Halfway to forever by Karen Kingsbury

She didn't want anything to blur the image of Tanner and their newborn daughter. Madison looked lost in
Tanner's muscled arms as he cradled her against his body and carried her to jade. He leaned
down and nuzzled his face near hers, with Madison snuggled
between them.
"Everything's going to be okay, jade," he whispered. "I can feel it."
She wanted to say something, but her throat was LOU thick for words to pass. Instead, she nodded and ran
her finger lightly over Madison's silky dark hair.
"Time for the incubator." A nurse came up behind Tanner and held out her hands. "We don't want her to get
too cold." Reluctantly, Tanner eased their daughter into the nurse's arms.
When she was gone, Tanner spoke in a soft voice near jade's ear. "You see it, don't you?"
"What?" She brushed her cheek against his. "She looks just like you."
257 H A L F W A Y T O F 0 R E V E R
Jade smiled and settled back against the operating table. She had been thinking the same thing. There were
few pictures of her as a child, but the box of belongings she took from her father's house included one
baby photo. There was no question that Madison looked like a small version of her. "I think you're right."
"I know so." He kissed her cheek. "She'll be a knockout." Jade was quiet for a moment. There was
something she'd wanted to tell Tanner, but the timing had never been good, especially this past week when
Tanner had been so fearful of the looming delivery date. "You brought the video camera, right?"
"Right. I'll take pictures when I visit her down the hall." "Keep it here, okay? In the room. I have
something I want you to do tomorrow."
Tanner didn't seem concerned with her request. He was too
taken with the giddy reality of witnessing Madison's birth and the
fact that Jade had come through the surgery so well. "Whatever
you want, honey. I have everything I've ever wanted. I can't think
of anything I wouldn't do for you."
Jade was still strapped to the operating table, the doctor working
to stitch her closed. Despite the IV tubing, she managed to drape
her arm around his neck. "There's only one thing I really want."
He brought his face up against hers. "The video camera?" She shook her head.
"Pickles and ice cream?"
Her laughter rang through the room. He'd teased her throughout
her pregnancy about the fact that she never had cravings. "No,
silly Not that."
His face grew serious and he framed her cheeks with his fingertips,
kissing her in a way that needed no words. "What then?
Anything..."
"You, Tanner." She whispered her answer straight to his heart.
"Always only you."
256
at had been four days, but still Hannah thought of the baby boy with every passing hour. Where was he and
who would raise him? Would they teach him to love Jesus? God had heard the prayers she'd prayed over
him, that much was certain. Even if they were the only prayers ever said for the boy, somehow she knew
God would answer.
But still she wondered. Because in their short time together, the baby had left an indelible mark on her
heart. She'd told Matt about him over dinner that night, how he'd looked into her eyes
and how she'd fed him and sang to him, prayed over him for more than an hour.
"If I could have, I would have brought him home then and there, Matt. I'm sure of it. He felt like my child."