"You're pregnant"

The words of Dr. Horringer echoed in her head as she rode the bus home from his office on Harley Street. She thought she would never hear those words in her life after seeing Dr. Horringer three years ago when he told Patrick it would be very unlikely that she would be able to carry a child. She would have given anything to hear those words three years ago, but now, she wasn't quite sure how to feel. Part of her was excited to have another child to love and admired how amazing God is to give her such a wonderful blessing, but part of her worried about what Patrick would think, they never really discussed expanding their family after adopting Angela. What would Timothy think having a sibling 15 years younger than him? How would Angela feel when she got older about the situation? She wondered how this would impact the future of her career. There was no turning back now, she thought as she got off the bus to walk home.

She picked up Angela and they arrived home to an empty house. When she put her down, she ran over to her toys and began to play with her dolls. When Dr. Horringer called this morning wanting to discuss her test results from her appointment three days prior, Patrick had given her the afternoon off to go see the doctor, but he had evening rounds and was unable to go with her. She didn't have much time to put the plan together, Patrick would want to know the results as soon as he saw her. She never thought she would ever get to plan a romantic pregnancy reveal, but now she had the perfect chance and did not want to mess up. She went into the spare closet, and started looking on the shelves, glancing by as she looked where Timothy's leg braces once hung on the wall. She looked through all the drawers and couldn't find the thing she was looking for. She didn't have much time to come up with another plan before Timothy arrived home, making worry fill inside her. When she was about to give up, she saw it hiding underneath one of Timothy's shirts. She grabbed an empty box and put it inside and shut the lid. She left the closet and went into their bedroom and put the box under the bed. Now all that was left to do was to wait for his arrival home.

Timothy and Angela were already in bed when Patrick arrived home. She was standing in the living room waiting for him and Shelagh walked down the hall to their bedroom with Patrick following behind and closed the door. They were standing by the bed when Shelagh asked,

"How did Mrs. Rollins' delivery go?"

"It was a long labor, but mom and baby are doing well" he replied

Silence started to fill the room and Shelagh started getting really nervous about the truth that was about to come out. Finally, after what felt like forever, Patrick asked,

"What did the test results say?"

She grabbed the box from underneath the bed and sat on the bed feeling too nauseous to stand back up. She extended her arms towards him with the box.

"I have something for you" she said.

With a confused look on his face, he replied "What are you doing? What were your results?"

"Just open the box" she replied.

He grabbed the box with a confused look on his face and opened it. Inside was the nightdress Shelagh had made when they first married that Angela later wore. He put the box down on the bed and held the nightdress with both hands. She anxiously awaited his reaction as he processed what was happening. He just stared at the nightdress with a stunned look, saying nothing.

"Patrick?" She said

He went from looking at the nightdress and looked at Shelagh with a huge grin on his face.

"You're pregnant?" he said like he already knew the answer

"Yes" she answered, smiling back at him.

He sat on the bed with her and grabbed her hand, still smiling ear to ear and said

"This is so astonishing, Shelagh, I couldn't be more trilled"

"Obviously being a doctor, when you told me your symptoms, pregnancy crossed my mind, but with the prognosis you were given three years ago from Dr. Horringer, I dismissed it from my mind" he added.

"Me too, I thought I had caught the stomach flu" she replied.

"I'm very excited to have another child to love, but I'm also worried because things are so good the way they are now, I wonder what will Timothy and Angela think? Would I be able to pick up my work again once the baby was born?" She added.

"I know that Angela would be happy to have another sibling to play with and Timothy would be delighted to welcome a new member to the family. We were able to find someone to watch Angela so you could work and we can do the same for the baby. I love working with you everyday and I want you to return to work with me after the baby is born if that is what you want. We will figure this out, we always do" he answered.

Shelagh smiled at him relieved that he was so happy about the new arrival.

"I love you" said Shelagh

"I love you too" Patrick replied

He leaned in and embraced in a sweet kiss. Shelagh broke the kiss, starting to giggle.

"What's so funny?" He asked

"I guess that we brought home a little more from South Africa than we thought" she answered.