Tina Kane
Mr. Smith
Composition 1
Washington
September 8, 2009 Two for the Price of One
To this day I swear I did not know beforehand that my mother was pregnant. I’m not sure what it was that made me look at my two younger brothers at the dinner table, focus on my parents and announce, “Wouldn’t it be great if I had a sister?” My father’s face turned the same shade of red as the pasta sauce on his plate and my mother glowered. I was accused of snooping. Proclaiming my innocence I swore I didn’t know what my parents were talking about. Mom was quiet for a few moments before quietly confessing that she was pregnant, but the baby was not likely to make it. Non-phased, I told her God would never let that happen to her. That night, at the not-a-child but not-yet-a-teenager age of twelve, I began to pray. I kept praying, and by the time my mother’s pregnancy was over, those prayers forever changed how I saw my religion.
Although I had been a ‘born again’ Christian since the age of eight, I had never been overtly religious or focused on the God I worshiped. So on the night when I started praying, I wasn’t sure what would happen. I sat up on my bed and folded my hands together. Then, staring at the ceiling I asked this mysterious being called ‘God’ to save my baby sibling. Then, in case I sounded presumptuous, I added that He didn’t have to. If He did not plan on intervening that was okay too. I didn’t want Him to think I was bossing Him around. For two months I prayed once a day until my mother’s next doctor’s appointment. When she returned home I asked about the baby. She looked at me with a little smile and said, “It’s fine. The doctor says it’s going to be a boy.” I blinked back tears, feeling my heart swell with astonishment and a strange sort of joy. “The doctor said the baby wouldn‘t make it in the first place.” I retorted. In spite of my flippancy, I was shaken. My prayers had been answered. God had listened to me. I wasn’t even an ‘important’ Christian. Yet God had listened to me. I stared at my mother’s belly then turned to look at my two brothers who were wrestling and hollering and generally ruining a magical moment. If I wanted a sweet little sister this time around, I had a lot of praying to do.
So I did. Every night after I climbed into bed, I would close my eyes and whisper something along the lines of, ‘Dear God, thank you for this beautiful day, great job on the sun, it wasn’t too hot today. Please God, if it’s in your plan, I’d like a little sister. Amen.” One night, in a fit of creativity, I added, “Could she look like me? It’s all right if she doesn’t.” Nine months crept by at a zombie’s pace. Then one night my parents announced that the baby was coming and we were spending the night at my grandparents. Later that night, snuggled in the guest bed beside my two year old brother while the eight year old slept on the floor, I heard the phone ring. My grandmother answered and I listened, holding my breath. Grandma turned to me, holding the phone to her shoulder. “Is it a girl?” I whispered. She smiled and nodded, then handed the phone to me. I heard a baby in the background yowling and shrieking as my mother said jokingly, “YOU are in trouble.” I asked my mom how she was, how dad was, all the while thinking that if my grin grew any wider my face would split in half. When I finally handed the phone back over to Grandma, I felt my heart swelling with that same strange joy I felt before. I didn’t realize what that feeling was until a few days later, when I was holding the newborn. In my heart I knew that this little girl would change everything. She was living proof to me that there was a God, He was listening, and He cared. I’m not arrogant enough to think He made her just for me. I know there was a bigger picture. God had a plan for this little girl, and a plan for me. I knew from that day on I would pray every night, not for myself, but for everyone I came across who needed it. I promised God I would give thanks, and not just when things were going my way. At the time, I didn’t know how nine months of prayer would lead to a lifetime of faith, all I could focus on was the strange joy in my heart. There was more than one birth in my family that night. The birth of my sister, Jennifer Lee Lisauskas, and my private rebirth as a confident Christian.