By Mofoluwake Omololu
They returned home late the night of the delivery, Lara was fine enough to return home. Kola hated that he had missed the birth of his daughter and was beating himself up for it but then he realized that ‘the ship had sailed and wouldn’t be returning’ so he enjoyed knowing that she had been born and that she was there to stay.
The pastor’s wife, who they simply called ‘mummy’, stayed the night with them, aa Kola’s mother had only just been informed and was making immediate efforts to be with them the next morning.
The ambience of the house was happy. The pastor and a few of his collegues had come to welcome the baby first thing in the morning. They had prayed and visited with the new parents for a little while before heading out to their days activities.
Lara asked Kola if he wasn’t going to work, too, which hurt him since he expected her to know without a doubt that he would be staying home with his daughter. He didn’t dwell on it though as he explained to her that he had gotten the week off work to properly welcome his new daughter.
Lara had asked out of courtesy, it didn’t matter if he stayed anymore, there was now somebody else for him to fawn over and juging from all she had heard about babies, an extra hand was more than welcome.
Kola’s mother arrived just before noon and was all but mush for the baby, she hugged Lara tight and asked if she was okay and how the labour had been. She scolded them for not having told her about the pregnancy until it was in its last month and then stopping her from coming to them straight away.
The relationship between Lara and her mother in-law hadn’t been smooth since the woman took to taunting her after the second year of their childless marriage. Of course, she didn’t have the slightest idea that her son was to blame, and Lara wouldn’t tell her because Kola had pleaded that she didn’t. His mother was quite the chatter box. Lara had been tempted to rob the woman of her ego a few times when her taunting had been unbearable but she couldn’t because somehow she loved the woman, and she was all the mother she was ever going to have again. Well, until the pastor’s wife came into her life in a more intimate way.
They, Lara and her pastor’s wife, had grown very close in the time of the pregnancy. Even closer than Lara had been with her own mother. They shared every burden with each other and upheld themselves with prayers. They were inseparable and it was welcoming for Lara because her mother had never been one to offer succor. She had been a career woman up until the day she had died, thank God for their father and his little ways, otherwise, Lara and her brother wouldn’t have understood the tenderness of a loving parent on any level. Not that their mother hadn’t loved them, she’d just showed it in rather unconventional ways.
Kola’s immediate elder sister joined his mother a few days later and they both stayed for two weeks before they had to return. It was a joyous time for the entire family and the pastor’s wife too, she came by the house everyday which wasn’t a hassle since she lived a few blocks away and was a stay at home wife.
Kola wasn’t necessarily crazy about his wife’s relationship with the pastor’s wife but couldn’t do much about it since it wasn’t harming anyone of them and he was sure that his wife was keeping the Rio affair a secret.
The child was named Oluwashindara (God still does wonders), ‘AnuOluwapo’ (God mercy is great), among others. The people who attended the naming ceremony were fascinated by the name that had been picked out without knowing that the parents of the child had picked names strategically because they knew what they had done and that God had showed them mercy, covering their shame and giving them a daughter.
The time of caring for their daughter was a blissful one for Lara and she began nursing the idea of withdrawing from work so she would never have to leave her daughter alone or with a maid.
Kola wouldn’t have any of it because he knew that Lara wasn’t one to stay at home nursing a child, she had a wild streak and loved to be out and about. He knew that she would mope through the days, if he let her and so tried to reason with her, she had her mind made up though so they settled for her to leave ‘Shindara with the pastor’s wife, who she trusted, when she had to go back to work. She still had her mind set on leaving her job though so he asked her to give it a year during which they could strategise and come up with the best business plan.
She agreed with the arrangement and it worked out for them.
