Miss Bernie

We discussed the possibility of opening another operation in a new area. There was a new medical plaza under construction on the other side of town. It was going to be huge, with a major hospital as an anchor. We explored the neighboring area and found an ideal place on the main road leading to the plaza. It was another motel. A bit larger than the first Day Care Center and we had it checked out by our advisors. Using our highly successful business for collateral, we were able to buy the place and renovate it. It would be about half again larger than the original day care.

We had thought that staffing was going to be a major problem but it turned out that our reputation was so good that as soon as word got out we were hiring, we had waiting lists of both staff and children. We didn't know that the fact that we were opening in that convenient location was being used as a selling point for the medical businesses in the plaza when they were hiring their own staff.

There were many new Doctor's offices under construction and they and their employees we were on our waiting lists. We accelerated our preparations and had new hires training at the old facility. It looked as if we would be at seventy-five percent capacity when we opened the doors.

Janie and I found we were busier than ever. I sat my wife down one evening and told her I wanted her to have my babies. I thought we were getting too enmeshed in the businesses and that we were both at the ideal age to start a family, if that was what she wanted. She laughed and told me she had gone off the pill a month ago.

I giggled and said, "Why didn't you tell me? I haven't even been aimin'."

"You had better start aiming because I should be ovulating now."

"Damn girl! Call us in sick for the next two or three days, we got work to do." Two weeks later her OB/GYN doctor verified what the IPTs had been telling us, Janie was pregnant. I laughed, "What are we going to tell people?"