Dear Joshua,

We left when it could still be night.

My eyes still bore the evidence of sleep deprivation.

The hospital was large yet the only place I could think about was the room that held my Best Friend.

I stepped out of the harsh lights of the hospital hallway and into a comforting environment.

A curtain kept me from seeing my Best Friend however I could hear her soft, soothing voice.

The room was cold, yet bearable.

A bed cradled the star of the show where she was dozing off.

A couch for family took up the rest of the space heightening the cramped feeling I was suppressing.

 I crept in quietly not wanting to disturb her in any way, however her head turned as soon as she heard the door open.

“You're here!”

She exclaimed making my heart full with how much she wanted me to be with her.

I smiled wide and we talked until the time had come.

The last time I was in the waiting period, was six years ago, the day my other nephew was born.

This time however, felt like it was my first, despite experiencing it three times before.

I focused my tired, yet exuberant mind to making sure the star of the show was comfortable in her bed.

Before she was wheeled into the operating room I went to her bedside.

“Hey sis, you doing okay?” I asked, caressing her velvet like skin.

She turned her head slowly toward me with the only an expectant mother could bear. “I’m fine honey, how are you?”

How was I?

Was I a storm waiting to explode into clouds of tears or a calm stream gliding along the difficulties as if they weren’t there.

“I’m fine.” I said to her with a smile.

I only knew that I was the storm terrified that my best friend wouldn’t be okay or that my best friends Little Blessing would not be.

The stress and uncertainty of her last time getting a little blessing here to Earth still replayed itself in my mind.

I did not want to give into the cloud of tears; instead I wanted to be a pillar of strength for my best friend.

So that is what I became.

I focused my new found strength on helping the First Blessing turn his exuberant spirit toward meeting his brother into a placid state of mind.

What I became got me to the moment I had been waiting for.

My brother, the star of the shows husband, poked his head into the room and with a large smile announced “He’s here.”

Gone was the storm and instead the calm stream I had forced myself to become I reveled in because my best friend and Little Blessing were okay.

One by one the opportunity to see the Little Blessing was given to family members.

Somehow I was not the first one out of the door which made my internal storm thunder, but I thought to myself if I waited hours I can wait a few more minutes.

Finally it was my turn.

My brother took me through a variety of different hallways that I could never navigate myself and we came to a door that I knew would give me evidence that my best friend and Little Blessing were okay.

Slowly, I opened the door and there they were.

Even the atmosphere of the room held the evidence of a new child and its mother.

The temperature was cool and the soft beeping of monitoring machines could be heard. My cheeks nearly split with the smile that graced my face when I finally saw my best friend and Little Blessing.

The Little Blessing’s skin felt the same as hers, like the velvet of a softly washed blanket and his eyes were tightly sealed against the harshness of a non-incubated environment.

“He’s beautiful.” I said to my best friend.

She smiled at me and replied, “Yes, he is.”

Love, Auntie.