Angels Everywhere - Debbie Macomber [115]
“When I decided against the abortion, I didn’t know what I was going to do,” Michelle started. “A friend suggested adoption and so I contacted New Life Adoption Agency. Their counselors were great, they didn’t pressure me one way or the other. I met with them several times and they listened. You see, I assumed that in order to give up my baby, I had to keep myself from loving her, and I couldn’t seem to make myself do that. In the beginning when Lonny left me, all the baby represented to me was heartache, and later as she started to grow and move, I discovered how very attached I was getting. I couldn’t help being curious about adoptive parents, though, and for the first time, just a few weeks ago, I read over several profiles. Your letter stood out in my mind.”
“Why?” Leah wanted to know. The letter had been written years earlier, and she couldn’t remember any of what she’d said.
“You wrote about being a delivery-room nurse and how you felt about helping young women through labor and birth. It seemed to me you must be someone very special. Then by some kind of fluke the birthing class I was attending toured Providence Hospital and we met you. Naturally I didn’t know your last name, but I remembered what you’d written. When I asked Jo Ann about you she told me you didn’t have any children yourself and I figured you must be the Leah whose letter I’d read.”
“That was why you chose to have your baby here at Providence Hospital?” Leah asked.
Michelle nodded. “It was pure chance that you could be with me. I still hadn’t decided if I could give my baby up for adoption. Then yesterday after she was born, you said something that helped me make up my mind.”
“I said something to help you decide?” Leah was incredulous.
Michelle nodded. “You told me I would be a good mother to my baby. I’m not giving her up because I don’t love her. It’s because I love her so very much that I can.
“Mrs. Burchell explained that you’d had one birth mother change her mind at the last minute. You needn’t worry, that won’t happen this time. I feel very strongly that God led me to you and your husband and you’re exactly the right couple for my baby.”
“How can I thank you?” Leah whispered through her tears.
“By loving her, guiding her through the years for me. When she’s older and has questions about me, tell her how God brought the two of us together, tell her that He handpicked her family for me.”
“I will,” Leah promised, rubbing the moisture from her cheek.
The two women hugged and after she’d dried her eyes Leah returned to the nursery. Andrew was gently rocking back and forth, staring down at the face of his newborn daughter. One tiny fist was clenched around his index finger. The newborn was holding onto her daddy’s hand.
“It looks like the two of you are getting along nicely,” Leah commented.
“I still can’t believe she’s really our daughter,” Andrew said.
“I don’t have a single doubt she belongs to us,” Leah assured him.
“Have you decided on a name?”
“Yes,” Leah said, her response automatic. “Angel.” Someday she’d tell her husband and her daughter about seeing the special Christmas angel, but not now. The angel had been His sign to her, His confirmation. She would carry that very special gift with her through the years.
“Angel?” Andrew repeated slowly, glancing up. “But I thought you had three names already chosen and I don’t recall any of them being Angel.”
“It seems fitting to me. Do you object?”
“Angel Lundberg,” he said again as if testing it on his tongue. “It feels right. Angel Hannah Lundberg.”
“My turn to hold her,” Leah said.
Andrew stood and gently placed the sleeping baby in Leah’s arms. Angel arched her back and stretched, yawning before she nestled comfortably in Leah’s arms, as if this were exactly where she was supposed to be. With that Angel Lundberg immediately returned to sleep.
“You’re willing to marry me?” Monica asked, unsure if she should trust what Chet was saying. “But why now?”
“Because I know you’re right. I’ll regret letting you go the rest of