I Met Her Online

Everything is planned. She had all she needed and the flight was only two hours long. She could do this. She glanced down at her newly crawling 10 month old as he wiggled in her arms. It was his first flight and she was nervous about how he’d react.

“Nurse him at take off and landing,” she reminded herself, “It’ll help with pressure changes.”

What was she doing? She had known this friend for years and while they had never met they had more in common than most of the people she had met. Still, though, they met online over 3 years ago on a small message board like Mothers’ Hideaway. They struggled together for years, as they watched each not be able to get pregnant or stay pregnant. They knew each others’ menstrual cycles. They knew when the other was gettin’ jiggy with their husbands. They shared secrets they hadn’t told anyone else…that they still haven’t told anyone else. They were more than online friends, they were real friends, they were confidants, they were sisters.

And yet, they had never met….until today.

She turned on the Baby Einstein video she had brought “just in case”, and as she watches the colors and shapes flash across the screen she remembers how in the beginning she and her friend were nothing more than screen names and faceless words. She thought about the late nights where their keyboards spoke to each other through the years of struggles. She thought about those many miscarriages she had to endure to get the squirming blessing she was holding in her arms. It was amazing how after so many years and months of trying she and her friend had gotten pregnant together and both now had two beautiful little boys born only seven weeks apart from each other. (It was supposed to be two, but she had hers over a month early).

As the plane landed she held her nursing baby and smiled as he dozed in the comfort of her arms. Her heart began to race a bit faster and she felt panic. Too late now. She was here for 4 days. She carried the baby off of the plane and strolled through the small airport the polar opposite of where she had just come from. She was nervous and didn’t know if it was excitment or fear so she went into the bathroom so should could stall for time.

“What if she hates me? What if we can’t handle each others little quirks? What if I’m embarrassing to her? How are we going to tell people we know each other? Do we admit it was from a mommy board on the internet?”

She changed a dirty diaper, freshened up her make up, and stepped out into the terminal again. She exchanged text messages full of “Woohoo! Dirty hooker, I’m here!” and “Woohoo! Baby butt, I can’t figure out where to park!” Finally, after three years of friendship, a combined total of 6 pregnancies and two beautiful healthy baby boys, they met face to face for the very first time.

And it was as if though the had known each other all of their lives and with a hug they were back to their old routine.

“Where’s your bag, hooch?”

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This post is linked up to Shell’s “Pour Your Heart Out” and Mama Kat’s “Writing Workshop”