***
Thirty minutes later, the door to the waiting room opened and the doctor came in, apologizing to him for their haste. Both Angelina’s and the baby’s blood pressure had dropped, signifying they were both in distress and she had had no choice but to perform an emergency cesarean. “Would you like to meet your baby?” she asked.
“Yes, and how is my wife?” he asked in response.
“She’s awake, because we had the IVs in, we gave her a local instead of general anesthesia. Come with me and I’ll take you to her.”
He followed the doctor down the hallway, his heart hammering in his chest. He had continued to pray after they took Angelina, not knowing what was going on, just knowing she was in capable hands. Entering the recovery room, he saw her laying there, a bundle all swaddled in her arms. Seeing him, she smiled, her whole face lighting up, as she said, “Want to meet your youngest daughter?”
A girl he thought. Thank You, God. Out loud, he asked, “And how are mommy and baby doing?”
“Mommy is higher than a kite thanks to the great medicines she has onboard in her IV, baby girl seems to be just fine as well, weighing in at a whopping nine pounds despite being a few weeks early!”
“And her name, Cherub?”
“What do you think about Merri Noelle Morgan?”
Looking down at the tiny face curled next to his wife’s breast, he thought about her suggestion. “I like it, Cherub. I like it a lot. Welcome to the world, Merri Noelle, I’m your Daddy,” he said as he gently picked up and cradled the sleeping baby. “Wait until your big brothers and sisters see you.” Sitting carefully on the side of the bed, he cuddled his wife and quietly prayed over them, thanking God for no real complications and asking for a quick recovery.
***
Finally in her room and settled, Zeke went and got the rest of the kids, who were waiting out in the waiting room with Dex and Renda, along with Preacher and Eva and their kids. He was humbled that his Brothers and their families had come out on Christmas Day no less to bear witness to his family’s addition. Standing up in front of them, he said, “She’s doing well, will be out of commission for a few weeks while the stitches heal, but she and the baby are both fine. Thank you all for coming, it means more than you’ll ever know.”
“It’s what family does, Brother,” Preacher called out. “Now, you gonna tell us what the baby’s name is?”
“Give me a few, Preach, we want to tell the kids first and I’m going to take them in now, yeah?”
With that, he picked up the twins and walked back down to his wife’s room, the teens trailing behind with silly grins on their faces. Opening her door, he saw her sitting up with the baby and carried the girls over to her bedside. Carefully setting them down and with the boys on the other side, he said, “Say hello to your baby sister, Merri Noelle.”
Epilogue
Ten Years Later
Thad looked around the reception hall, his eyes falling on his parents as they swayed to the music. He grinned thinking about the past ten years and how much joy was now in all their lives, thanks to Angelina. Instead of being an only child, he now had five sisters and three brothers, some through birth and the rest through adoption, but he didn’t care one bit. The crazy, chaotic, loving environment he had lived in as a teen and a young adult until he finally went off to college had pointed him in the direction he wanted to follow career-wise and he was now the youngest principal at the local Christian school. Glancing to his right, he saw his beautiful bride, Amelia. It had been a challenging ten years for them, both committed to honoring their beliefs and having friends thinking the worst, but as he told her, it really only mattered to them and God, no one else. While he was a bit nervous about the night ahead, he knew they would have fun figuring things out and he was grateful that his dad had been the role model he was to him.
He heard, “Bubba? Bubba come dance with me!” and felt a tug on his sleeve. Looking over, he saw Cailyn, now fourteen, standing there. “Come dance, Bubba! They’re playing our song!” He tuned into what was playing and burst out laughing. “We Are Family” was blaring, their “family song” and he grinned all the way to the dance floor, even as Jonas pulled Amelia up to get her out there, telling her that she was now part of the family so she was required to dance.
***
Later that night, much, much later, he padded into the kitchen for something to drink, grateful that they had chosen to come to the cabin for a few days. Grabbing his phone, he sent off a text to his dad that simply said, “Thanks, Dad, for teaching me about being a man. I’m glad we waited. Love you, Thad.”
About the Author
Darlene is a transplanted Yankee, moving from upstate New York when she was a teenager. She lives with the brat-cat pack and a small muffin dog, all rescues, as she plots and plans who will get to “talk” next!
Find me on Facebook!
https://www.facebook.com/darlenetallmanauthor
Want to read my first book, “Bountiful Harvest”? You can get it here:
http://mybook.to/BountifulHarvest
And my second book, “His Firefly”, which released 11/3/16:
http://myBook.to/HisFirefly
And my third book, “His Christmas Pixie”, which released 11/30/16:
http://myBook.to/HisChristmasPixie
Her Kinsman-Redeemer Page 21
