Two Sisters

Dear Little One,

Last fall, your mother and I planned to meet in the middle, at Two Sisters, one of our favorite consignment shops that lies halfway between our homes.

I was on the phone as I wheeled into the parking lot when I spotted your pretty Mama, holding your sister on her hip. Judging from your mother’s countenance, something was amiss; this I knew. I tried, as graciously as possible, to end the phone call because guess what?

Your Mama is my baby.

I opened the truck door and tumbled out.

What’s wrong? I asked, reaching for your big sister, who at that time was not even five months old.

Tears sprang to your Mama’s eyes, and when she told me I might want to sit down, I knew beyond a shadow of a doubt that there was reason to rejoice.

Just like that, my heart expanded, adding another room.

A room just for you.

God is always good and never surprised, I said as I hugged her, simultaneously performing a bit of feverish math. You and your big sister will be a smidgen over one year apart: Irish twins, as they say, and soon to be the best of friends.

Welcome to the family, third grandbaby of mine. God has knit you together.

By the way, I have been doing some knitting, too.

***

Wouldn’t it be a fantastic story if this baby is a girl? I laughed, nudging your Mama. Two sisters? The name of the shop where you told me that I would be a grandmother again?

She smiled.

I think it’s a boy, she said, happily.

A month or two later, I bought you a soft teddy bear, a little white Gund, the brand my grandfather once bought for me.

At your Mama’s request, I knit two tiny scarves: pale pink and soft blue.

The plan?

Your Daddy would open your sonogram results, with your Mama’s back turned. He would then tie the appropriate scarf on the little fellow’s neck and ask your mother to spin around.

So I knit those miniature scarves and prayed for you as I went, just as I prayed for our first grandbaby and our second: that God would draw you to himself at a young age. As the scarves took shape, I wondered what God had in store.

Would it be two sisters? Or a sister and a brother?