Chapter 49
Chapter Forty-Nine
Ella
Two years later
Seth and I wasted no time dating before getting married.
We got engaged right after getting back from Paris and were married five months later.
I didn’t see the point. I knew he was the one.
Any man who would fight to bring you back to God deserves a chance to steal your heart.
Seth was the reason I still had a relationship with the Lord today.
“How’s my favorite baby factory?” Seth joked as he came into the kitchen, where I was frying up some of Honey’s eggs.
Honey sat patiently at my feet in her flower diaper while the twins banged on the table, chanting, “We want food!” Seth rubbed his hand over my swollen belly, and I laughed.
“Baby factory? You’re gonna pay for that.” I warned him.
He wasn’t wrong though. We’d found out a few months ago that we were expecting twins.
Again.
The doctor thought I was ovulating twice a month instead of once.
So I was about to be a mom of four. And honestly, I was excited.
Seth was a wonderful father figure. The twins loved him, and he always took time to play with them after work or take them out on the farm and teach them things.
Even at barely three years old, he had June riding a small pony.
He stood next to her the entire time and made her wear a helmet, but she looked like she was born to be a cowgirl.
Paulie, however, wanted nothing to do with horses.
He would rather sit with Honey by the fire while feeding her treats.
It was incredible how much June and Seth were alike and how special their relationship was.
I was convinced that God had given her to him through me, even more so since I’d learned that June was the name he and Scarlett had picked out for their daughter.
And now we were about to be blessed with two more.
“I don’t mind being a baby factory so long as it’s with you,” I told him before he planted a kiss on my lips and then rubbed my belly, greeting the babies.
“Well, good, because I want about a dozen more.”
I laughed, shaking the spatula at him. “I draw the line at six!”
He made a face like he wasn’t convinced of that number.
“Daddy! Sit by meeee,” June said, reaching for him, and I saw tears line his eyes.
Whenever the twins called him daddy, which was about fifteen times a day, Seth always looked like he was near tears. Like he’d waited years for that title and couldn’t believe he’d earned it.
I thanked God then for His great plan, which I didn’t claim to ever fully understand, but I’d learned to trust Him enough with my heart.
He knew what He was doing, and as believers in Christ, we weren’t promised an easy or perfect life.
We were promised eternity with Him. And I was grateful for that.
I’d come to the conclusion that, yes, the Lord had allowed James to be taken, but God was still good. So good.
Seth
That night, while Ella was in the shower, I snuck into the nursery we were setting up for the new babies.
I was going to need to build an addition onto the house eventually.
But June and Paulie were sharing a room that used to be my office.
My office was now Ella’s old house, the dairy farm was thriving, and we had a whole staff that worked out of the original farmhouse my great-grandfather had built.
We’d decided to put the baby twins in the nursery I’d designed with Scarlett.
The second Ella and I had gotten engaged after Paris, I’d begun to break down the nursery and make way for new, but I’d kept the crib in the garage.
Something about this crib was special to me.
Now, I ran my hand over it, reassembled near the rear wall with a similar one beside it.
I was so overwhelmed with joy and gratitude that I fell to my knees and clasped my hands.
“Thank you, Lord, for all my blessings. May I always be seen as worthy in Your eyes of keeping them. And as always, Your will be done.”
It was the scariest prayer a believer could pray, but if you trusted your Creator, it could lead to the most beautiful life.
The End