Authors: Jennifer Bryan Yarbrough
"Oh, honey! She looks just like you and is so petite, where
her brother is so big."
"Oh, let me see her please!" Mom puts her on my chest and
it's as if I'm looking in the mirror. She looks so much like me, but she's more beautiful and looks like a little angel.
She quits crying and seems to stare at me, forming a little round o with her perfect little lips.
"Oh my goodness. She is beautiful, isn't she? Cash, we
have definitely created two perfect little carbon copies of
ourselves, huh?" He sits down beside me with our son in his
arms and gazes at me and our daughter.
"We sure have. Are you sure you're okay? I've never seen
anything like this, Liv! When you said you always had easy
deliveries, THIS was not what I was imagining."
"Yes, Honey. I'm really okay. Everything is absolutely
perfect now; we just have to come up with some names for
these two little darlings."
"I'm sorry guys, but I've got two kids here that are refusing
to wait to meet their siblings." We look over and Lucas is
trying to hold Gideon and Eden back from the room.
"It's alright, Lucas. Hey you two, would you like to meet
your new little brother and sister?" They both run up to the
bed and stare at the babies.
"Oh wow! That has to be my brother, because he's a lot
bigger and looks just like me."
"You would be right, Gideon. He looks just like you and
your dad." Eden looks over at her little sister with a grin on
her face.
"Mommy, she's so pretty and looks just like you!"
"I see a little bit of you too, Eden, I think she has your
chubby cheeks. Are you excited that you got a little sister?"
She nods her head and can't seem to quit grinning, while she
stares at her.
"Okay Mr. and Mrs. Kingston, we really need to get you three to the hospital to get checked out, so we need to get
going."
Cash hands the baby to one of the paramedics and goes over and talks to Lucas, while the other two paramedics
slide me out and put me on the gurney, which causes me to
flash back to the last time I was put on a gurney after the
accident and I start panicking. Cash must have noticed,
because he's beside me in a flash.
"Liv, honey? What's wrong? Are you having more
contractions?"
"No, that's not it, it's just that... I'm having a déjàvu moment.
When they slid me onto the gurney, it took me back to the
accident and a dreaded feeling that something is about to
happen." He sighed a sigh of relief and grabbed one of my
hands.
"I see. Okay, Honey. You know how you're all the time
telling me to trust you and to have faith that everything is
going to be okay? Well, now it's your turn to trust me, okay?
I'll be in the ambulance with you and the babies and I promise Sweetie, everything is going to be okay and nothing's going to happen. We need to get you all to the hospital, though, to make sure you're alright."
"Okay. Please stay by me and the babies." I know it's
probably my body releasing extra hormones and I'm
probably just in shock from the fast delivery, but I'm not
going to be able to take my eyes off of them
********************
"Liv. Honey. Wake up, baby. You have some guests that
want to visit their mother, so that they can eat."
I open my eyes and gaze into my husband’s beautiful eyes.
I realize we made it to the hospital in one piece and nothing
ended up happening. I had no idea how exhausted I was
and fell asleep on the way to the hospital.
"Hi, Honey. I guess I fell asleep, huh?"
"Yes, you did and you looked so peaceful, I didn't have the
heart to wake you up. The babies are doing great. Our son
weighs a whopping 7 pounds even and our little princess
weighs just a little less than 6 pounds. They're so perfect,
Liv, and healthy. We need to come up with some names, though, because baby boy and baby girl is getting old."
He reaches into the bassinets and hands me each one, so that
I could feed them. They both took to my breast easily and I
just stare at my perfect babies in all their glory, trying to put a name to their faces.
"What do you think about Cassidy Carmen Rose? I know
we've pretty much said the final word on Cassidy Rose, but I would like to honor Carmen for all of her help in their
delivery. I realize that gives her two middle names, but
people do it all of the time, so why not us?"
"I love it and you're right. Hello there Miss Cassidy
Carmen Rose Kingston. Aww... Did you see her arch her
eyebrow? She already knows it's her name. A beautiful
name, for a beautiful little princess. What about the big guy
here? I think he needs a tough name, because I bet he's
going to be a big brute!"
"Hmmmm. How about Henry Claude after my father and his aunt Claudia. We could call him Hank. What do you
think?"
"Oh, I like it! Hank the Tank! I can already see him now,
unstoppable on the football field! Look! He just arched his
brow! Yep! I like it!"
"Hank the Tank? That sounds like a name for a bully,
Cash. You can't call him that! Maybe we should call him
Henry."
"Oh, Liv. If you think any child of ours with you as their mother is going to turn into a bully, then you must not see
yourself the way that I see you. He's not going to be a bully,
but I can already picture him being a giant of a man and
what better name than Hank! It'll be alright, Honey. You
just watch. Okay Cassidy and Hank, what do you two
think about life outside of your momma’s belly?"
I wouldn't have believed it if I hadn't have seen it, but both
of them opened their eyes and looked over at their father, as if mesmerized by him already the same way that I am.
"Well, that got their attention, haha. Are you ready for
visitors? We have a ton of them in the waiting room
waiting to meet their new grand babies and niece and
nephew."
"Yes. We need to burp these two first. Do you care to
help me with that? I know I seem to act like a pro at this,
but there are two of them. Oh lord, this is going to be a big
adjustment..." He leans down and takes Hank out of my
arms and puts him over his shoulder.
"Oh I'll say. Now, the real work begins, haha. I think we can handle it, though, and we won't be alone, ya know. We
will probably have everyone moving in with us just to help
out. I may have to start charging rent."
He's right. Amelia took off from work for six weeks as
well. Cash and my mom will already be there, so I
definitely shouldn't complain because we will definitely have a lot of help with them. There's a knock on the door
and every one in our family, along with Carmen and Lucas,
pile into the room and my heart feels so full that everyone
is here to welcome the babies into the family.
"Everyone. I would like to introduce you all to Princess
Cassidy Carmen Rose and Prince Henry Claude Kingston,
or aka Hank the Tank, because that is what I'll be calling the
big guy." Caleb was the first one to say anything.
"Okay, is it just me or am I the only one that didn't get
one of these precious darlings named after me?"
"Oh shut it, Caleb! Obviously they know who's important
around here. You guys! I'm so honored to have a
namesake; I think I'm going to cry. Cash! Don't you dare call him that terrible name. I will be calling him Claude,
after his favorite Aunt!" She does her famous eye roll at
Caleb.
"Caleb, we'll name the next one after you." I give him a
wink and he winks back, but Cash is the one that gets ready for a fight.
"Olivia! Are you kidding me? I'm sorry, but we are NOT
having any more kids! This is it for us!"
"Honey, you did promise to obey in your vows.
Everyone here heard you, remember Darling?" I start
batting my eyes at him.
"Yes. I remember and you said you would obey too
so, oh, who am I kidding. You proved today that
childbirth is as simple as taking out the trash. We can have
ten more for all I care. However many you want is fine
with me." Wow! It sounds like I finally got to witness his
first white flag of surrender.
"I'm just kidding anyway. I was just trying to make Caleb
feel better about us not naming either of the babies after
him. I think four is a good solid number."
"It looks like you two managed your first fight without me
having to ground the both of you, so Elizabeth and I will be
over here in the corner doting over our new grand babies."
Amelia has me chuckling, while she and my mother do exactly what she said she would do and steal my babies to
go sit on the couch, with our dads and Gideon and Eden all
gushing over them.
Cash gets into bed with me and cuddles up with me, while
Caleb and Claudia stand on each side of us.
"I must say you two; I think I've decided on what I'll accept for payment from you for hooking you two up.
You have created quite the little family and I've never been
happier for anyone in my life than I am right now for you
two."
Leave it to Claudia to turn everything around to her, but I
can tell that she's piqued Cash's curiosity and has both him
and Caleb laughing their heads off.
"Oh, Queen Claudia! Shall I bow down at your feet now or
later?"
"Hmm. You can go ahead and do that now since everyone is here if you want, but no, I'm talking money!"
"Alright. Consider it done. How much do you need?"
"Okay, here goes. I quit my job and want to open up my
own practice and I don’t need any money, but a building
that you own. That's where I want to open up my own
practice." Wow! She quit her job,
"Okay. Consider it done. Just let me know which building it is and it's yours."
"I'll pay you back. I was just kidding about wanting
payment for hooking you two up. I was just trying to be
funny."
"No, Claud. You're family and I'm not using it anyway
evidently, so it's yours. Consider it a thank you gift." Claudia is standing there in shock with tears in her eyes,
looking around not knowing what to say or do. Caleb walks
around to her and gives her a hug.
"Cash, you keep it up and the ice princess here might
cause herself to melt from her tears." Claudia punches him in the shoulder.
"Shut up, Caleb! Cash, thank you. I don't know what
else to say, but thank you. Now, I'm going to go steal my
namesake from his mean grandma over there and I swear if
anyone tells her I said that, I'll deny it until my death!"
Cash and I watch them walk over to the crowd surrounding
the twins and I just sigh with contentment.
"Sweetheart, you really need to rest while everyone is in
here taking care of the babies. I'm sure my little tank over
there will want to eat again pretty soon."
"You have got to quit calling him that. Maybe we should
call him Henry instead of Hank. I had no idea you'd end
up giving him such a crazy nickname."
"But you grin every time I say it, so I know you like it.
Come on, admit it. It fits him and you know it. Poor
little Cassidy is half his size!" I love how he makes me
laugh and calms me down.
"Yeah. It does fit him, I can't lie about that. But Cash? Do
you feel the same way I'm feeling right now? I feel
like... this feels like... I feel like if everyone in this room
were to all live in a hut for the rest of our lives and all that
we had to survive was a roof over our head and food to eat,
I'd be completely content, because of all of the love that we
have for each other."
"I don't know about just one hut and one roof, but I
understand what you mean. If someone were to tell me that
all of my money was gone today, I don't think I'd care,
because as long as I have you and everyone over in that corner? I wouldn't need anything else. I feel as if we are
surrounded by an overabundance of love right now."