Her voice cracks as salt water wells in her large blue eyes as it does on the faces of her sisters sitting at the dining room table.
After a dinner of every left over in the Fridge, Laurel, the 12 year old, continues to vocalize feelings Maddie and Cassidy repress.
Sarah's parents are visiting and working hard on getting Che's room ready and doing a fantastic job as it now looks like Clare Hope Elliott has a Nursery.
In addition to their mother's swollen belly, Che's becoming real to the girls ... gobbling up their space with her stuff.
"That's not true!" Sarah says in exasperation.
"It is too," Laurel says now crying.
It's a conversation that been building for days as each girl is asking Sarah things about me ... "Why is he like that?" ... "I don't understand Mike's humor!" ... "He gets mad but, I don't know, he's ... I don't know."
Sitting there nursing a glass of wine, my heart rips in pieces.
This time, it's my voice that cracks as tears stream down my face and I sob as I speak.
"You're gonna make me cry ... I don't understand how you can think that ... God I love you all so ... and I'm happy you're gonna have a sister ... and Jeremy, Kristen and Chelsea are having a sister ... it's room for more love in our house ... in our lives."
And all three girls rise without speaking and lay their heads on me and ... all the words go away.
They know I love them.
I know they love me.
We're all crazy and different and could kill one another half the time ... each of the girls honestly believe they're only children inconvenienced by the presence of others ... in a blended family ... in a greedy world full of distractions and dishonesty.
But this is a honest moment.
Five of us embrace and cry and openly give love in our own ways for a moment.
I'm a lucky man having lived the glories of raising Jeremy, Kristen and Chelsea who I love with everything in me.
And now I get to do it again with stranger girls who I love every bit as much.
And all us share the joy there's room for more.
Ethan, our grandson, opened that door.
Che's knocking it down.
