Casey’s gaze scanned over the rest of the yard, coming to rest on their three-year-old daughter. Her hand was being held by Maxie as they walked toward their father. Sky grabbed her father’s jeans, tugging at his pants. When Max looked down, Sky raised her arms into the air.
Like father, like daughter; Sky was her father’s special angel. Her large husband’s strength and encouragement had given her the reassurance to quit work and fill their lives with those with cognitive dysfunctions who needed a home, and they had fallen in love with Sky when she had been placed in their home through foster care. Her birth mother had not been able to deal with a child with Down syndrome, so the open adoption had given them all the best of both worlds.
Max bent, lifting her into his free arm, and the two girls giggled as Max took turns blowing bubbles into their chubby necks. He easily held his two daughters close as Maxie jumped back into the water with a teasing shout at her father.
Casey smiled, glancing once again at the large group spread out around her. She knew exactly what she was looking at in the backyard filled with family and friends. Writers, poets, and lovers had attempted to describe it throughout the centuries, but it defied description with words. The intangible feeling that had tears of happiness clinging to her eyelashes would never be able to explain the full wealth of its meaning. To put it simply, this was… love.