Golden Colorado (5 page)

Again Jennifer placed her hand on Minnie’s arm. “Minnie, I know that you and James want children… and I know it’s not like having your own, but would you… would you consider…?”

Minnie realized what Jennifer was trying to ask her. Her hand trembled and the tea cup clattered against its saucer. She looked at James. Goosebumps appeared on her flesh, but they weren’t wasn’t caused by the cold.

She and James stared at each other for several moments, and she saw the change of expression that came over her husband’s face. He gave her a smile, one filled with love, affection, and faith.

“It’s up to you, Minnie,” he said.

Minnie glanced from Jennifer to Allen, then again to James, and then back to Jennifer. Tears flooded her eyes and she began to weep with happiness. “We can adopt them?” she asked in disbelief. “We can adopt all three babies, all three boys?”

Jennifer’s eyes also filled with tears as she gently took the tea cup from Minnie’s hands and placed it on the floor. Then, she wrapped her arms around Minnie’s trembling shoulders.

“They could never ask for better parents,” she said, her voice choked. “I do hope you forgive the forwardness, but when we found out about the babies, Doc told us… well, he told us…”

“It’s all right,” Minnie assured her, leaning back to look at her. Then she looked at James. The smile that brightened his features warmed her heart to the depths of her soul. God
had
answered her prayers! He certainly did work in mysterious ways. He had taken the long way around, but then she remembered that everything happened according to God’s plans, and in His own good time.

She began to laugh and cry all at once, so excited she didn’t know what to do with herself. James gazed at her, love and adoration shining in his eyes. They were going to be a family!

He laughed. “It’s going to be cramped quarters in the barn for a while, but if you don’t mind, I don’t mind,” he said.

She shook her head, tears of joy spilling over her cheeks. “I don’t mind, James,” she said. “God has blessed us. We’re going to be a
family
!”

James placed his own teacup on the floor and opened his arms to Minnie. She leaned into them, not caring that Jennifer and Allen stared at them with silly grins on their faces.

Her dreams
had
come true. Maybe not exactly the way she had envisioned them, but they had come true nevertheless.

The winter was a long and cold one, but Minnie, James, and the three boys, John, Jacob, and Joseph, made do in the barn. It was cozy, warm, and wonderful. Jennifer had supplied Minnie with several months’ worth of milk powder, and she and James kept busy taking turns feeding the babies, changing them, washing their diapers, and spoiling them rotten with kisses, hugs, and cuddles. All five of them slept in the straw bed, and Minnie couldn’t have been happier.

As winter passed and the snowstorms eased, James kept himself busy working on rebuilding the house during breaks in the weather. One day, Minnie, cradling two boys in her arms while James held the third, stood outside, enjoying one of the warmer days since the onset of winter. The children were bundled up and cooing happily when the sound of wagons pulled their loving gazes from their babies and toward the rise.

Minnie’s eyes filled with tears when she saw the four wagons approaching, loaded to the brim with lumber and no less than ten men ready to help James build his house. He didn’t complain one bit, but shook each of their hands with a nod of gratitude and a look of wonder in his eyes. Not long after, several buggies also arrived, filled with women bearing food and blankets, curtains, and floor rugs that would be placed in the house as soon as a roof was in place.

Minnie stood beside her husband, the three babies in their arms, watching as the town pulled together to help one of their own, as James had so often done for the others. As they stood watching and listening to the joking and laughter erupting around them, followed soon by the cacophony of hammers and saws, Allen approached with a wide grin.

“I see you’ve got your hands full,” he said, nodding at the babies.

James laughed. “Wouldn’t have it any other way.”

“I’ve got a letter for you, James,” Allen said, pulling it from his coat pocket. “Remember that letter you sent off to the United States patent office last fall?”

Minnie glanced at her husband in surprise. His invention.

She saw him nod, and Allen wiggled the envelope in front of him. “You got a reply.”

James glanced between Minnie and Allen. Minnie already had her hands full with two of the babies, so James abruptly placed Jacob in Allen’s hands and reached for the envelope. Allen laughed while James tore it open, quickly scanned the contents, and then whooped.

The babies, startled by the noise he made, began to cry, but James was laughing now, dancing a small jig.

“It’s patented!” he announced to Minnie. “They approved my patent!”

“My husband, the inventor,” Minnie smiled, shaking her head.

He turned to her and wrapped her and the two boys she held in his gentle embrace. “This is only the beginning, Minnie,” he whispered into her ear. “I’m not only going to make you the happiest woman on earth, but, with God’s will, I’ll make you rich!”

She smiled up at him. “I don’t care about the rich part,” she told him, her heart brimming with love for him. “As far as I’m concerned, I’m already the richest woman in the world.”

Katie Wyatt is a number one best-selling author on Amazon and was born, raised and still lives in Arizona. She is 25% American Sioux Indian. She has traveled and camped extensively through California, Arizona, Nevada, Mexico, and New Mexico. Looking at the incredible night sky and the giant Saguaro cactus she has dreamt of what it would be like to have lived in the early pioneer times.

She has spent time with the great-grandson of
Wyatt Earp.
Mesmerized by the stories he would tell of his great-grandfather times and events. This historical interest in the old West is the inspiration for her Western romance novels.

Her books are a mixture of actual historical facts and events and sometimes people mixed with action and humor, challenges and adventures I recommend them for anybody who enjoys an excellent feel good clean romance story.

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