PART 1
I had always thought I was exceptionally fortunate because my mother-in-law, Brenda, felt like a second mother to me. She supported me through my entire pregnancy and could not wait to meet her granddaughter. Then she walked into my maternity ward room, looked at my newborn baby’s arm, and suddenly went completely pale.
I have always loved my mother-in-law, Brenda, from the moment I met her. I know people frequently joke about nightmare mothers-in-law, but Brenda was never like that with me. From the very beginning, she treated me like her own family without ever trying to control me.
When we learned we were having a girl, she came over in old sweatpants and spent the entire afternoon helping us paint the nursery pink. When I finally called her with the original pregnancy news, she started crying so hard that I had to ask if she was doing okay. After that emotional phone call, Brenda went completely overboard in the best way possible.
During the last two months of my pregnancy, she showed up at our house with warm casseroles and once cleaned our entire kitchen while playfully yelling at Lucas because he had put cast iron in the dishwasher. I was in labor for almost twenty hours, and by the end, I was shaking from total physical exhaustion.
“You married him willingly,” Brenda joked gently when she visited us earlier that week.
“I was young and naive,” I replied with a weak laugh.
Lucas called out from the other room with a grin. “I can hear both of you talking about me!”
I was in labor for almost twenty hours, and by the end, I was shaking from head to toe. Then I heard our daughter cry for the very first time, filling the delivery room with a sweet sound. Visitors were not allowed in immediately, so the first night was mostly nurses coming and going while I tried to catch some sleep.
They placed her warm body on my chest, and I immediately started sobbing tears of joy. Lucas kissed my forehead softly. “She’s perfect, absolute perfection,” he whispered. We named her Maya.
Visitors were still restricted during those initial hours, so the first night passed in a blur of rest and nursing checks. The next morning, Lucas arrived carrying a bright bundle of flowers even though I had explicitly told him not to spend money on gifts. An hour later, Brenda came bustling through the door carrying two gift bags and a giant stuffed rabbit that was almost as big as Maya.
Lucas picked Maya up from her blanket and just stared at her tiny face in wonder. Then Brenda called us on her cell phone while parking downstairs. “I’m coming up right now,” she said excitedly.
