After twelve hours, Grace was holding their baby for the first time and gazing into the dark, watchful eyes of the person they had spent the previous nine months getting ready to meet. They were now a family of three instead of two after a lengthy but simple labor that followed the natural timeframe Dr. Martinez had anticipated.
"She's perfect," Max remarked softly as he sat beside Grace on the hospital bed, examining their daughter's face with the focused focus he applied to everything that was important to him.
"She's perfect," Grace concurred, astonished by the instantaneous and total love she experienced for this new acquaintance. "Look at her hands."
In fact, their daughter, whom they had chosen to name Phoebe in the last weeks of her pregnancy, was assessing her new surroundings w
