"Oh remember this one?" Stef chuckled as she handed Lena a photograph of Jesus up in a tree with a pillow and a granola bar.
"Oh, yeah." Lena smiled as she took the photograph from Stef, studied it for a few minutes and then passed it to Elena who was waiting impatiently for a chance to have a look even though she had a box-full of them right in front of her.
"This was when Jesus ran away from home." Stef explained, still chuckling at the memory. "He was about seven and the twins were invited to visit the zoo with some friends but Jesus was having a particularly bad day. He was excited and just, all over the place and he broke Lena's favorite vase." Stef said.
"It had been my grandmother's." Lena explained. "Hand cut crystal and absolutely gorgeous." She recalled.
"Anyway, Jesus accidentally broke the vase and tried to hide it." Stef continued. "Mariana told on him and Jesus was so upset with her for it." Stef smiled at Lena as the two reminisced. "Well, we got upset with Jesus and said he couldn't go to the zoo and he was angry with Mariana for tattling and when we told him he couldn't keep yelling at her and he said we were..." She paused, turning to Lena once again as the two tried to recall the exact words the seven year old had said.
"...The most pregnantist parents in the whole world." Stef and Lena said together as they laughed.
"Pregnantist?" Elena and Ana asked in unison, wondering that exactly that meant.
"We think he meant prejudiced." Lena explained, wiping her eyes to rid them of the tears of laughter.
Victor, Elena and Ana joined Stef, Lena and Mariana in laughing as Jesus looked down in embarrassment, just waiting for this story to end.
"Why was he in the tree?" Victor asked, wondering what all this had to do with the picture.
"Well, we laughed then too and he got even more upset and decided to run away from home." Lena said.
"Ran up the stairs, grabbed his pillow and walked right out the front door." Stef continued. "Walked around the house, climbed the tree and sat there for all of twenty minutes before he decided that one granola bar wasn't going to cut it."
"Ha ha ha." Jesus said once the entire story was over. "Just remember, I was six." He reminded them all, rolling his eyes.
"I was six too, I didn't run away to a tree." Mariana pointed out.
"No, you ran away to the dining room." Jesus said.
"What?" Mariana shrugged, as though it was the most natural thing in the world. "We weren't allowed outside the house after dark." She defended. "Besides, no one ever used the dining room."
"Tell me about this one." Ana said, handing Lena a picture of Brandon and the twins all dressed up with a corsage on Mariana's arm and a rose in the lapel of the boys' jackets.
"That was Brandon's very first performance." Lena said with a smile, handing the picture to Stef.
"Right." Stef smiled nostalgically, remembering her little boy performing for almost a hundred people at just nine years old. "We were so proud of him."
"I had a dress almost exactly like that one when I was around your age." Ana said to Mariana before turning to Elena. "Remember the blue dress with the little bows at the bottom of the skirt?" She asked her mother.
"I remember that one." Elena said, reaching for the picture in Stef's hand to have a look at the dress.
"Grams bought me that dress just for the concert." Mariana told them. "She said 'everyone dresses up for the theater'" Mariana quoted with a bright smile.
"Here was their first trip to Disney." Stef said, peering over Victor's shoulder at a picture in his hand.
"That was the best day of my life." Jesus said, still relishing that adventure.
"These were from their last birthday." Lena added, going though a small pile of pictures on her lap.
For a few moments each one just looked through the pictures, occasionally passing some around and telling the story behind it when suddenly Ana became exceptionally quiet. Everyone peered to see what photos she was looking at and saw Mariana sitting in the grass with Stef and Lena each kissing a cheek.
Another of Jesus sitting on Stef's shoulders, ready to shoot a basketball into the basket while Lena and Brandon cheered from the sidelines.
A third was of Brandon and both twins sitting in front of the TV with chicken pox marks all over them. Lena was sitting between the twins and in the picture you could see her gently pulling Jesus' hand away from scratching his face while Mariana had a head reacted against Lena, playing with a curl of her hair.
"That's the box from when they first came to live with us." Lena said softly, realizing the significance of the pictures in that box - the kids in those pictures were the ones that even Ana remembered.
The atmosphere filled with silence and bittersweet heartache as Ana flipped through a few more of the pictures.
Mariana standing in front of their car with a double scoop ice-cream cone in her hands, smears of ice-cream on her nose, chin and down her t-shirt and the biggest toothless smile on her face.
A very proud Jesus on a bicycle peddling on the sidewalk with Stef sitting on the curb, a spanner and a set of training wheels discarded beside her.
All three kids in bathing suits running through a sprinkler on a hot day, a hat on Mariana's head and t-shirts covering the boys' bodies.
Stef and Lena with all three kids dressed up in fancy clothes standing with Lena's parents around a cake with the number sixty on it.
Mariana and Jesus with Stef, Lena and Brandon in front of a huge cake that said 'Introducing Jesus and Mariana Foster', and surrounded by a pile of unwrapped presents, paper and bows.
"Excuse me." Ana said as she put the box down and quickly left the garage, trying hard not to let anyone see her cry.
Stef, Lena, the twins and Ana's parents all looked on helplessly. As happy as Stef and Lena were to call Mariana and Jesus their children they understood how hard it must be for Ana to watch her kids be a part of another family.
Victor and Elena began to follow Ana but much like the night before, Stef stopped them. "Please, let me." She said, hoping to have a word alone with the woman who was once also a mother to her children.
Stef went outside and found Ana staring at the rather empty street, trying to regain her composure. She walked over slowly, trying to think of what to say but before she could speak, Ana spoke up.
"I could never have given them even half of what you did." Ana admitted, her voice filled with regret. "Even if I hadn't been high all the time, they would have suffered."
Stef remained silent, unsure of how to respond. She couldn't disagree with the woman for even if she wasn't spending all her money on drugs, they still wouldn't have had enough to get by.
"They were better off with you." Ana said in a eerily emotionless tone. "I'm not cut out to be a mother." She added, more to herself than to Stef.
"You're not a bad mother." Stef finally spoke up. "You're doing so well for Isabella."
"Look at last night." Ana reminded her with a sarcastic laugh. "I left my baby with my niece and went out and got drunk." She said regretfully.
"We all make mistakes Ana." Stef said in a motherly tone. "None of us are flawless."
"You ever get so drunk you ruin your kids' birthday party?" Ana asked with a raised eyebrow.
"I lost Mariana in a mall once." Stef replied. "I let Jesus climb a tree and he fell and broke his arm. Brandon thinks I'm related to Hitler and Callie says I'm incapable of turning off 'cop mode' even when I'm not at work." She listed. Then, as an afterthought to lighten the mood slightly, she added. "And if you ask Lena, she'll give you a nice, long list of all my mistakes." She smiled, hoping to bring a smile to the younger woman's face as well.
But while Ana did smile slightly, it was obvious that she was still upset.
"Ana, everything that's happened is in the past." Stef said seriously. "There's nothing anyone can do about it and there's no use dwelling on it. You've got a second chance with Isabella. You know the mistakes you made the last time and you can do something about it." She said encouragingly. "In fact, you're already doing something about it." She corrected and elaborated when Ana looked up at her quizzically. "You asked your parents for help this time which is a huge step." Stef said. "And you're working so much harder at staying sober and being a good mother to your daughter."
"Will it be enough?" Ana asked, a hint of hope in her voice.
"If you keep working at it, it will be." Stef assured. "And as for the twins, we may be their parents now but the only reason we got that chance is because you brought them into this world and you are a very important part of their lives. You may not be their mom any more but you are their family and they want to be a part of your life so you're getting a second chance with them too. So right there are three perfectly good reasons to keep working at it."
"Stef and Lena stood motionless at the kitchen sink, Lena with a dish and sponge in her hands and Stef with a plate and towel in hers - waiting for Mariana to say whatever she had come to say.
Mariana looked to Jesus for a moment before taking a step forward. "We just wanted to say thank you." Mariana began.
"For what?" Stef asked with a frown.
"Understanding." Mariana answered. "Understanding when we want to know our birth family, supporting us through it and being there for us when things don't work out the way we want them too."
"Honey." Lena said, a frown on her face, not liking the fact that her kids seemed to feel so indebted to them.
"No." Mariana stopped her. "We just want to make it clear that we aren't missing anything." She said. "We just wanted to get to know Ana and Gabe because we are a part of them but you are our moms and if we had to choose, between you and them, we'd pick you." She said sincerely.
"And thanks for not making us choose." Jesus added, realizing how easy it would be for his moms' to say that they weren't to their biological parents ever again.
"Yeah, thanks for understanding." Mariana agreed as she walked up to her moms to give them a hug. "I love you." She said as their arms wrapped around her.
"We love you too baby." Lena said as Stef held out her arms for her son to join them. "We love you both so much."
The four of them stood together in the middle of the kitchen, each one thankful for the family they had and the life they were given.