*Summer*

I had been unable to sleep, too many emotions toying with me through the night keeping me awake. The excitement of being able, at long last, to hold my daughter in my arms is beyond bearing.

I have spent hours considering all the various dresses I will have sewn for her, the bonnets she will wear, the cute shoes. I have thought about the toys with which she will play, the books that will be read to her as she is rocked in her mother’s lap. Then like a kaleidoscope pointed toward the sun, the glass turns, and another image comes to mind: the sorrow and disappointment easing over...