He greeted Sam and I with a warm smile and snapped a pair of gloves on his wrists. “I hear we’re having a baby soon,” he announced lightheartedly.
I pushed my fingers through my hair. “Yeah, but…” I pointed at the nurse who’d just examined Sam. “Is something wrong?”
The doctor shook his head and took a seat in the stool at the foot of the bed. Before he’d give me an answer, he checked Sam for himself and, while he didn’t look as concerned as the nurse, his smile dimmed a little.
“Someone needs to tell me something,” I said as calmly as I could. The monitor spiked beside the bed and Sam gripped my hand again.
“Well…” the doctor began. “There’s good news and bad news,” he announced. “The bad news is, we won’t be able to wait for Dr. Marshall to get here. The good news is…you’re gonna become a father tonight. Your wife’s just about ready to start pushing.” His smile returned, but I was still confused.
“But…she can’t….the baby…“
The nurse came around and placed a hand on my arm while the doctor and two others readied themselves. Her tone was even, which set my mind at ease a little. “Your wife will be fine. The only thing is, we won’t be able to administer an epidural at this point because the baby’s already crowning. So she’ll need you to be really strong for her, okay?”
I didn’t understand. The last time the doctor checked our son was breech. Shocked, I said nothing, just watched as one of the other nurses in the room put gel on Sam’s stomach and placed the wand on top. I’m no doctor, but I’ve gotten pretty good at reading ultrasound pictures after all the times we’d spent at the doctor’s office over the last several months. Sure enough, he was now head down. The nurse looked at me and smiled.
From there everything was a blur; it all happened so fast. The doctor didn’t even have to tell Sam when to push; she just seemed to know how this was supposed to go. I couldn’t help but to stare at her in amazement, watching how the fear melted away as she became focused on nothing but getting our son here.
“You’re doing so good, Samantha,” the doctor said. “One more big push should do it.”
My heart raced and I held my breath as she gave it her all. The entire room was silent.
And then the sweetest sound I’d ever heard in my entire life filled the air and I saw him – my son…our son – screaming at the top of his lungs.
Sam rested her head against the pillow and tried to catch her breath, but just as soon as she had, the site of him stole it right away. Her hand went to her mouth as soft sobs escaped. There he was, a beautiful little boy with a mess of large curls on top of his head, a perfect blend of his mother and me. His cries continued to fill the air as the nurses placed him on Sam’s stomach and let me cut the cord.
Sam placed a kiss on his tiny hand and I touched him for the first time, unable to remember a time in my life when I’d ever been this happy, this proud, this content. Sam continued to sob when I kissed her on top of her head and then did the same to my namesake. They were both the two most perfect gifts God could’ve ever given me.
It was that day that our family was made complete. On two separate occasions, she managed to make me the happiest man alive – our wedding day, and right at this very moment. No words existed that could express the gratitude and love that this woman made me feel toward her.
We’d been to hell and back more than once. At times I even believed that the only way we would ever be able to be together was with a certain amount of tragedy lurking in the shadows.
I couldn’t have been more wrong about that.
In the end, regardless of where our journey had taken us, we ended up here, living out our lives together in our own little slice of heaven…
*****
Continue on for a sneak peek at the cover, synopsis, and two sample chapters of Victoria H. Smith’s
Found by You
Coming 6 – 26 - 14
Also available from Raven St. Pierre
Free Falling Book 1: Gravity
Free Falling Book 2: Secrets
Red Sun
Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob