The Canvas

Surprise!

It was July 3rd. I woke up in the middle of the night with what I thought were cramps.
"Ughhh. Mommmmmm!" I yelled.
Bridget woke up and my mom came into the room. My mom immediately noticed I was having contractions. She woke my dad and the kids up.
"Me, Bridget and George are going to go. Being Eli and Joshua to the waiting room later. She's going into labor." My mom yelled to my dad.
My mom packed up some of my things like my blanket and my pillow. We got in the car and left for the hospital.
Labor was hard for me. 7 hours, almost 8. I went the route of natural birth. I didn't like the option of a c-section. Around hour 5 of labor the nurse told me someone was here to see me. I let them come in.
My jaw dropped. "ERIC?! WHAT THE HELL?" I can't believe he had the nerve to show up when he missed 9 months of my journey.
"Shh, I can expl-" I interrupted him,
"NO. There's no explaining. You left me when things got rough. You don't deserve to be called their father! do you even know the gender of your own children?" He was silent. "Of course you don't. You just want to be called daddy. You didn't even tell me you fled the country! I can't believe you."
He teared up. "Emma...look. I'm sorry. I didn't know what to do, I didn't want to get arrested for this. My only choice was to leave. I still love you and I want us to have a family."
I looked down, "you didn't even text me. You don't love me. You left, still hoping to be called daddy by your two little girls."
"Two little girls? Daddy?" Eric fell to the ground sobbing repeating the words "I'm sorry" I really felt remorse for him, I couldn't tell if he was lying or he really did want to care for these children. Oohhh...contraction. Eric saw the pain on my face and reached for my hand and let me squeeze it. The contractions hurt but I squeezed even harder so make him feel pain.
"You have one chance" I whispered.
Eric's eyes lit up but the tears kept flowing.
Giving birth to twins was horrific. It hurt. The doctors were surprised the twins made it to full term. Normally twins are premature, but lucky for me, they're right on time.
7:42, Kennadee Marie was born.
7:56, Jessica rose was born.
I'm now a mother. Hearing my babies cry made me cry, also because I just ripped out two 7.2lbs babies. Kennadee and Jessica were returned to my arms. It seemed like 1000 photos were being taken around me. Tears of joy everywhere. My dad, George, Joshua, and Eli all came into the DR. Eli walked up to me and said hi first.
"Do they have cooties?" he whispered as he covered his mouth. A nurse laughed and gave him a mouth cover to wear so he doesn't catch cooties, Eli made the whole room light up with smiles and laughs. After everyone greeted my daughters, Bridget started to have contractions. The nurses put her in the room next to mine. I told everyone to go wait with Bridget, everyone left but Eric.
"Can I hold one of my daughters?" He asked. I handed him Jessica, he started talking to her, telling her how sorry he is and how much he will stay and love her forever. I only had a small tad of hope for Eric. I don't think he'll stay forever. We traded children and he said the same to Kennadee. Eric and I soon had a talk about everything. He won't be able to have contact with us until I'm 18. So about seven months. He'll be staying in Canada for seven more months, earning money for us.
Four hours later, Bridget had given birth to Lillian Marie -she stole my middle name idea, I know-
3 days later everyone was home from the hospital. George moved in with us and he was so ecstatic to be a father. Kennadee really loved to sleep but, Jessica on the other hand, always wanted to be awake. according to the doctors, they were both developing just fine.
Being a mother was difficult and amazing at the same time. Jessica ended up needing glasses, we found it out when she started crawling into walls.
It was my eighteenth birthday, no calls for Eric. Nothing.
Two weeks after being 18 I texted him telling him that you can see me now.
He never showed up.