you feeling?” I ask Emma, placing the flowers I bought for her on the table to the side, and the pink elephant I bought for Sophie in her hospital crib.
“Thank you,” she says, indicating the gifts I brought. “I’m OK. Just worn out. How about you, daddy? How are you holding up?”
I run my hand over the downy soft hair on my daughter’s head. “I’m feeling on top of the world. I have a beautiful wife, and a beautiful daughter. Life is perfect.”
After finding out that I wasn’t excommunicated, everything in my life began to fall in place. I began working at the youth center, and I even took classes at the community college to get my counseling credentials so we could add a counseling service at the center that could integrate my skills learned as a priest with professional skills to guide troubled kids down the right path. It’s a rewarding job, even when it’s hard, and I love going to work each day.
Six months after I proposed to Emma by the pool, we were married in a double ceremony alongside Victor and Jules. The sisters were closer than ever, and after everything they and their family had been through, it was beautiful to have them standing together at the front of the church their family had always been a part of, starting the first day of their happily ever after together. The church was packed with everyone they’d known, Victor’s friends and family, as well as mine. My mother was overjoyed that I was no longer a priest, and my sister was her usual supportive self – her daughters were our flower girls and looked adorable in their pale pink dresses as they adorned the aisle with rose petals.
Together, the sisters now run their father’s company with a team of professionals to guide them every step of the way. They felt that it was important to keep his vision alive – even though the need for a son to carry on his name was a little misguided in this day and age as both his daughters were more than capable of continuing his work, both with degrees in engineering. I think he’d be really proud if he could see them now. They’re both so strong and sure of themselves. Emma in particular is a far cry from the quiet withdrawn woman I met all those years ago. Now she’s a vibrant young woman who smiles easily and lives her life to the fullest.
When we discovered that we were pregnant, we’d been married for almost two years, and were both overjoyed at the prospect of having a family together. But, living in the small apartment in Middletown definitely wasn’t going to be big enough for three. So, we began to look for houses in Newport, and as luck would have it, Emma’s beachfront family home had been put on the market. It seemed like fate. It seemed like the work of God. We made an offer and moved in right away, pleased when we found the old marks in the cupboard of the nursery that measured Emma’s and Jules’s height as they aged.
“What do you think of your little cousin, Brent?” Jules asks her son as he chews noisily on the candy I gave him.
The little boy peers at Sophie’s face, her eyes closed now that she’s finished feeding and is sleeping in Emma’s arms. “Does she do anything?” he asks, his tiny brow pinching together as he studies the sleeping babe.
“Eventually, she’ll drive you crazy,” laughs Victor, scruffing the shiny hair on his son’s head.
Brent begins to pull faces, showing us his craziest expression to entertain us. For a while we talk and take family pictures then Victor and Jules take Brent home, leaving Emma and I so Emma can rest.
“She’s absolutely beautiful,” Jules says again before she leaves, and we thank her as I sit on the bed with Emma and look down at our sleeping daughter.
“Do you want to hold her?” Emma asks, offering our tiny bundle to me. “I feel like I’m hogging her.”
“She needs her mommy, you’re not hogging her at all,” I say, pressing a kiss to her forehead and noticing the dark circles under her eyes. I
“Thank you,” she says, indicating the gifts I brought. “I’m OK. Just worn out. How about you, daddy? How are you holding up?”
I run my hand over the downy soft hair on my daughter’s head. “I’m feeling on top of the world. I have a beautiful wife, and a beautiful daughter. Life is perfect.”
After finding out that I wasn’t excommunicated, everything in my life began to fall in place. I began working at the youth center, and I even took classes at the community college to get my counseling credentials so we could add a counseling service at the center that could integrate my skills learned as a priest with professional skills to guide troubled kids down the right path. It’s a rewarding job, even when it’s hard, and I love going to work each day.
Six months after I proposed to Emma by the pool, we were married in a double ceremony alongside Victor and Jules. The sisters were closer than ever, and after everything they and their family had been through, it was beautiful to have them standing together at the front of the church their family had always been a part of, starting the first day of their happily ever after together. The church was packed with everyone they’d known, Victor’s friends and family, as well as mine. My mother was overjoyed that I was no longer a priest, and my sister was her usual supportive self – her daughters were our flower girls and looked adorable in their pale pink dresses as they adorned the aisle with rose petals.
Together, the sisters now run their father’s company with a team of professionals to guide them every step of the way. They felt that it was important to keep his vision alive – even though the need for a son to carry on his name was a little misguided in this day and age as both his daughters were more than capable of continuing his work, both with degrees in engineering. I think he’d be really proud if he could see them now. They’re both so strong and sure of themselves. Emma in particular is a far cry from the quiet withdrawn woman I met all those years ago. Now she’s a vibrant young woman who smiles easily and lives her life to the fullest.
When we discovered that we were pregnant, we’d been married for almost two years, and were both overjoyed at the prospect of having a family together. But, living in the small apartment in Middletown definitely wasn’t going to be big enough for three. So, we began to look for houses in Newport, and as luck would have it, Emma’s beachfront family home had been put on the market. It seemed like fate. It seemed like the work of God. We made an offer and moved in right away, pleased when we found the old marks in the cupboard of the nursery that measured Emma’s and Jules’s height as they aged.
“What do you think of your little cousin, Brent?” Jules asks her son as he chews noisily on the candy I gave him.
The little boy peers at Sophie’s face, her eyes closed now that she’s finished feeding and is sleeping in Emma’s arms. “Does she do anything?” he asks, his tiny brow pinching together as he studies the sleeping babe.
“Eventually, she’ll drive you crazy,” laughs Victor, scruffing the shiny hair on his son’s head.
Brent begins to pull faces, showing us his craziest expression to entertain us. For a while we talk and take family pictures then Victor and Jules take Brent home, leaving Emma and I so Emma can rest.
“She’s absolutely beautiful,” Jules says again before she leaves, and we thank her as I sit on the bed with Emma and look down at our sleeping daughter.
“Do you want to hold her?” Emma asks, offering our tiny bundle to me. “I feel like I’m hogging her.”
“She needs her mommy, you’re not hogging her at all,” I say, pressing a kiss to her forehead and noticing the dark circles under her eyes. I
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