ONE YEAR LATER
Ach, how swiftly the year has passed since Andy’s and my wedding! Honestly, I never could have imagined being this content each and every day. Often, I dashed out the back door and across the yard to meet Andy on his walk home from working with his father. Jah, spending time with Andy was a joy for me and for our newborn son, Andrew, who resembled his Dat in every little feature.
Since Andrew’s birth three weeks ago, I’d fallen a little behind on housework—I would rather nurse and cuddle him. It was just plain hard for me to put him down to sleep, which was all right with me. Work could wait for now. The bliss of becoming a mother was impossible to describe, really. Sleepless nights or not, there were ever so many tender feelings of love and wonderment!
Since I’d been at home a lot lately, I decided this mid-November morning to attend a Sisters Day gathering at the home of Cousin Alma and her husband, Danny Lapp.
When I arrived with my baby all bundled up, I discovered that Cousin Jessie was there, too, as were Susie Zook and her cousin Betsy, Titus’s bride of one year. Mamma and Aendis Hannah and Ruthann were also in attendance.
Each of us had a project to work on as we sat in a cozy circle in Cousin Alma’s spacious front room, the coal stove keeping us toasty warm, including the several new babies present.
Aendi Hannah’s adorable son, Curtis Jr., was only six weeks old but already looked as robust as a three-month-old with his headful of dark hair. Dat and Mamma’s surprise baby boy, named for Preacher Mahlon Zook, was ten and a half months old now as he sat, drooling and babbling, on the floor with blocks. Both Alma and Betsy were expecting their first babies in a few months, as well.
To say the Hickory Hollow church district was undergoing a growth spurt was an understatement, and there was a definite need for the tied baby comforters Aendi Hannah had been making. But with her own long-awaited infant to nurse and care for, there really wasn’t much spare time for those. Oh, how well I know!
Mamma sat next to me, knitting purple squares for an afghan, and I crocheted a soft baby blanket in variegated pastels of yellow and green for my baby, Andrew. I couldn’t tell for sure what Betsy was working on, but it appeared to be a small Nine Patch quilt, perhaps a wall hanging similar to the one Adeline had made. Seeing it brought back such good memories of my half sister’s visits. Although there hadn’t been word in Adeline’s recent letters of a pregnancy just yet, I wasn’t surprised, knowing how caught up she was with her new career. The way she described their busy lives, I felt sure she and Brendon were happy and doing what they enjoyed. Adeline had even mentioned that they regularly attended church social gatherings and hosted a small group in their home once a month, with Brendon assisting their pastor on weekends with campus evangelism.
In her latest letter, Adeline had sent a photo of the glassed-in shadow box she and Brendon had made to display Dat’s gold pocket watch, hanging it on the wall near the tall floor clock my father had crafted for their wedding gift. Adeline said that, whenever they decided to start a family, she planned to give the timepiece to their first child as a special gift on the twenty-first birthday. The Lord willing, of course, Adeline had added, the words followed by her signature smiley face.
My sister-in-law Susie, near me in the work circle, mentioned that her brother Michael was tickled to be working with my father at the clock showroom in Bird-in-Hand. Just yesterday, Dat had offered him a job as an assistant.
“Might there be another clockmaker in the makin’,” I suggested.
“Michael hopes so,” Susie said quietly. “He’s not much for farmin’, ya know.”
Cousin Jessie nodded. “He should do what he loves . . . what he’s called to, like Ella Mae might say.”
I smiled. Even though she was absent today, the Wise Woman was often quoted at such get-togethers, and I always appreciated her wisdom.
When we paused for refreshments, Hannah asked me to hold baby Curtis Jr. while she left the room. Looking into the infant’s dimpled face, I remembered what Andy had said before our own baby was born—that if we had a girl, he hoped she would look just like me. Of course, the dear Lord had given us a son, so we’d just have to wait and see if we had a daughter, too, someday.
Betsy came over to admire Baby Curtis. “By the way, Titus and Andy are ridin’ over together to pick us up,” she reminded. “Then we’ll go back to our place for a light supper.”
“That’s nice of you,” I said, glad there were no hard feelings between Titus and me, and that Titus and Andy were still great friends.
My baby brother came toddling over, and seeing that I was holding little Curtis, Mahlon held up his chubby arms. “Mamma,” he said, pleading with his pale blue eyes.
“He calls every woman Mamma,” I explained to Betsy, handing Curtis back to my aunt when she returned. “That and Dada are his two favorite words so far.”
“Well, he’s sure a cutie,” Betsy said as I reached down and picked up my little brother. Then she added, “Titus is hopin’ for a boy for our first child. And so is his mother. I guess Eva thinks Titus will need plenty-a help on the farm.” She paused. “She certainly seems to have her heart set on a boy first for us.”
I didn’t ask, “What if you have a girl?” Instead I smiled, but not for the reason Betsy might have assumed. Knowing how easygoing Betsy was, most likely it would take a lot to really annoy her. She and Titus are a good match in that way, I thought, still smiling.
The Good Lord knew that my first beau would not be my true love, I thought, carrying little Mahlon over to the table to get him a piece of goat cheese. “Here’s somethin’ to nibble on.” I glanced at my own baby, sleeping through all the chatter in the cradle Danny had made for his and Cousin Alma’s coming baby.
“Mamma,” my cuddly brother said again, leaning his head against my cheek as my mother caught my eye and smiled.
“Schweschder,” I whispered in his little ear.
As I tried to teach my baby brother to say sister in Deitsch, I considered Adeline and the special way God had woven our far-flung paths to cross right here in Hickory Hollow.
A sister is truly a gift, I thought, knowing full well that our heavenly Father had worked all things together for our good.