She unfolded the letter and pulled a photograph from the thin sheaf of pages. Paul came up beside her and peered over her shoulder. Two bright pairs of eyes smiled at them from the glossy snapshot. There was Justin, his black springs of hair defying a new close-cropped haircut, a broad smile on his pudgy face. His arms were wrapped possessively around a beautiful little girl. She wore a frilly red dress that framed her dark face with lace and ribbons. She had chubby arms and legs, and one of her booties had fallen off revealing tiny, fat, perfect toes. Her hair was lighter than Justin’s—heathery shades of brown—but it grew in tight spiraled ringlets like her brother’s. Her wide smile matched his, except hers was toothless and full of bubbles.
This is my baby girl!
Anna leaned heavily against the table, her heart beating rapidly. She felt light-headed. She leaned back against her husband and gazed at the picture. Trembling, she smoothed the creases in Tanya’s letter and held it up for Paul to read with her.
She felt his arms tighten around her, and through a wavering curtain of tears, she began to read. She could almost hear Tanya’s deep resonant voice speak the words that filled the page in the young mother’s elegant handwriting.
March 19
Dear Anna,
You can see how quickly Anna Grace is growing. She weighs almost fourteen pounds now, and in spite of being so chubby, she’s quite the little acrobat! She rocks back and forth on her tummy until she gets wedged in the corner of her crib, then she cries for us to rescue her. I had a little step stool by the bed so Justin could watch her, but when we found him hanging over the crib rail trying to pick her up one morning, we had to hide the stool away! Two little ones are keeping me on my toes more than I ever imagined, but I’m loving every minute of it.
We still can scarcely believe the unexpected blessing little Anna has been in our lives, Daniel and I stand by her crib before we go to bed each night and marvel at the way she came to be here. Oh, Anna, I hope you and Paul know how right you were to give this little girl life! She is a marvelous answer to our prayers—prayers we’d barely begun to voice yet—and we thank the Lord every minute for bringing her—and you—into our lives!
Justin loves Anna fiercely and will hardly let anyone else near her. And she lights up whenever he comes into a room—kicks her feet and grins from ear to ear. Already she seems to know that he is someone special. I am so grateful that he will grow up having a little sister to love and that she will grow up having the big brother I never had. I guess every little girl longs for an older brother (unless she has one, Mom would say! Ha ha!)
Anna smiled, remembering Emma’s stories of three older brothers who tormented her mercilessly. Emma had become such a dear friend. Anna marveled at the way the barriers had come down between them. It seemed strange that they’d once felt uncomfortable with their differences. Through the pain of the past months, Emma had been an anchor for Anna, and now, she was a precious tie to the child Anna had borne. It comforted her to think of Emma rocking the baby, giving her the loving attention only a grandmother could.
Anna finished Tanya’s letter, then sat down at the table to read it through again. In her matter-of-fact way, Tanya had given Anna all the little details that a mother longed to know. The baby was happy and healthy. Little Anna was loved beyond anything she and Paul could have hoped for. The circumstances of her birth were no longer of any consequence. Only the joy she had brought this little family mattered now. Only the blessing remained.
Silently Anna handed the letter to Paul, and with the photograph in hand, she stood and went into the kitchen. He followed her and watched as she tucked the photo in a corner of the bulletin board on the wall beside the phone. She could hardly wait to show it to the girls. Kara and Kassi would both be home for a weekend visit soon.
Anna glanced at the calendar that hung in the center of the corkboard. Its precise squares were filled once again with meetings and appointments, social events, and her busy class schedule. She even had a lunch date with Maggie Ryan. She held firmly to the hope that the rift in her friendship with Maggie could yet be mended.
Yes, the calendar was full, and their lives had resumed a comforting sense of normalcy. They were healing—slowly they were healing—and life was becoming rich and fulfilling again.
Her eyes fell on today’s date: March 21.
“Oh, Paul,” Anna breathed, pointing to the date.
Exactly one year ago today, she had lain wounded and violated in a dark Orlando alley. If they’d known on that day the cross they would be asked to carry, Anna wasn’t sure they could have gone on. But now, in God’s perfect timing, Tanya’s letter had arrived, confirming His goodness, His grace, and most of all, His redeeming power. God had turned the tribulation of the past year into something beautiful. He had given them beauty for ashes, the oil of joy for mourning. He had been glorified. And they would never be the same.
Paul pulled her again into his embrace, and Anna heard the emotion in his voice. “We did the right thing, didn’t we, Anna?” It was almost a whisper.
She fell into her husband’s arms and wept for joy.
“To appoint unto them that mourn…to give unto them beauty for ashes, the oil of joy for mourning, the garment of praise for the spirit of heaviness; that they might be called trees of righteousness, the planting of the Lord, that he might be glorified” (Isaiah 61:3).
About the Author
DEBORAH RANEY dreamed of writing a book since the summer she read Laura Ingalls Wilder's Little House books and discovered that a Kansas farm girl could, indeed, grow up to be a writer. After a happy twenty-year detour as a stay-at-home mom, Deb penned her first novel, A Vow to Cherish, which won a Silver Angel Award and inspired the acclaimed World Wide Pictures film of the same title. Since then, her books have won the RITA Award, HOLT Medallion, ACFW Carol Award, National Readers' Choice Award, as well as twice being finalists for the Christy Award. Deb teaches at writers' conferences across the country. She and her husband, Ken Raney, recently traded small-town life in Kansas ––the setting of many of Deb's novels––for life in the (relatively) big city of Wichita. They have four children and a growing brood of precious grandchildren who all live much too far away. Visit Deb on the Web at:
www.deborahraney.com
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