However, tragedy struck very early on in the year for the Alouette family. Jean-Michel, the almost-four-year-old son of Genard and Singer was kidnapped one night by a mad doctor, who physically and sexually abused him. The doctor had been abused himself as a child and in an effort to understand why, he had become an abuser himself. The doctor had been the one to heal Questa one fateful night after the assassin got himself shot by gang members. He got his assistant to follow Questa home and after a few days, the assistant, who had the ability to turn herself into a fly, helped him arrange to kidnap Jean-Michel. Fortunately for Jean-Michel, his family discovered he was missing rather quickly, and his parents lead the rescue mission. They rescued him after only a few hours, but those hours seemed like a lifetime to the small frightened child.

Jean-Michel was traumatized by the situation he found himself in. He didn’t understand why the doctor did those things to him, and he was terrified of everybody, even people he had formerly trusted. For weeks after his ordeal, he stayed glued to his father’s side like a shadow, and didn’t speak to anyone except his parents, his sister and Questa, who was the only person in the guild who fully understood what the boy had been through.

Jean-Michel’s problems didn’t stop when he was rescued from the crazy doctor, though. In a few short weeks, he completely lost his hearing, even telepathic hearing, and he almost lost his sight. Genard took him to see Dr. Samson, who had become the Guild doctor over the years, and the doctor recommended surgery to correct Jean-Michel’s eyesight. They went through with the procedure, and the boy’s sight was returned, although his hearing would be gone forever.

Around the same time, Danielle realized she needed help. She was grateful to have her wheelchair to get around in but she wanted and needed more than that. So she talked to Grace and they went to see if there could be a guide-dog of sorts that would be suited to help her do things she was unable to do. They returned home a couple hours later with Duke, a beautiful black lab specially trained to help paraplegics. From that moment on, Duke would go with the healer wherever she went and be by her side constantly. He became her close friend and companion and also brought comfort to her nephew, who found he could talk to the dog about things he couldn’t necessary express to the people in his life.

For the Marceaux family, things were about to get interesting.

In June, Emil announced to Theoren and Nara that they were expecting their first child together. This was news that scared the hell out of Theo, who wasn’t sure he could be a really good father. He felt he was only doing a mediocre job with Kiara, and he hadn’t even known her very long. Raising a child from the start was a terrifying prospect, but oddly enough Kiara herself reassured him he’d do a wonderful job.

Kiara was attending classes at Tulane University and living with the Guild at the same time. While at school, she made a new friend that in olden days would have caused major problems for the Guild. Her new friend was Lucas Howard, only child of the New Orleans Police Chief. In a very short time, she and Lucas began dating, and fell in love with each other.

They both tried out for and won parts in the university’s production of AIDA, with Lucas, who had never acted a day in his life, winning the part of the male lead, and Kiara getting to be part of the ensemble as well as the understudy for the female lead.

Oddly enough, both Theoren and Jean-Auguste, Lucas’ father, put any bad feelings they might have about their children’s relationship aside and fully supported the relationship, and put the feelings of their children ahead of anything they might feel. In fact, the two men ended up liking each other and seeing each other as fathers, not as a cop and a robber.

On opening night of the performance, the girl who was supposed to play Aida broke her leg in a car accident and was unable to perform. Kiara stepped up and filled the role perfectly; radiant and happy that she was getting a chance to play opposite her boyfriend, the love of her life.

Six months after they met, Lucas spoke privately to both his parents and Kiara’s. He made reservations at their favorite restaurant for them on their six-month anniversary and while they were there, he did something he wanted to do for most of their relationship. He asked her to marry him. She accepted, and they decided to wait until after they graduated from university before they got married, a plan that was agreed to by both sets of parents as well.

Right around the same time, things got very bad for Stefan and Jean-Louis, both of whom were on different medications. They were both HIV positive and were essentially living on borrowed time. The medicines were designed to help them lead longer lives than they would if they didn’t have the medicine to take. They each had good days and bad days; most of the time the good days and bad days didn’t coincide, but they did the best they could. From time to time they attended a Life Support group, and they learned from the people there that what was important was being together, not how much time they had.

But then, things went really downhill. Jean-Louis started complaining of back and hip pain. He went to see Dr. Samson secretly, not wanting to worry Stefan if it wasn’t anything serious. It turned out that it was very serious. Dr. Samson ran some tests and told Jean-Louis about a week later that he had a genetic autoimmune disorder that had suddenly decided to rear its ugly head. Essentially, Jean-Louis’ body was attacking itself.

"I’m sorry, Jean-Louis. But at the absolute most, you have six months to live, with the way this disease is progressing." Dr. Samson told him after giving him the results of the tests.

Jean-Louis went home with a heavy heart. He knew Stefan was going to be devastated by this turn of events. They had both been expecting to live for at least five years if they stayed on the medication. That was the original projection Dr. Samson had given them. And Jean-Louis knew that Stefan had always been of the opinion that since he had had the HIV virus in his system a lot longer without knowing it, he would be the one to die first. But suddenly that wasn’t going to be the case.

He went to his husband’s side, and kissed him, something he hadn’t really done much of in recent weeks. He had been so fearful of losing Stefan, so wrapped up in the idea of death and loss that he had unwillingly been detaching himself from his partner, something he was going to change.

Stefan was surprised by the sudden affection and said as much. He had been having a hard time dealing with Jean-Louis’ behavior; it had hurt him deeply. He was glad his partner was now being more affection with him, but deep down he wondered why. He got his answer when Jean-Louis told him of the autoimmune disorder and how he only had about six months left to live.

As Jean-Louis had predicted, Stefan was devastated, and angry at this turn of events that was going to take the man he couldn’t live without away from him so quickly.

"It’s not fair..." He sobbed miserably.

"I know. I wish dere was somethin’ I could do but dere’s not."

Stefan suddenly grew hopeful. "Even wit’ de medications we’re takin’...?"

Jean-Louis shook his head. "De meds ain’ gon’ do a t’ing for me now. If AIDS doesn’ kill me, dis other t’ing will." His voice gets quieter. "T’hell wit’ de meds. We’re doomed anyway."

At that exact moment the timer that they set to remind them to take their medications sounded its annoying beep.

Stefan grabbed it and, in a fit of anger and helplessness, threw it across the room as hard as he could. It smashed against the wall and broke into dozens of pieces. The annoying beep stopped. And so did their days of taking medications to prolong their lives.

All the expanding families were making Mercy rather depressed. She was lonely and unhappy in her situation. She was thrilled with the advent of Jessica in her life, and couldn’t imagine living without the teenager. They had very quickly become very attached to each other and did a lot of things together. But the grown woman in Mercy was lonely and miserable, and no amount of time with Jessica could fix it.

One afternoon, when Mercy was feeling exceptionally low and wanted to actually do something about it instead of lying in bed like an invalid, she and Jessica went to Starbucks, as they liked to do from time to time. Not long after they got there, Mercy noticed a rather handsome middle-aged man reading, of all things to be reading in a Starbucks, a history text book. And for some reason, Mercy found she couldn’t take her eyes off him.

She quickly looked away every time it looked like he was going to catch her staring at him, much to the amusement of Jessica, who, more than anything wanted her Mama to be happy. Mercy kept watching him and quickly looking away, for the better part of an hour, until finally the stranger spoke.

"Hello."

Mercy turned several shades of red and wanted to sink through the floor. He’d caught her looking, in spite of her best efforts to ensure that didn’t happen.

"Uhm...hello..."

The stranger smiled. He had a very charming smile. It captivated Mercy immediately. "Is there something I can do for you?" He had a distinct voice; it was obvious to Mercy that he wasn’t from Louisiana.

Mercy blushed even harder. "I...uh...dat’s quite de book you’re readin’..."

The smile widened. "Yes it is, if you like that kind of thing. I do. I’m an historian."

"Wow. Uhm...I’m Mercy. Dis is my daughter Jessica."

"I’m Alan."

Mercy smiled. "It’s nice to meet you, Alan. You’re not from around here, are you...?"

Alan chuckled. "My accent, right? I’m actually from Boston. I got transferred here to do research. Hence the book."

"I t’ought so. You didn’ sound like a local. It’s kind of easy to tell." Mercy smiled. She liked this historian even if he was from New England.

Jessica watched the conversation play out, looking back and forth from her mother to Alan and back as each spoke. They got into an intense discussion about Louisiana history, and in particular, New Orleans history, and it seemed to Jessica that they forgot she was there. Indeed, it was like they’d forgotten they were in the middle of Starbucks in the French Quarter with dozens of people coming and going around them at all times.

The scene made Jessie happy. She hoped that maybe, even if her mother and Alan didn’t pursue a relationship with each other, they could at least become friends. Anything to get Mercy out of the house and non-Guild-related things.

Over the next several weeks, Mercy saw quite a bit of Alan. Their friendship formed steadily, based on a shared love of history. They were attracted to each other, but didn’t act on it for quite some time. Mercy was wary of being in an actual relationship after being single for so long, and Alan didn’t wish to scare the pretty thief away. So they took their time and enjoyed each others’ company.

Jessica was glad to have something to tease her mother about. Now, if her father would start dating again, she’d have something to tease him about too, and all would be well with her world.

Emil was thinking along the same lines as Jessica, although neither of them knew it. He had known since he spent those weeks living with his cousin that Henri was lonely. And Emil wanted to change that.

He had figured out from a few things Henri had said over time that his cousin was bisexual and open to just about anything. So he talked Henri into going out with him one night, to a club that catered to every walk of life, hoping that maybe Henri would find someone who struck his fancy.

He almost gave up.

After sitting at a table in that club for hours, watching men and women of all shapes and sizes around them, Henri still hadn’t seen one that caught his attention. Emil was about ready to suggest they pack it in and go home, since he was starting to feel like if he stayed awake any longer he’d turn into a pumpkin like Cinderella’s carriage. As he opened his mouth to say something along those lines, he noticed a change in Henri.

Henri was no longer paying any attention to Emil or anyone else in the club, except for one. His gaze was directed at someone up at the bar, and rather than try to get his cousin’s attention, Emil followed his gaze, trying to figure out who Henri was looking at. It didn’t take long.

The woman was middle-aged and actually rather stunning. She wasn’t quite Emil’s taste, as it was obvious she wasn’t always a woman, but if she had caught Henri’s eye, than that was wonderful.

"Go talk to her." Emil encouraged.

"But..."

Emil wanted to bang his head against a wall in frustration until he remembered how he’d been a little afraid of approaching Allie when he saw her for the first time too. "Henri Stephane LeBeau, we’ve sat here for hours waitin’ for jus’ dis opportunity to present itself. I can be patient when I need to be, but right now I’m exhausted. Do you find her attractive?"

"Oui..."

"Well den de way I figure, you’ve got two options. One, you can get up wit’ me an’ leave wit’out talkin’ to her, prob’ly never seein’ her ‘gain. Or two, you can get up wit’out me an’ go over dere, strike up a conversation wit’ her an’ see what happens. If you pick option two, at de very least you might make a new friend. An’ who knows? Maybe more’n dat." Emil grinned. "Either way, I’m goin’ home to my wife an’ children an’ goin’ to bed."

After Emil left, Henri sat there for a moment, thinking about what his young cousin had said. Then he decided to grab the bull by the horns. He got up and went over to the bar where the woman was sitting. He sat down beside her.

"Hi."

She looked over at him. "Hi."

"You...uh...you looked kinda lonely over here by yourself...hope you don’ mind me comin’ over to see if you wanted some company..." Okay if that didn’t sound lame, he was Pee Wee Herman. And he sure as hell wasn’t Pee Wee Herman. Maybe she’d buy it.

She smiled. "Company is nice. It’s funny, for all the people in here it’s still possible to be lonely."

"Yeah I know."

"Where’d your friend go? The one with the red hair?"

Henri blinked. Had she been watching him at the same time he was watching her? How could he not have noticed? Damn, he was getting out of practice. "Oh dat was my cousin actually. An’ he went home. He was tired. He’s got three kids, so a night on de town doesn’ las’ as long as it used to." He chuckled. That was certainly true, of more people in the Guild than just Emil, too.

The woman laughed softly. It was a nice sound. "I see."

Henri smiled. He liked her laugh, and he liked her. "I’m Henri."

"I’m Joanne. But my friends call me Jo."

Henri’s smile widened. "It’s nice to meet you Jo. What do you say to the idea of getting out of dis crowded joint an’ goin’ for a walk wit’ me ‘round de Quarter?"

"I say that sounds like a wonderful idea. Lead the way."

One morning, Stefan looked at Jean-Louis, a contemplative expression on his face. "Is dere anythin’ you’ve always wanted to do, or any place you’ve always wanted to go, but never did?"

"Dere is one place..."

"Where?"

Jean-Louis smiled. "Egypt."

Stefan returned the smile. "For me it’s Paris. An’ y’know what? Why don’ we go, while we still have de strength to do it? I have a trust fund...I haven’ touched it. In fact when I got old enough to have control over it, I kept puttin’ into it instead of takin’ it an’ usin’ it. It’s not de biggest trust fund in de world, but it’d be enough to get us where we wan’ go an’ have a half decent vacation."

"Dat’s a wonderful idea. Go while we still can. Dat way we can say we’ve seen de places we’ve always wanted to see."

"Exactly." Stefan got out their laptop and logged on. They started planning their vacation immediately, booking hotels and printing maps of where they wanted to go. They planned their vacation around Egypt and France, but knew there was money left over afterwards to go elsewhere if they weren’t too tired.

The first leg of the trip was specifically for Jean-Louis. Stefan wanted to spend quite a bit of time in Egypt, so his partner could have time to see and do everything he wanted to in the country. All Stefan wanted to see was the Sphinx, but he would go anywhere and do anything in Egypt if it was what Jean-Louis wanted. He even planned a little surprise for Jean-Louis a couple of days into the Egyptian getaway: a camel ride. He wanted his partner to fully experience Egypt, and figured one of the best ways to do that was for them to walk…or rather ride...like Egyptians.

Leg two took the men to France. Stefan gave Jean-Louis a few ideas of what he would like to do, especially in Paris, and let Jean-Louis do the planning the way he had for the Egyptian part. Surprisingly, one of the things Stefan didn’t mention was the Eiffel Tower, but Jean-Louis had a hunch that didn’t mean he didn’t want to see it. So he slipped that into the Paris itinerary as a surprise treat for his partner.

Two days after they made the arrangements, they went to the airport and got on a plane, heading for the vacation of their lives.

Emil had a problem.

Now, at the end of 2007, the children he had with Allie were growing up. Alex was almost six-years-old and had, along with Jean-Michel, started his training as a Guild thief. Lizzie was almost four, and starting to bug her parents to be allowed to do what her big brother was doing. And baby Mattie wasn’t a baby anymore. She was an active toddler, nearly two-years-old, and talking up a storm.

Emil’s problem wasn’t his children. He loved them all and doted on them. Fatherhood had calmed the once obnoxious computer specialist down considerably. He was active in every aspect of the lives of his children.

His problem was that he wanted more children. He and Allie had already agreed on having a big family, but they had decided to wait until Mattie was three before they started trying again. They both wanted at least two more children, but they wanted to take a break in between the first three and the next ones. It was an idea Emil had come up with himself and Allie had agreed to it. But now he was having a change of heart.

Mattie was constantly growing. It was a hard job to keep up with her. Emil thought back to when she was a little baby…and he missed it. He wouldn’t dare mention it to Allie, because she had made it perfectly clear to him after Mattie was born that they weren’t having another in two years. And they weren’t, but he still dreamed. He couldn’t wait until his family grew even more and expanded to include another tiny baby.

"Papa!"

The sound of his son’s voice woke Emil would of his daydreaming.

"What is it, Alex?"

Alex looked as exasperated as a nearly six-year-old boy could look. "Jean-Michel is here. You promised us you’d teach us more about how to pick a lock today."

Emil smiled at the two small boys, and remembered to sign as he spoke. "Ah, dat’s right, I did, didn’ I? Have you been practicin’?"

The two boys, who were as different as night and day, nodded in unison.

"Okay den. Show me what you remember." He handed the two of them different locks and put a set of lock pick tools between them. "What tool would work for each of these locks?"

The boys took turns, and each one got the right answer.

"Very good! You were payin’ attention de other day, I’m impressed. Now dat you know which picks to use...why don’ you use dem to unlock de locks?"

The lesson continued for nearly an hour, with the boys practicing using different tools on different locks and getting a feel for the job. Finally, Emil got them to put everything away and took out a surprise for them: coloring books and crayons.

"You guys are doin’ so good...de lesson’s over for today. Why don’ you bot’ color somethin’ for your mama’s? I bet dey’d love to get special colorin’s from deir sons."

The boys nodded and got to work in the coloring books, while Emil played a game of Go Fish with Lizzie.

When Alex and Jean-Michel were done, Emil cut the pages out of the coloring books. Jean-Michel went home, and Alex tracked down his mother, who was reading to Mattie in the girls’ bedroom, and gave her the page he’d colored for her.

"Oh sweetie! It’s beautiful!" Allie exclaimed, her face lit up. She, like Emil, loved and doted on all three of their children, but she had to admit she had a favorite among them. It was Alex, their first born and so far only son. "Y’know what, I’m going to put this on the wall by Papa’s an’ my bed, okay?"

Alex nodded, happy that his mother liked what he’d done. He helped her locate a thumb-tack and followed her, with Mattie right behind them, as she went into the bedroom she shared with Emil and hung the picture right above their bed. "There! It’s perfect. And it gives the room more color, which is wonderful. Thank you, Alex."

"You’re welcome, Mama."

"I wan’ do one!" Mattie said. "I wan’ do one!"

Allie laughed. "Okay, okay! Alex, can Mattie color a picture too?"

Alex nodded. "Yeah. Lizzie can too if she wants."

It was difficult for Singer sometimes, being an assassin living in a thief family. If she was perfectly honest, she’d admit, only to herself, that she didn’t like the thieves. She refused to speak to any of them without Genard present. They made her uncomfortable; maybe even as uncomfortable as she was sure she and the other assassins made them.

As difficult as it was, Singer stuck it out, because she loved her husband and she loved her three children. They were her strength, and the main reason she fought so hard to kick her heroine habit.

Like any parent, Singer had hopes that her children, especially her first-born son, would follow in her family trade. She had wanted Jean-Michel to be an assassin, but to her secret dismay, her son had expressed a desire to be a thief almost from the moment he could talk. It didn’t surprise his mother, who couldn’t ignore the bond between father and son. In return she tried to be as supportive as she could, and no one knew of her disappointment.

She really didn’t need to be disappointed, though, and she realized that not long after she hung Jean-Michel’s picture on the wall. Her son had gone off to play with his kitten, Boxer, and Singer went to check on her younger children. Lucas, who was only a few months old, was sleeping peacefully in his crib. And two year old Genevieve was in her bedroom, pretending to be...an assassin.

Singer watched for a few moments, unnoticed, as her daughter stalked her stuffed animals and pretended to kill them with a marker, babbling to herself, or maybe to the toys, the whole time quite contentedly.

Genard joined her at the door and watched. When Genevieve moved onto a different game, her parents left to sit and talk.

"I know you prob’ly were hopin’ Jean-Michel would be de one wit’ assassin tendencies but..." Genard began.

Singer smiled. "I was, yes. But right now I’m jus’ happy dat one of our children does. I t’ought I cared which one it was, but to be quite honest, right now, I don’. It doesn’ matter. Would you object to my trainin’ Gen-vie when she gets older?"

"Did you object when I asked you if you minded me trainin’ Jean-Michel?"

"No of course not."

"Well den, dere’s your answer." Genard kissed his wife gently. "It’s only fair. If she wants to be an assassin, who am I to stop her?"

Pierre joined them, overhearing the last bit of conversation. "You’re deir parents. It’s your job to support dem in whatever dey want to do in deir lives, whether it keeps wit’ Guild tradition or not."

"Exactly." Singer and Genard agreed in unison.

All the young Guild parents felt the same way. No matter what their little ones wanted to do with their lives, the adults would support them one hundred and ten percent and do whatever they had to in order to show that support and help their children succeed.

On Christmas Eve, the entire Guild had a big gathering in the old library of the tunnels. It was the only room big enough to hold everybody in all the different families. They set up a Christmas tree in one corner of the room, with everybody’s gifts under and around it, and pulled in chairs and tables, and a couple of mattresses for the children if they got tired. Hanging from each doorway was some mistletoe, and holly was twined around everything it could be twined around.

In spite of the fact that they were all there, each family tended to stick together, except for the children, most of who were playing a rather rowdy game of tag in the middle of the room while their parents chatted and watched.

Kiara spent the first part of the evening with Lucas at his family’s house, then joined the Guild and gave them all something to see under the mistletoe. Everyone was there once they showed up, even Jean-Louis and Stefan, who were back from their vacation.

Theoren was the first to notice just how thin and pale his brother and brother-in-law were getting, although it was obvious to everyone present very quickly. But there was a happiness in their eyes that showed everyone they were content and, for now at least, at peace with the things that were transpiring in their lives.

Nara saw her husband watching Jean-Louis and Stefan and voiced the thought that Theoren had barely dared to allow himself to think. "I hope they live long enough to meet their nephew..."

"Yeah...me too..." Theoren replied softly. He and Nara knew they were having a little boy, but they hadn’t decided on a name and weren’t sure they were going to until they met the little guy. The only thing Theo knew in regards to the name is he wanted the middle name to be Etienne, after the little brother he had who died so many years ago.

Not surprisingly, Mercy was at the gathering alone. She and Alan were still taking things very slowly, something that was driving Mercy crazy. She wanted to move things a little faster, but Alan didn’t. So Alan was up in Boston visiting his family for the holidays and Mercy was there in New Orleans with her family. She hoped Alan would be back to watch the New Year arrive with her, but she wasn’t holding her breath.

Henri was also alone, but it was by choice. He had only seen Jo a couple of times since the night they met, and he hadn’t yet even told her what he did for a living, let alone told her about his crazy family. He really liked her, and was really attracted to her, but the timing just wasn’t right yet to subject her to the Guild.

Zoë, sitting with Marcel, was thinking ahead to the New Year, and wondering what it had in store for them. She had finally decided to get caught up with the rest of the families; she wanted a baby. However, she wasn’t sure how Marcel felt about that particular topic, so she hadn’t yet brought up the subject. She wanted him to bring it up. She made a decision that she’d wait one year, and if he hadn’t brought it up by the next Christmas, she’d bring it up on her own. But she didn’t think it would come to that. Intuition was telling her something good along those lines was going to happen for them in the coming months, she just didn’t know what.

Claude and Sebastien watched their twins playing with the younger children, content smiles on their faces.

"Y’know, dey’re gon’ be great baby-sitters when dey get a little older." Claude commented.

Sebastien chuckled. "Oui, dat dey are. An’ dat’s a good t’ing. B’cause after awhile, all us parents are gon’ need to get away. It hasn’ happened yet, but it will."

If Theoren had thought the arrival of Kiara in his life was a big change needing to be adjusted to, it was nothing compared to the moment he first looked at his newborn son. His heart filled with such a deep, powerful and protective love that it overwhelmed him. He sat beside Nara after Danielle handed little Zachary Etienne to her, and couldn’t take his eyes off him.

"Do you want to hold him?" Nara asked softly.

"Yes..." Theoren replied.

Nara smiled and handed him their son. Theoren suddenly thanked God he had gotten lots of practice holding the babies of the other Guild members; he was able to hold his son like he’d been doing it all his life. Zachary was asleep, exhausted from his big journey into the world, and fit into Theoren’s arms perfectly.

"He’s beautiful..." Theoren whispered.

"He certainly is." Nara said, watching.

It took quite a few hours and a great deal of pain, but eventually the two babies were brought into the world. After Danielle left, Loralei, holding the girl, looked at Questa, who was holding the older-by-ten-minutes boy.

"We really should name them..."

Questa chuckled. "Yeah we should. Put it off long enough. Justin’s gon’ wan’ know what to call dem."

"So...I was thinking the other day...what about Samantha for her?"

"Samantha Devereaux…I like it. Can we call her Sam sometimes t’ough?" Questa asked.

"Of course." Loralei smiled. "Do you have any ideas?"

"Yeah...Christopher. We could call him Chris for short."

Loralei smiled wider. "I think we just named our children. I just kind of feel bad that Justin’s name is so much shorter than theirs."

Questa laughed, cuddling his son. "I don’ t’ink it’s really gon’ matter too much, Loralei."

"No, probably not."

Amelia had woken up two hours earlier with the distinct feeling that her water had broken. She spent the next two hours trying to wake her husband and dealing with painful contractions at the same time. The contractions were getting closer and closer together and more painful by the minute it seemed so Amelia knew she was close to being in full blown labor.

Finally, Gris woke up. "Wha...?"

Amelia nearly freaked out. "My water broke two hours ago! Why are you such a sound sleeper?"

"Oh boy." Gris mentally called Danielle, who arrived in moments. She quickly checked Amelia over and announced that the other woman was fully dilated and ready to push. Within three hours, baby Kali came into the world.

Hija was thrilled with her baby sister, as were their parents. As Amelia held the newborn baby, Gris pulled four-year-old Hija onto his lap and contemplated just how much the two girls looked alike.

"Dey look alike."

Amelia smiled, lovingly cradling the baby. "Yes they do. Hija, do you know what? When you were born, you looked just like this."

"She’s small."

"So were you." Gris chuckled. "She’ll grow, just like you did."

Hija climbed off her father’s lap and onto the bed to get a better look at her new baby sister. "I like her." She pronounced after a few moments.

"Well dat’s good, b’cause we’re not sendin’ her back." Gris said.