Calendar Ch. 03

The teens oohed and aahed at some of the more beautiful shots, appreciating the natural beauty of their wonderful mother, before Jeanette asked him to pause the slideshow. The picture that filled the screen was one of Jenny leaning back against a doorpost, looking into the camera with a warm friendly smile, her small, perky breasts sitting delicately on her chest, and bearing very visible scars around the nipples and along the sides of the breasts – scars that now were just barely visible after years of fading and exposure to the sun.

The two youth stared transfixed at the contradictions of the picture – the obvious pain that had been endured, juxtaposed with the warm, gracious smile.

"How could you smile like that after all that hurt?" Jenny almost whispered.

"Because I saw real love in the eyes of the man taking the picture," Jenny replied softly, hugging her new husband from behind.

The two young people instinctively moved closer to the man sitting in front of the computer with tears in his eyes, wrapping their arms around him and hugging him closely. Jenny reached her arms around her two older children, and pressed her youngest child firmly against the back of its father's head. They stood there, then, the five of them, watching the slide show quietly.

She wouldn't have planned it this way, Jenny thought, but did not see how she could ever have been any happier in her entire life than right now. Three other hearts were thinking the same thing as they savored the closeness that their new family was becoming!