EMMA'S STORY

It was November 1996, a Thanksgiving weekend, and all of my family – my mom and her new husband, my brother and his wife and their four boys, my husband and our two daughters, and one boyfriend and I, were in Massachusetts for a family reunion weekend.  We’d had a great time visiting, playing games at night, going to Sturbridge Village, and browsing through the craft fair that happened to be there as well that weekend.  Everyone was having a great time, except our 16 year old daughter Becky, who was feeling tired and nauseous the entire time.  We encouraged her to come for meals and try and eat something but aside from feeling sorry that she wasn’t feeling well all weekend, the rest of us did our best to have a good time. 

Then on Saturday evening when we were all sitting around after dinner visiting by the fireplace in the hotel lobby, my eldest daughter Amy came to get me.  She pulled me aside and told me that Becky wanted to see me up in our room.

I arrived to find Becky sitting on the side of the bed crying.  I think she began to talk about needing to tell me something but that would make me really mad when I heard it.  I encouraged her that I would be able to take whatever it was, but after just a few minutes of waiting for her to screw up the courage to say what it was, I knew.

Becky had been dating a young guy, a friend of my nephews, for a few months.  I didn’t know for certain that they had had a physical relationship, but I suspected it.  Before the words were out of Becky’s mouth, I knew.  She was pregnant.  After assuring her that whatever lay ahead we’d manage together, I left to find the rest of our family.

First I told my husband Jim, and we felt the full blast of shock together.  We had just lived through some very difficult years and thought that we had at last seen the light at the end of that particular tunnel, only to round the bend and find another one, different but also life shattering.

It was impossible not to tell the family who saw our faces and immediately began wondering what had suddenly upset us so much.  So we told them, and found ourselves as a family weathering the shock and giving support as we could.  We still had an evening together before heading home, but our fun time together had been eclipsed by sadness.

I remember driving home the next day looking back at Becky while she slept and thinking, “She’s so young.  What in the world were we going to do?”

One thing that we knew we were going to do, my husband and I, was to encourage Becky that we would support her in the days ahead, whatever that looked like and whatever it took.  I knew Becky.  She had a soft heart.  I knew she could never have an abortion and I was pretty certain she’d have a very hard time giving her child up for adoption.  And so Jim and I began to talk about what we could do to help her.

Becky was a junior in high school.  We certainly wanted her to finish out the school year, have her baby that summer, and return to finish high school in the fall.  So it was decided that I would continue to work at my job at a large medical testing lab until the summer Becky would give birth and then I would leave my job and stay home with her baby while Becky finished high school.

The months following Becky’s news were so difficult.  She had morning sickness and spent weeks on the couch.  Tutors came to our home so that she wouldn't fall behind in her education.  When she finally did return to school (an all girls school) there was no denying her pregnancy.  She became, “that pregnant girl”, to those who attended her school.  And there were many instances where she drew the stares of others whenever she was out in public.  Yet, I was so proud of her for choosing to carry her baby to term.

There were difficulties with the dad, who was having struggles of his own accepting that he would be a father.  Many long and heated arguments ensued over those months.

Then came the day, August 2, 1997 when Becky entered the hospital to give birth and we were able to see Emma Brooke Elwood, the most beautiful little baby in all the world, for the very first time!

It’s impossible to imagine how our lives would have been without Emma, but I have often wondered, and have come to the conclusion that they would be impoverished. 

From the infant with the black hair and the perfectly round face, to the toddler with the fake (“smile for us Emma”) smile, to the elementary child with whom I played “Roller Coaster Tycoon” for an entire summer, to the lovely young lady she is today, Emma has added so much joy to each of us individually, to us as a family, and to her dad and mom.

Today, impossibly, Emma turns 17.  What a joy and treasure she is to us! 

Thank you Lord for this wonderful child with which you’ve blessed our family.  We cannot imagine life without Emma.  We’re so thankful that we don’t have to!