Epilogue

We stood as the judge walked into the courtroom. The dull hum of our closest friends and family was silenced by his presence. "Caleb and Juliette Ramirez?"

"Yes," we answered in unison.

"And this must be," he flipped through the paperwork, pushing the glasses up the bridge of his crooked nose.

"My daughter, Kelsey Delgato," Caleb said.

"So, the court is seeing you for a wedding," he paused, scanning our marriage license, "And an adoption?"

I smiled at Kelsey, who wore a beautiful blue gown and a smile so bright that tears prickled at the corner of my eyes.

"Yes, your honor," our lawyer replied brightly.

"You make a lovely family," he said. "I'm glad to kick off my summer with this one. Sometimes, this courtroom can be a little depressing. Are you all celebrating afterwards?" he mused shuffling paperwork and grabbing his stamp.

"Just going out to dinner, your honor," I said.

"Lovely. Good. Who's signing as the witness?"

Dr. Liu stepped forward. We decided that after all she'd done for us, she deserved to be the one to put the ink on paper. My mom and dad were inconsolable behind them, clinging to one another and blotting their eyes. Caleb's parents, in contrast, beamed with their freshly born twin grand-babies on their hips. His sister, only two months post-partum, yawned with her head leaning on her husband. They were staying with us, because of the babies, and my home was so full it made me feel like a helium balloon blown up too big. About to burst from the joy. His brother' s family were staying at the inn, and they looked very well rested. Their son a little bored.

Caleb and Kelsey never did buy that huge house they dreamed about. On New Years Eve, six months ago, Kelsey simply told Caleb he didn't have to go home after we toasted the New Year. And then he never did.

A glance at Caleb and the steady trickle of joy that had been seeping out through the spaces between my ribs, burst. I smiled until my cheeks hurt.

Caleb and I said our vows, exchanged rings, and pressed a chaste kiss to each other's lips. Kelsey, still uncomfortable with displays of affection, didn't look away. She looked like she'd swallowed the sun. Like her father. She got that smile from her father.

Next, we turned to her adoption paperwork, and I couldn't control them any longer. The tears flowed, and dropped onto the papers as I signed them. "I'm so sorry," I said, chuckling and smearing the tears across the page.

The judge held up his hand, "No, no apologies, Mrs. Ramirez. Motherhood is a beautiful thing."

It was more than beautiful. So, naturally, I cried even harder as I watched Kelsey sign.

Caleb signed last, legally binding us together. I crushed Kelsey against my chest, because if I squeezed our hearts close enough together they'd fuse.

"Dad, stop," she said over my shoulder. I heard his camera shutter several times. She'd started calling him dad exclusively when we picked her up from her summer session in the city last year. I remembered how Caleb held it together, but later in my arms he celebrated that syllable.

A round of applause.

A remark from Dr. Liu about being famished.

A barely audible, "Thank God," from our nephew who was dying to get out of there.

"I love you, Juliette Ramirez," Caleb whispered, planting a kiss to my cheek.

"I love you, too."

"I love you, Kelsey," Caleb said over my shoulder.

"I love you too, Dad," she murmured.

This ritual so familiar, so a part of our daily life now, that when I opened my eyes and we were still in the courtroom, I had a moment of disorientation. "I love you, Kelsey," I said and closed my eyes again so that I could feel their arms around me, and my arms around them.

So that I could send a little prayer of thanks to that God of Chaos that pushed us so far off balance so that we could end up right here, as a family.