Chapter 1:

First Glimpse

Joyce Cohen-Chang held a small baby girl in her arms: Her daughter. Little Tina Cohen-Chang had come into the world only two weeks ago, weighing 7.2 pounds and with a small head of black hair.

The baby lay asleep in her arms, snoring softly, her cheeks a rosy red color. Mrs. Cohen-Chang smiled at the little girl, glad that her only daughter had finally arrived, happy and healthy.

After she had finished rocking her in her arms, she set the baby down in her crib and let her sleep. With one last smile in goodbye at the small girl, Mrs. Cohen-Chang stepped out of the room.

She walked to the kitchen, going to pour herself a glass of water after a tiring day to find her husband sitting at the kitchen table, reading some mail. The two happy parents of the small baby girl were both in their late twenties and living in their own house in Lima, Ohio. Both worked their own jobs, and were perfectly happy living in the small town.

Once she had made it to the kitchen and stepped in front of the fridge, he asked with an air of concern, "Joyce… how is she?"

She breathed a sigh of exhaustion. "She's fine, Will… at least she's finally asleep."

He smiled at his wife and chuckled. "Yeah, she does tend to cry a lot at night. But she's a baby. What did you expect, for Tina to go to sleep with any struggle at all?"

Joyce opened her mouth to reply, but the ring of the doorbell interrupted her.

"Oh, that must be Katherine," Joyce declared excitedly.

"Katherine's coming?" Will asked, sounding a little annoyed. "I thought it was going to be just me, you and the baby today. Aren't you tired of everyone coming to see Tina all of this week, making such a fuss over the little girl?"

"Well, I wanted Katherine to come over and bring Mike, her little boy," she said, making her way towards the living room and over to the door. "And besides… she's my best friend and she hasn't even seen the baby yet."

"Fine," he surrendered, picking up that day's newspaper to read and abandoning the bills that rested on the table.

Once Joyce got to the door, she looked through the peep hole to see a woman and her husband, both Asian looking, with a little baby boy in her arms.

Quickly, Joyce opened the door, swallowing her friend with welcomes and hugs.

"Congratulations!" the woman at the door said, almost bouncing up and down from the excitement. "Now we're both parents!"

"Hey, Katherine!" she exclaimed, hugging her tightly. "I'm so glad you could come!"

"Me too," she said happily. "And I'm sorry I couldn't make it the day of the delivery of the baby. Of course I had to be out of town the day of my best friend's baby was born-"

"You know what?" Joyce started. "That's fine. At least you're here now! Come on in; she's asleep in the nursery."

The two women walked to the other side of the house where the room was, both conversing on the way.

"So, is this little Mike?" Joyce asked in her baby voice, causing the little boy to smile.

"Yes, he's actually grown a little bit, even though he's just four months old," Katherine said, bouncing the boy up and down with her hands, making him giggle.

"Well, he's certainly gotten a lot bigger than the last time I saw him," Joyce said, right as they approached the door of the room.

Joyce stepped in first, leading the way for Katherine. She walked to the crib, smiling down at Tina's sleeping body.

"Aw… is that her?" Katherine asked, looking at the baby in awe. "Oh… Joyce, she's so beautiful."

Katherine suddenly lifted Mike up from when he lay in her arms to the side of the crib. The little boy first looked around, as if wondering what to do next. Then he looked down at the tiny girl in the crib and started making gurgly noises, like saying, 'Look! There's another baby in there!'

Katherine smiled at her son's amusement at the other small person, then turned to Joyce.

"Should I-?"

"Oh, go ahead! You can put Mike in the crib, its fine." Joyce responded to Katherine's unasked question.

Katherine hesitantly raised Mike and dropped him into the crib. She set him down a safe three inches away from the sleeping baby, knowing that he'd probably wake her up.

The little boy looked up at his mother in wonder, his growing black hair partially covering his tiny forehead. The two mothers smiled at the little children in the crib.

"Look at them," Katherine started with a small laugh. "They look so much alike, that the only way you could tell them apart is because her head a little bit rounder than Mike's."

Joyce laughed too and smiled, feeling her heart swell with joy. Finally, those nine months of up and downs had paid off. Now… she knew that her suffering, ankle-swellings, cravings, and mood swings had all been for a reason. The only thing that put her at peace was the picture of Tina, sound asleep and serene in her crib.

"What did you say you named her?" Katherine questioned. "Was it… Tasha?"

"Tina," Joyce corrected her with a grin.

"Oh, right," Katherine said sheepishly, embarrassed that she hadn't managed to remember her best friend's baby's name. "I knew it started with a T."

Mike looked all around the crib, as if looking for the little baby he saw earlier. When he spotted Tina, he gurgled and squealed, as if happy that now he had a friend to play with.

Tina's small eyes opened and she breathed deeply through her nose, waking up because of Mike's shrieks. She looked around, no part of her body moving except her eyes. When she spotted Mike, she merely looked at him in wonder, her eyes wide.

"Okay, I think I should take Mike out, now," Katherine announced. "He's already woken Tina up; I don't want him to make her cry or something."

She dipped her hands into the crib and scoped Mike out. He made noises in protest, but quieted down after a little bit.

After the little exchange and Katherine and Mike's first glimpses at the new baby, Katherine gave Joyce and her husband gifts for Tina that she was not able to bring earlier. And Mike just sat on his mother's lap the whole time… his thumb in his mouth, hardly knowing that that's where their story began, with a simple first glimpse.