“Ugh, fine,” he says haughtily, but then he snuggles against me, ever the momma’s boy.
The video starts playing, the same as it’s always been. The day we met. The thwarted proposal. And then the addition of the night of the awards, when Curtis finally got to ask me to marry him. There’s a clip from our wedding, and us dancing at the reception. And the moment the doctor held Alexis up over the curtain during my C-section.
Not long after we brought her home from the hospital, I had to return for a hysterectomy. But we were grateful for the little miracle we were given, and one day Curtis told me about a dream he had when we first started dating. One where we had a huge family with lots of kids, all different races, and how the little girl on my hip looked just like him. I agreed to his unspoken question in a heartbeat.
Which led to the tear-jerking moment on the screen now, when Curtis and I stepped off the plane with Louis, as Emmy, Dean, my parents, and Curtis’s Yaya held up signs welcoming him to our big family.
But then comes the new addition, the one we recorded this morning when we got the news. At the same moment, Curtis and I look at each other, our eyes locking for a moment of secret joy, and then together we watch the kids’ reaction.
“Wait… what does that say?” Louis prompts, the excitement in his African accent making the hairs on my arms stand on end.
He reaches for the remote and pauses the screen, his eyes going wide as his jaw drops.
“What is it?” Alexis asks. “Lou-Lou! What’s it say? I can’t read!”
He stands up, taking her hand, and like the amazing big brother he’s been since the day we brought him home, he tugs her over to the screen, his finger pointing to each word as he reads out loud. “It says, ‘Rockwell Party of Five, established 2026.”
She shakes her little head, her blonde pigtails whipping around her face. “What does that mean?” she asks.
Curtis grabs my hand, squeezing it before lifting it to his lips to press a kiss to my knuckles.
“It means we’re getting a brother or sister!” Louis yells with glee, and at Alexis’s precious gasp, they jump around the living room while we watch on.
The End