HILE MY WIFE and I have been blessed with one child, we had hoped for over two years to have another. One Sunday evening this last spring after watching a movie about twin sisters, my five-year-old daughter wanted so much to have a sister that she prayed on her knees for a sister that night at bedtime. (We explained that she should really just pray for either a brother or a sister — it probably was not appropriate to only ask for a sister.) She did not understand that it takes some time to have a child, and the next morning she awoke crying and saying, “I did not wake up with a sister after I prayed to God, so God must not be real.”

Although we discussed this conclusion with her at length, she really could not be consoled. But you can imagine her conclusion when, within a week, my wife found out that she was pregnant. We found out a few months later that our new child, which is due in October, will of course be a girl. This last weekend my daughter explained the whole affair to her grandfather in exactly these words: “I wanted a sister really bad so I prayed to God really hard for one, so he gave me one, and that’s the way the world works.”

Alan Green
CHRISTUS Santa Rosa Health Care
San Antonio, Texas