The trunk of shame

It was August and our baby girl was due to be born at any time.  Because of our past failures both in IVF and a previous adoption, we hadn't told many people about this opportunity.  We were much too scared it would blow up in our faces.  We tried to continue on with our lives as usual which included a camping trip in the mountains and a wedding in Flin Flon.  We were on call at all times and constantly checked our cell phones to make sure they had a signal and that the batteries weren't dead.  We had learned the hard way that when you purchase items in anticipation of an adoption, it is much too hard to decide what to do with them when it doesn't work out.  Because of this, we had only purchased a car seat and had borrowed a few sleepers from a close friend who knew our "secret".  Those items were stored in the trunk of our car so we could head straight to Winnipeg from where ever we were at the time.  But it was awkward.  What if someone opened up the trunk?  By now everyone knew of our struggles to have a baby....and everyone knew I obviously was not pregnant.  We had come to the conclusion that if someone were to see those items, they would assume that we were preparing to kidnap a baby.  Because of this, we made sure no one came near our car during the camping trip or the wedding.  In hindsight, we hid it as if we were embarrassed to assume we had a chance.  We later joked that it was our "trunk of shame."