Meet the Haynes'

When you are a young girl and dream about getting married, it's only natural to dream that your new in-laws are going to like you. Now imagine getting married to someone while living in a foreign country. Neither of you gets to meet the others' families until after you are married. I remember flying home from Spain with Dan to meet the new families. Talk about nervous. With a total of fifteen hours of flying time to think about this special day, there was nothing to be nervous about, right? HA!

Dan told me about every member of his family; what they liked, didn't like, what drove them crazy, how to understand them, etc. The brothers and sisters didn't worry me, but the parents did. This was a big first impression I had to make. I made the decision to take Dan's advice to heart and try to be myself... yeah, right!

We met at the airport, with lots of hugs and hellos. I just met my new mother-in-law and father-in-law. They seemed so nice. Guess all that worry was for nothing. I remember watching Dad's face in the mirror as he drove. I saw him watching me at the red lights. Mom was watching me in the side mirror. What's wrong with that? I married their oldest son and they wanted to know everything about me. When we pulled in the driveway of the house on Highpoint, everything Dan told me about how to act was going through my mind. God, please don't let me mess this up.

I heard Dan say his Grandfather was coming, be ready. Ready? For what? My car door opened and a hand reached in to help me out of the car. It was Grandpa Haynes. He said hello and hugged me. We then proceeded to dance in the driveway! Waltz! What a funny guy! Wow, that relaxed me! Now for the rest of the family...

Mom immediately asked if I wanted something to eat. I was way too nervous, but thanked her anyway. The first brother I remember meeting was Brian. Cute, crazy, great smile...just like Dan told me. As Brian hugged me I saw Brad over in the kitchen. He looked scared to death, like I was feeling. He came over, introduced himself as Bradley, "but you can call me Brad". He had smiling eyes and I liked him immediately. Running in from the living room came this little girl who flew up into her big brothers arms: enter DD. She was so little and so funny. This whole family had the best smiles. I think I'm gonna like them. As we were walking into the living room, I met Grandma Haynes. The first thing she whispered in my ear was "don't be nervous, we don't bite. Thank you for taking care of our Danny."

I have to admit, on that day I saw the worlds ugliest, cutest dog, Mooloo? What was it? Was it really a dog? It was so ugly it was cute! I saw a door open at the top of the stairs and this cat came floating out. Yes, I said floating. I don't think it really stepped on the steps to come downstairs, it kind of just "floated". After the cat came another brother, Willie. He didn't look like the other guys. He smiled, hugged me and went back to his room. He had me wondering...

We took our luggage in and tried to settle in a bit. I was still too nervous to even go to the bathroom. By now everyone was in the kitchen, the heartbeat of activity for this family. Dad was at the end of the table and Mom was cooking something already! I asked if I could help her, but she said to just relax and get to know everybody. Heck, I could barely keep track of every ones name! Later I met Mary and Steve. Dan told me he and Mary were pretty close. She kept watching me, like a sister would, but just like the rest of them, had this really great smile. He husband Steve, now he was crazy! He had long hair, but not in a grungy way. He was so cool. He had everyone laughing all the time. When he hugged me hello he said, "if you need help with names, let me know, I've been through this already". He made me feel relaxed instantly. There was some commotion to which I heard "Pam is here!" In came Bill, Pam, a kid in a baseball cap who I later learned was Craig, and the most beautiful big eyed little girl, Colleen. She was Dan's God Daughter.

That night while we were all in the kitchen laughing at Steve and Brian I kept watching Mom in the kitchen. She never really sat down...or left the kitchen. She had such a look of peace on her face. Her son was home. She had a new daughter-in-law, and from all signs I was doing OK in her eyes. The jet lag was catching up with us so we were finally heading to bed. Now that's a weird feeling... when their son left, he was single and never had a girl in his room. Now he was home with his wife. We got into bed and Dan just cracked up laughing. "I'm in bed with a female and my parents are right across the hall!" I reminded him that the female was his wife and it was OK. He held me close, looked me in the eyes, and I blurted out "don't even think about it!" We slept well that night, that first night meeting my new family.