The Yada Yada Prayer Group Gets Decked Out by Neta Jackson Page B

sweater. “It’s just us—Edesa and me. We were waiting for you.” He waved us toward the living room.
    We stopped in the archway. Just Josh and Edesa and baby Gracie.
    The baby, swathed in blankets, was asleep on Edesa’s lap on the couch. Edesa smiled at us—but her smile trembled. Dear God, she’s scared. I moved to her side, bent down, and gave her a hug.
    She hugged me back. “Gracias,” she whispered. The bundle in her arms squirmed, whimpered, and then quieted again.
    We all sat. “Uh, might as well get to the point.” Josh sat on the edge of the recliner in its “down” position, rubbing his hands together. He kept his eyes on Edesa and the baby. “Edesa and I have decided to get married and adopt Gracie. Together. I mean, adopt her together, so she will have both a mother and a father from the get-go.”
    I swallowed. “Get married . . . when?”
    Josh licked his lips. “As soon as we can pull it together.”Now he did look at us. “Uh, Mom and Dad, before you guys say anything, just hear me out. Edesa did not ask me to marry her now so we could do this thing. This is my idea. Uh, actually, it was God’s idea.”
    He must have caught the glance that passed between Denny and me, because Josh threw up his hands. “Hey, I know that sounds crazy. But just listen, okay?”
    â€œWe’re listening, son,” Denny said.
    Josh drew in a deep breath. “All right. Christmas is coming up, right? So after the funeral yesterday, I was helping some of the Katrina kids put together a Christmas play to surprise their moms. I was reading the Christmas story to them from the Bible, how Mary was engaged to Joseph, but before they got married, an angel told Mary she would get pregnant and have a baby, God’s Son, the promised Messiah. And one of the boys snickered and said, ‘Man, bet Joseph got rid of that chick in a hurry.’ And I said, ‘Yeah, well, he was tempted to because he didn’t understand that it was God doing this thing.’”
    I had an inkling where this was going.
    â€œSo I kept reading—say, you got a Bible around here?” Josh pounced on the study Bible I’d left beside the recliner. Turning pages until he found what he wanted, he cleared his throat and read: “‘Joseph, her fiancé, being a just man, decided to break the engagement quietly, so as not to disgrace her publicly. As he considered this, he fell asleep, and an angel of the Lord appeared to him in a dream. ‘Joseph, son of David,’ the angel said, ‘do not be afraid to go ahead with your marriage to Mary. For the child within her has been conceived by the Holy Spirit . . . ’”
    Josh closed the Bible. His eyes were brimming. “Mom . . . Dad. I tell you, as I read that, it was like God shouted in my ear, ‘Josh! Don’t be afraid to marry Edesa, for the child I’ve given to her is from Me. ’”
    The whole room seemed to hold its breath.
    But a moment later, Josh got up from the recliner and moved over beside Edesa on the couch, pulling her close. Edesa’s dark head leaned against his chest, crying softly. I fished for a tissue. Beside me, Denny blew his nose.
    Josh broke the silence. His voice was husky. “Mom and Dad, I know it doesn’t make sense, and I’m sure you’ve got a lot of questions. Believe me, we have a lot of questions! What about finishing school? Where will we live? How can we support a family? And I’ll be first to admit, those are scary questions. But . . .” Josh’s voice rose a notch; the huskiness disappeared, and his chin lifted. “I feel—no, I know —God spoke to me. So I’m not afraid.”
    Beside me, Denny suddenly bent over and began to untie his shoes. I nudged him, a what-are-you-doing? nudge.
    My husband took off one shoe, then the other, and looked up. “I’m removing my shoes,”