflowed from our original three-inch, three-ring binder. It’s the kind of thing that makes my head hurt. I’d much rather seize up with contractions than keep all those I-600s, I-171Hs, I-184s, visa applications, …. Straight. Just last night, he was up sitting at the dining room table (spread thick and thoroughly with papers) sorting through, checking dates and locating missing pieces while I played with Henry on the bed. He discourages me from even looking at the lists as they are all so overwhelming (I know this because I have looked but don’t tell Luke because I really think I’d just mess things up if I got involved. I mean, really, he’s doing a Great Job and it’s like having too many cooks in the kitchen, right?). Well, all this is to say that I owe him a lot and he’s certainly put in enough labor to match mine with Henry. I may even consider it enough labor to match a year of breastfeeding, too. Well, then again…