enough to fit a nursery, with a little yard for a swing set. We talked about children, but never in terms of numbers or dates, just as a distant, beautiful hope we’d someday hold in our arms.

Then, life changed faster than I could breathe. Barely a month after our wedding, my parents were in a car accident on their way home from church. A single, static-filled phone call split my world in two. I remember dropping the coffee cup in my hand, hearing it shatter on the linoleum floor before the words even sank in. Darren held me as I collapsed, his arms a desperate