Running on Insulin

Chapter 73

Saturday morning Samantha was downstairs before Jenna and I got down there. 

"Hey baby girl," I said. "What are you doing up so early?"

"Nothing. I just thought I'd make some breakfast," she said, smiling. 

"Really?" Jenna said.  "What a lovely treat! What's for breakfast?"

"Uh, well, I made pancakes, because that's kinda all I know how to make, well, I can scramble eggs, but I didn't feel like eggs.  And I made coffee, and toast."

"What did we do to deserve this?" Jenna asked, smiling and giving Samantha a gentle hug and a kiss on her head. 

"Nothing," she smiled. "I kinda heard you talking to Brendon and Sarah last night, and, well, you made me feel so happy. I don't remember when I felt so happy before in my life.  Well, maybe when my mom, my birth mom, was still alive."

"Oh sweetie," Jenna said. "I didn't know you overheard us. But I'm glad you're happy with what you overheard."

"I don't think I ever really got the chance to say thank you," Samantha said. 

"For what?" I asked. 

"Nevermind. It sounds stupid," she said. 

"Come on sweetheart. What did you want to thank us for?"

"Well, I still think it sounds stupid, but... Thanks for adopting me. And dealing with all the stuff that my birth father did that messed me up. And helping me work through some of it."

Jenna had tears in her eyes, and I'm pretty sure I did too.  Both of us went up to her and gave her the tightest hug we felt comfortable giving her. 

"Samantha, Tyler and I have said over and over that we don't know what it was but something spoke to us the night you landed in our backyard. Neither of us spoke to each other about taking you in as a foster, before we both agreed to take you as a foster. And when we found out your birth father's rights were going to be terminated, adopting you was just the next most natural thing to us. We didn't give it a second thought. Not once.  And you have amazed us day after day. Even when things get hard, either for you or for us, not once have we questioned our decision. Not once have we looked back on some of the tougher things we've dealt with with you and said 'what are we doing?'. We know we all have a lot of work with everything you've dealt with. I know sometimes you don't think you can get through some of the things you have, and that sometimes you have trouble accepting that things are very different for you now, but we love you. We really, really love you." Jenna said, tears falling from her eyes.  "And now I'm ugly crying."

I looked down at Samantha and tears were falling from her eyes too. 

"I think I'm starting to remember what love is. What it means. And, and..." she broke down crying harder. 

The three of us stood there hugging each other until Josh's voice broke us apart. 

"What in the world? Are the three of you okay? Or are you trying to drown each other? What happened?" he asked. 

"Nothing. Just our daughter being awesome," I said. 

"I like how that sounds," Jenna said, looking down at Sam. "Our daughter."

Samantha smiled. 

She had yet to call us 'Mom' and 'Dad', but that was okay. She may or may not ever become comfortable with it, but she knew we had her back, and that's what was important to me. 

While we ate the delicious breakfast Samantha made, we sat around just talking.  Samantha asked who Jessie was.

"When did you hear about Jessie?" I asked.