Ronnie pressed her back to the door, closing out the chaos that lay beyond, and slid to the bathroom floor. A fresh chorus of screaming wails erupted down the hall and Ronnie touched her head to her knees. It was Rick’s turn to handle... whatever it was that was going on out there. She just needed like one minute to herself.

What had they been thinking? They weren’t ready to be parents! Ronnie still had a hard time accepting that she was an adult and she was only three months shy of thirty. How did her mother do this at twenty-four?

They should have given it more thought. Talked about it more. But at the time, Ronnie hadn’t seen it as something that needed thought. She just accepted it as what they needed to do.

Rick hadn’t spoken to his sister in nearly a decade, but it didn’t come as much surprise to learn she had been deemed unfit to care for her daughter.

By the time Rick got off the phone with the social worker, Ronnie was already working through the anxiety of becoming an unexpected parent. There didn’t need to be a discussion. Sienna needed to be with family, not sent of to foster care, not when Rick and Ronnie could step up.

They were going to be parents...

That’s not to say they took this lightly. Ronnie knew how hard it was to raise a child. She had gratefully sat on the sidelines and watched her sister raise theirs, happy to have the freedom to sleep in and not worry about getting peed on. Now, she sat with spit-up stains on her leggings and.... what is that? Is that a soggy cheerio in her hair?

Another wail sounded and Ronnie joined in with a tired whimper.

“Ron! I need another pair of hands here.”

Sighing, she used the vanity to help herself up; her one minute was up.

As she walked down the hall, she asked what she asked herself at least 1,000 times a day: Had they made a terrible mistake? Would Sienna have been better off with another family? A family who knew what the hell they were doing?

When she stepped into the living room, she found Rick holding their niece, doing that desperate little bounce that all parents do as they try to soothe a crying baby. His eyes were round and pleading. But instead of the wave of anxiety that usually washed over her when she felt overwhelmed, Ronnie smiled. She had no idea how to be a parent, but who really does? As long as you keep trying, you’ll figure it out along the way.

She crossed the living room and took Sienna from Rick’s arms so he could run and make a bottle.

Red cheeks, wet eyes, and a nose dripping with snot, Sienna settled slightly. Her wailing stopped as she stared up at Ronnie’s sparkling earrings. She sniffed and hiccuped and Ronnie chuckled.

Lowering her head to Sienna’s, Ronnie touched her nose with her own. “You’re going to drive me crazy, little one,” she said quietly.

A large smile broke across the baby’s face and she laughed in that cute, Gerber baby way, that has the power to melt hearts in an instant.

“Oh? Well, I’m glad you find that amusing.”

This was going to be hard. Really, freaking hard. But they would get through it, and all Ronnie could do was hope that Sienna would be better for it.