Surprise Valentine

As soon they heard that, everyone scrambled to grab my suitcase and help us out to the car. Thankfully, we made it to the hospital just in time.

It seemed our son Andrew Michael, couldn't wait to make his way into the world. We both breathed a sigh of relief when he announced it with a loud, healthy cry. Thankfully, his sister Noelle Dawn was right behind him, only a few minutes later, crying out a little quieter.

Noel clutching my hand, wiped at his eyes when the nurse presented us with our early Valentine surprise, our precious twins, all cleaned up with a clean bill of health.

With their little pink bow mouths and tiny fingers, one wrapped in blue and the other in pink, they just looked so adorable with a halo of reddish-blond curls.

"Aren't they beautiful?" I said, as I held my son for the first time, while Noel carefully cradled his new daughter.

Since we knew we were having a boy and a girl, we decided to name our son for his grandfathers.

Until he read the tag on her ankle, Noel had no idea that I had decided to honor his late wife, by naming our daughter Noelle Dawn.

"You called her Dawn?" Noel said, looking surprised.

"Knowing she had wanted to have children, but sadly never lived long enough to see it happen, I thought it would be a nice way for her to live on."

"God, you are sweet," he said, pressing a kiss to my lips.

The two of us broke out laughing, when we realized we were both wiping away tears on what should have been one of happiest days of our lives. The day we were blessed to have two healthy children.

Of course, before she even held her new grandbabies, my mom had to pull out her phone to get some pictures - loads and loads of pictures.

Noel and I just smiled and posed with our little bundles of joy, since we'd gotten used to her pointing her phone at us.

When my little niece Sarah, couldn't quite pronounce their names, and started calling them Andy and Noie, everyone thought it sounded so cute, the names kind of stuck. And that's what we called them.

**

Though Noel knew that I had taken a class before they were born to help me nurse them, he was still surprised when the first day we were home, he saw that I could feed them both at once. One on each breast, with one on either side of me, cradled on pillows.

"You really are amazing," he said, taking a seat beside me on the couch.

The way he was smiling, as he stroked his hand over our little son's head, I said, "What's that smile for?"

He shook his head. "Sometimes I still can't believe this is my life now. And I am so glad I took a chance and went looking for that coffee at the airport."

"Me, too," I said, pressing a kiss to his cheek.

Or we never would have met, fallen in love, gotten married, had our beautiful twins, or be living out our dream on our very own farm in the country.