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“Yay!” she cries, her favorite phrase for anything happy these days. Everyone laughs, as she rips the present open. Throwing pink tissue paper in the air, she picks up a little T-shirt. I help her hold it up, while Ethan narrows his eyes to read the printed message on it. My stomach is in knots, as he reads the words aloud.
“World’s Best Big Sister,” he says. It takes him a moment to process, but the minute everyone starts cheering and hollering their congratulations, he turns to me, Lilly Belle locked between us. “Are you serious?” he whispers.
“Heck yes, I’m serious. That would be a super weird joke,” I whisper back in reply. “So get ready for baby number two. Congratulations, Daddy.” Noting the blend of shock and pure joy in his eyes, I hug my husband using all the positive energy my heart can muster forth.
“You hear that, Silly Belle?” Ethan’s glossy eyes turn to his tiny girl. “You’re going to be a big sister. Mommy has a baby inside her.” He rubs my tiny baby bump that’s not even showing yet at ten weeks.
“Baby?” she questions. When we both nod and drop her a notch to kiss my belly, she raises her fist in the air and cries, “Baby, yay!”
I laugh so hard, I’m crying. Or maybe I’m crying because I’ve never been filled with so much happiness all at once. My mother and father are crying, my little sisters are crying…hell, I think even Wilson’s crying. “Yay!” I echo her enthusiasm and kiss my husband before turning and taking a family photo.
Yes, it’s all real, I think, still in shock sometimes myself.
Life is strange, and miracles do, in fact, happen.
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