Kate Dunlap

“Oh, Dad, Mom, it’s beautiful!” breathed Edward as he admired his new watch. “Thank you so much!”

“You’re welcome, Son!” Mr. Dunlap replied. “We’re glad you like it! Your mom and Kate and I had a hard time figuring out what you would like best, and then when we decided to get you a watch we had a hard time knowing which watch you would like best.”

Mr. and Mrs. Dunlap had successfully adopted the twelve-year-old orphaned twins, Edward and Emilie, after seven long months. Their daughter, Kate, who was also twelve years old, had helped to discover the twins one cold, windy night when they had hid in the Dunlap’s attic. After letting them spend the night there in their house and hearing why the children had gone into their attic in the first place, the Dunlaps decided to adopt them. In the mean time the orphanage had had custody of the twins. Now the twins were finally theirs, and the Dunlaps were having a homecoming celebration for them the same evening.

“Emilie! Open yours!” Kate said with a sparkle in her eye. She knew what Emilie’s present was and was in a hurry for Emilie to find out, too!

“Okay, Kate!” Emilie picked up her wrapped package from off the table and gave it a gentle shake to see if she could tell what was inside by rattling it.

“Emilie!”

“Okay, okay!” Emilie was enjoying teasing Kate. “All right, I’ll open it.” Carefully she tore the wrapping paper and pulled out a smaller box. It, too, was wrapped. Emilie giggled as she unwrapped the box. This time she did not have to unwrap anything else, and she pulled out a medium-sized, leather-bound journal with a pen to match. For a moment she could not say anything.

“Oh, thank you!” she exclaimed a moment later. “This is such a lovely journal. Thank you so very much. I’ll be sure to write in it often.”

“Well, we’re glad that you both like your presents,” Mrs. Dunlap said. “It’s not much, but it’s just a little “something” to welcome you into our family. We are so very glad to have both of you.”

“And we’re glad to have you!” Edward cheered. He got up and walked around the table to where Mrs. Dunlap was sitting and gave his new mother a hug.

“I want to write in my new journal right away,” Emilie decided. She got up from the table and motioned for Kate to follow her. “Is that okay, Mrs.…uh, Mom?”

Mrs. Dunlap smiled at her daughter’s happy face. “That’s absolutely fine, Emilie,” she replied.

Emilie put her arm around Kate and the two of them went up the stairs together. “It feels kind of weird to be calling your mom ‘Mom’,” Emilie remarked. “I guess I’ll get used to it, but I’ve been calling her ‘Mrs. Dunlap’ for so long that that’s what I say now without thinking about it.”

Kate laughed. “Yes, I noticed that you called her ‘Mrs. Mom’ just now,” she teased in reply to her best friend and new sister. “But don’t worry about it. I think you’ll get used to her being ‘Mom’ in probably just a few days.”

The girls reached Kate’s room, which now belonged to both Kate and Emilie. “Why don’t we both write in our journals?” Emilie suggested. “I saw yours on the bookshelf once. That’s how I know you have one.”

“Good idea,” Kate said. “I guess I need to do that. I haven’t written in about a week. I used to have a hard time writing regularly, but ever since the night that you and Edward came here I’ve written almost every day.” Each girl stretched out on her own bed and began to write in her journal. Before long it was late and Mrs. Dunlap came upstairs to tell the girls that they needed to start getting ready for bed, as it was getting late.

“Okay, Mom,” Kate replied. “I got a lot written in my journal! I think I must have written about ten pages!”

“Me, too!” Emilie exclaimed. “I only wrote five pages, though.”

Mrs. Dunlap smiled happily. “I’m very glad that you girls are enjoying your journals. I know the day will come when you will be glad to have all that recorded. Someday when you are older you may come back and read them, and laugh and laugh. I know I do with my journal that I had years ago.”

“You had a journal?” Kate inquired excitedly. “How old were you when you wrote it?”

“I think I was about your age. I’ll let you read it sometime. But for now it’s time to get moving towards bed.”

Just then Edward came up the stairs. “Hey, girls, check this out!” He held up his arm, which was ornamented with his new watch. “My watch not only tells the time, it also tells the date, and it has a stop-watch, and it’s water proof!”

“Wow, can I see?” Emilie said, reaching for her brother’s new treasure.

“Sure, just be careful.”

Finally, all three of the children were ready for bed and crawling in. Everyone was very tired out from all of the excitement of new family, and so all fell asleep quickly. Morning was there before they knew it.

“Are we going to have devotions together, like we did the morning after Edward and I hid in your attic?” Emilie asked Kate the next morning when the girls had dressed and made their beds.

“Sure!” Kate responded. “Why don’t we ask Edward to join us, too?”

“Great idea,” Emilie replied. “I’ll go get him.” She ran off down the hall to Edward’s room and asked him if he would like to join Kate and her for morning devotions. He readily assented, and in a flash they were back in the girls’ room.

“Where are we going to read?” he asked, once he, Kate, and Emilie were comfortable.

“How about…” Kate paged through her Bible, looking for an encouraging chapter or section. “How about the first chapter of John? It’s a bit long, but it’s a really good chapter.”

“Whatever you say,” Edward replied. “You know the Bible better than I do.”

The three siblings took turns reading the verses aloud, and then all of them prayed together. “…And help Edward and Emilie to be happy in our home and help us all to get along and love each other for the rest of our lives,” Kate finished. “We pray in Jesus’ name, amen.”

When Emilie looked up there were tears in her eyes. “I’m sure we will be very happy here,” she said, and put her arm around Kate. “Just about anything’s better than the orphanage that we left, but your home is better than anything we could have even hoped for!”

“I couldn’t have wished for a better brother and sister than you two,” Kate responded. “I want you to know that I love you both and that I hope we will grow to be very close friends as the days go by.” She paused, and then, catching a whiff of something downstairs that smelled delicious, said, “Let’s go see what Mom’s making for breakfast!”

“Hi, kids,” Mrs. Dunlap greeted Kate and the twins as they came into the kitchen. “Are you guys ready for some breakfast?”

“Oooh, Mom, are those cinnamon rolls?” Kate said, spying the pan that her mother had just pulled out of the oven.

“They sure are,” Mrs. Dunlap replied. “We don’t have them very often, but I thought that the twins’ first morning with us should be special.”

“Really, it’s not our first morning here, though!” Emilie commented with a giggle. Our first morning was the morning after–”

“—Kate found us in the attic,” Edward interrupted.

“You guys!” Kate argued playfully. “I wasn’t the one responsible for finding you in the attic. Dad is the one who found you. You can be sure that there was no way I was going into the attic myself!”

“Well, anyway, you know what we mean,” Emilie said.

“The cinnamon rolls sure smell good!” Edward said, complimenting Mrs. Dunlap and getting the topic back to what was important at the moment. “They look good, too, so I bet they’ll taste even better.”

Mrs. Dunlap laughed. “Well, if you’ll go get your father and tell him breakfast is ready, we can sit down and see if they’re as good as you think.”

The cinnamon rolls were gone in a jiffy. “Those were even better than they looked!” Edward remarked, and everyone laughed.