“WE WOULD LIKE to introduce Dr. Snowden Tangredi and Dr. Kirsten Nadif-Tangredi. Please give them a warm welcome.”
As everyone clapped, Kirsten walked up to the lectern. Snow loved everything about his wife’s country. The food was crazy good. The people were ridiculously friendly. And his father-in-law was an amazing man, just like Kirs had said he was. Snow wasn’t like him at all. Not yet. But he aspired to be like him, one day.
As his wife stood at the podium giving her portion of the lecture on innovative treatment plans for cystic fibrosis, he admired the curve of her back and her glossy black hair, which was pulled up into a tight bun. And when she turned slightly to the side to acknowledge the session’s moderator, he caught sight of a slight curve in her abdomen that most would not take notice of. But he did. They’d discovered a month ago that Kirsten was pregnant. They were on their way to putting the first crib in his father-in-law’s extra rooms. And he couldn’t be happier.
Snow hadn’t been sure about coming to the conference because of the pregnancy, but Kirs insisted she would be fine.
This was their second time participating in the International Medical Professionals Forum that was hosted here in Lebanon. And both times, Kirs had stood beside him as he spoke, translating his words into Arabic, so the audience could understand him. He loved hearing her converse in her native language and was working on learning it himself. And he loved meeting other specialists in his field. They had a lot to learn from each other.
Both he and Kirs had talked about joining Doctors Without Borders and helping in whatever ways they could. Her father had already said he would be happy to watch his grandchild whenever they needed him to.
And when they got back to the States, they promised Gretchen’s parents that they would come to her birthday party. She’d gotten her heart-lung transplant last year and was now participating in PE, using her newfound knowledge in kinesiology to help her fellow students get the most out of their training. Her dream was to someday be a coach. Or a transplant surgeon. That had made him smile.
Snow looked out over the audience. Kirsten’s dad was out there somewhere, although with the lights, he couldn’t see him. It was obvious, though, that he was very proud of his daughter. Not only of her accomplishments in the medical field, but also of her as a person. A compassionate, loving, emotion-filled person.
It had been an adjustment getting used to everything—getting used to expressing himself. But he was learning.
The locks on his doors were history. Oh, not completely. They had what Kirs considered to be a reasonable number of safeguards. Even the extra lock on his office door had been taken off—the hole left where the mechanism had once been was covered with a red wooden heart, as a nod to his specialty. And to Kirsten.
And, hell, if he wasn’t the happiest man in this room. Or at least tied for first place.
He had everything he’d never known he wanted but now realized he couldn’t live without: a wife who loved him, despite all his faults, a baby who would be loved by him and a large extended family that was just as exuberant as his beautiful bride. And his mom, who’d welcomed Kirsten with open arms. Her healing had come years ago, and she’d thanked her new daughter-in-law—when she thought he wasn’t listening, of course—for helping Snow find the healing that he so desperately needed.
Kirs glanced at him with a smile and spoke to the audience before translating it into English for him. “And now I’d like to introduce my husband, the love of my life and regular worker of miracles, transplant surgeon Snowden Tangredi.”
He smiled as he made his way to the podium, stopping to give his wife’s hand a quick squeeze as he passed her. His heart filled with love and gratitude. She may have introduced him as a “worker of miracles,” but that wasn’t true. Because the real worker of miracles was carrying his child. How did he know she could perform miracles? Because with a single kiss, Kirs had taken Snow’s tragic, damaged heart and somehow made it brand-new.
* * * * *