After 3 Boys, We Gave Up Our Dream of a Daughter—Then My Husband Called Me to the Hospital and Said, “There’s a Baby Here”

He nodded.

“Okay.”

I threw a second package into the cart.

“If we’re doing this, I am not coming back here tomorrow because you bought twelve diapers.”

For the first time that day, Marcus laughed.

It felt almost wrong.

Then I laughed too.

Grief and joy had somehow ended up inside the same shopping cart.

PART 4 — THE FIRST NIGHT

Maya did not come home the next morning.