For Our Children Too!
In a two-story yellow house in South Carolina, on a cold January night, Julie Tourville, who taught second grade, and Nic Finelli, who helped build street signs, were getting ready to tell Julie’s parents the big news.
“What smells so good?” asked Julie as the warm smell wafted through the kitchen. Julie was still wearing her day clothes.
“Rice and peppers,” said Nic as he chopped the bright bell peppers — red, orange, yellow, green. Nic was a very inventive cook.
“Yum,” said Julie eagerly, taking four plates out of the cabinet. As she set them down on the countertop, the doorbell rang. Julie went to get it.
She found her parents, Deanie and Bill, on the doorstep, in their coats, shivering. Deanie had red hair and wore glasses, and Bill had gray hair. Bill wore a Nikon camera around his neck, and an exhausted half-smile on his face after a long day of filing tax returns.
“Hello!” greeted Deanie.
“It’s like 40 degrees outside,” said Bill.
“Then come in! The food’s all ready.” Julie led them to the kitchen table. Bill let out a great sigh as he sat down.
Nic brought over the food and joined them. “That’s beautiful,” complimented Deanie.
“Nic made it,” explained Julie. “He’s a terrific chef.”
They all ate Nic’s beautiful concoction together — heated bell peppers, salted and spiced, with some yellow rice. It was a simple meal, but a tasty one.
“Pass the salt, please,” Bill requested, and Nic passed him the salt and pepper.
“Bill, are you sure you’d like that?” Deanie asked him. “Remember what the doctor said about the salt levels in your blood.”
“Haven’t had it in a while,” Bill assured her.
“So what’s new with you?” Deanie asked Julie and Nic after she took her first bites of rice.
Julie and Nic looked at each other with excited smiles. This was why they’d invited Julie’s parents. It was time for their special announcement.
“Would you like to tell them?” Nic asked.
Julie stood up. “Mom, Dad…” she told Deanie and Bill, “I’m going to have a baby!”
Everyone cheered. Deanie hugged Julie. “Congratulations!” said Bill.
“I’ve spent so much time teaching kids, and now I’ve decided to have one of my own,” Julie told them.
Deanie raised a glass. “To Julie,” she toasted, “and her new baby!”
The four of them clinked their glasses together.
After dinner, in the living room, Bill took out his camera and took a picture of Julie with her hands on her belly.
“Thank you again for this wonderful dinner,” said Deanie, hugging Julie and Nic. “And let us know when you come up with a name for your baby.”
Julie and Nic waved to Julie’s parents from the porch as they walked out into the cold and dark night, down the driveway to their car, which was parked in front of the house.
“Would you like me to drive?” they heard Deanie ask. “I know you don’t like to drive in the dark.”
“I’ll drive,” said Bill.
“Just don’t accidentally drive us into a ravine,” Deanie cautioned him playfully.
A couple days later, Julie decided to tell her second-grade class the big news, too. Julie loved all her students. She taught them how to add, subtract, multiply, and divide; how their hearts pumped blood to their lungs; how to spell difficult words, and most of all, how to be kind.
After collecting their worksheets, Julie told the whole class, “OK, second graders, I hope you did a great job on those multiplication problems. Now, before we go out to recess, I’ve got a special announcement for you all.” She waited a moment before she told them. “I’m going to have a baby!”
Everyone in the class was surprised, but nobody was more surprised, and happier for her teacher, than Kelly McKay. Though Kelly sometimes dreaded having to do schoolwork each day, especially if there was a big test, she loved her fun and friendly teacher.
At recess, while the other children played on the swings, slides, and balance beams, all Kelly could think about was Ms. Julie’s new baby.
“Aren’t you excited?” she asked her friend, Hunter Brennan.
“Yep,” Hunter told her. “When my mom had a new baby, I went to the hospital and took pictures with the baby. Babies cry a lot. They take baths in the sink, and it’s really gross when they poop in their diapers.” Hunter held his nose. “Yuck!”
“I wonder if we’ll get to meet the baby,” said Kelly as she started down the twisty pole.
“So what did you want to ask me about names?” Julie asked Nic as they sat together on the couch one day in March.
“Would you like to call the baby Taylor?” asked Nic.
“There are two kids in my class named Taylor,” Julie told him. “We call them Taylor J. and Taylor R. so we don’t get them mixed up. I’d like a different name. Maybe something shorter.”
“How about Gus?” asked Nic.
“Gus?” Julie wondered, scratching her head. “That’s more like it.”
“Well, we’ll keep thinking of names,” Nic decided, “and if either of us thinks of a good name, we’ll write it down.”
“Yeah,” Julie agreed as she put on her running shoes. She was going to jog outside.
It was getting warmer outside. Spring was on its way. Julie picked up her pace as she reached the end of the driveway and turned right onto Cressfell Road. As Julie ran, she took in everything around her — the multicolored houses, the blossoming trees, a hawk soaring above. It always made Julie feel better when she was out in nature. It refreshed her mind. She could take a moment to forget about trying to find the perfect name for the baby inside her belly.
One night, as Julie and Nic were falling asleep, Nic suddenly jolted up. “I’ve got it!” he said in a loud whisper.
“Got what?” murmured Julie, half asleep.
“The name for the baby,” whispered Nic.
“What is it?” asked Julie, suddenly curious, and a little more awake.
Nic whispered the name in her ear.
Julie smiled. That was it. That was the one.
She closed her eyes and drifted off to sleep.
“Your homework is to play outside, eat dinner with your family, and read together!” Julie called to her second-graders as they grabbed their backpacks and lined up by the classroom door — but it wasn’t so much of a line as it was a gaggle of excited children.
Kelly ran over to the teacher’s desk. “Ms. Julie?”
“Yes?” Julie responded, interested to hear what her student had to say.
“This is for you,” said Kelly. She handed Julie a small CD case. “You’re the best teacher ever, and you’re also gonna be the best mom.”
The front of the case featured a child’s fingerpainted drawing of a flower garden, in brilliant reds, yellows, and greens. Above the design was the title of the album.
“For Our Children Too,” read Julie with interest.
“It’s an album of famous singers singing songs and lullabies for kids,” informed Kelly.
“Wow,” said Julie. “Celine Dion, Amy Grant, James Taylor, Toni Braxton…all my favorites. Thank you so much, Kelly!”
“Kelly, we’re gonna miss the bus!” called Hunter from over by the classroom door.
“OK, Hunter!” Kelly called back, as she ran to join her friends.
The weeks passed. The baby grew bigger and pushed Julie harder. Julie and Nic designated a room in their house for the baby, and found a sustainable secondhand crib for the baby to sleep in. Understandably concerned about the environmental crisis, they wanted all the baby’s stuff to be re-used.
The latest reusable item that Nic had picked up was a mobile to hang above the crib. After unboxing the mobile, he went into the living room to show Julie.
“Hey, Julie, look what I got,” he told her. Julie turned away from the TV to see the mobile.
“Aww,” Julie cooed. “It’s adorable.”
“Got it from a secondhand store,” said Nic. “What’s on the news today?”
“There was a story about a kid on Wescott Road –”
“That’s near where your parents live.”
“I know,” said Julie. “This kid said their parents…aren’t looking after them.”
“What do you mean?”
“Their parents don’t really give them any attention. The kids have to make their own dinner and put themselves to bed, they can go wander off and play with friends all day — and the parents don’t even notice.”
Julie and Nic were quiet for a few moments, thinking about what they’d just heard on the news — and then Julie looked down, at her large belly, filled with another human, a life about to begin, a life she wished all the best for.
Julie patted her belly. “But we’ll be here for you,” she told her baby, even though she knew he could not hear her, “whenever you need it.”
“Bill, do you have your camera?” Deanie asked him.
Deanie and Bill had driven downtown to the hospital and parked in the garage. After walking across the cool underground parking garage, going up a floor in the elevator, and crossing the crosswalk above Sumter Street, they were on their way to the fourth floor, where the babies were born. They knew this hospital well. Not only could they pick out its fluorescent green windows instantly in the Columbia skyline, but they both had fond memories of when Julie had been born in this same hospital, many years ago.
But now Julie was in a hospital bed in room 403, wearing a blue maternity gown, with Nic at her side.
“You’ve got this,” Nic encouraged her.
“Now we just wait for him to pop out and change our lives,” said Julie with a nervous laugh.
Deanie and Bill sat in the waiting room. They could faintly hear the cries of newborn babies from the nursery just down the hall. They wondered which one was their new grandson.
Deanie took out her notebook and pen. But what to write? This was a profound moment. She couldn’t write something she’d regret later.
“Deanie? Bill?” called Nic from the door of the waiting room. “He’s out. You can come back to see him now.”
Deanie and Bill stood up. As they followed Nic to room 403, they felt…something. It was hard to describe, but it was a strong feeling.
When they stepped into the room, the first thing they saw was Julie in her hospital gown. And in her arms, in a little orange gown, was –
“He’s got all his hair!” marveled Deanie.
“And he’s a big one!” added Nic. “Leo weighs eight pounds and eleven ounces. He was born at 4:28 p.m. on July 23.”
The warm late summer wind blew across Harbison Lake, a small pond of water surrounded by a playground and a walking trail. Julie and Nic pushed their two-month-old baby in a stroller along the path. Bill had joined them for the excursion, bringing his camera to take some nature photos — and some baby photos.
Nic stopped pushing the stroller and crouched next to it. “Leo, see the duck?” he asked the baby, pointing to a duck, paddling in the shallow water.
“Ms. Julie!” someone called. Julie, Nic, and Bill turned around. It was Kelly.
“Hi, Kelly!” Julie waved to her former student as she ran over from the playground.
“Who’s that?” Bill quietly asked Nic, not recognizing Kelly.
“One of the kids from Julie’s class last year,” Nic told him.
“Aww, is this the baby?” Kelly peeked into the stroller. “Hello.”
The baby didn’t respond to her.
“Does he like that album I gave you?” asked Kelly.
Julie laughed. “I think he does. We’ve played it for him. How have you been?”
“I’m starting third grade now,” said Kelly. “I have a new teacher who I really like, but I still miss you.”
“Thank you, Kelly,” Julie said warmly. “What I’ve done, I’ve done for all of you.” She looked down at her baby affectionately. “And for our children too.”
