Chapter 39 – Coda

Bella

This was it. The day we had been waiting for. The day our family would finally become officially complete. It had taken over five years to get to this point, but it couldn't have felt more perfect.

"Are you ready for this?" I asked Diego as he tried to straighten his tie.

"I look stupid," he complained.

"No, you don't," I disagreed as I took over straightening his tie. "You look very handsome. Just take a deep breath and try to relax. Everything is going to be perfect; just wait and see."

When I was finished helping him, I went to check on the girls. "Looks like you're both ready?" I asked them approvingly.

"Carlie braided my hair," Sasha said with a shy smile

"And she did a beautiful job," I praised with a wink to Carlie.

"I told you Mom would like it," Carlie told her sweetly before reaching back to her sister's head to fiddle with a few strands escaping her blonde braids.

"Stop, you're going to mess it up," Sasha hissed.

"Hold still and I won't!" Carlie snapped back.

I smiled at their banter. For a couple of teenage girls, they usually got along fairly well, so I wasn't worried about that small tiff.

"I'm going to check on the boys," I told them, before giving them both a kiss on their cheeks.

"Hey, this does not look like getting ready!" I chided the little boys when I found them dogpiled on top of Edward. "I swear you're the worst instigator," I added when my husband just looked at me innocently.

"What?" he played dumb.

"Okay, both of you up," I insisted, pulling Anthony off of Edward first, followed by Benjamin. "Come on, we are going to be late if we don't get moving."

"We can't be late. Get up!" Edward said, finally helping out a little instead of just messing around. "I'll get them dressed," he offered.

"Actually, would you mind going in and talking to Diego instead? He seems really nervous."

"What does he have to be nervous about?" Edward asked as he left the room to go see our oldest child.

"Mommy, is Diego going to be our really real brother now?" Anthony asked me with his big toothy smile that made him look so much like his dad.

"He is already your really real brother," I told him as I brushed his wild copper hair away from his forehead so I could kiss it.

"I don't like this shirt. It's all scratchy," Benny complained when he attempted to get himself dressed.

"I know, I'm sorry, sweetie," I told him sympathetically. "Sometimes special shirts like this can be a little uncomfortable. You won't have to wear it for long, okay?"

He nodded, and then ran his little chubby fingers through his previously combed blonde hair. "Do I have to talk to the judge today too?" he asked concerned. For a six-year-old, he sure worried a lot, though I suppose that was normal considering everything he had been through.

"Nope, today is just about Diego. But we all have to be there as a family to support him and wait for the judge to finally make it official."

"So, we really can't give him back?" Benny asked playfully.

I laughed. "No, there will be no giving back family members. Now, get your socks on and use the bathroom."

Since Anthony was only four, I helped him finish getting dressed, and then I checked on the rest of the kids to make sure they were all ready too. With five minutes to spare before our intended departure time, we all filed out of the condo and headed down to the van waiting on the street for us.

"Do we have everyone?" I asked worriedly. With five kids I often had nightmares about losing a few of them whenever we went anywhere together, but Edward always kept his cool.

"All eight of us are here," he said with a smirk.

"Har har. Too bad there are only seven of us," I said with a grimace.

"I am so lucky you love me so much," he joked.

"That you are," I agreed before leaning in to kiss him.

It was never our plan to have so many children; sure, we always wanted to adopt, but we only ever considered one. But after Anthony was born, we decided our little family of four had so much love to give that we wanted to start the process of adoption as soon as possible. It was Carlie's idea to look into adopting her former foster siblings Diego and Sasha. When she first mentioned it, Edward and I were shocked…

"Aren't those the kids that tormented you?" Edward had asked her.

"Diego was always mean," she confirmed. "He called me cheese and he ripped my beloved Cullen poster, but I really think he did all those things because he was sad. He never had any dreams like meeting a band. Maybe if he had a family like ours, he would learn to be happier. Sasha was a little younger than me and Diego, so she just kind of followed him around and laughed all the time. I think they both just really need people to love them."

Our daughter's love and compassion were limitless, and even though we weren't sure about taking in those particular kids, we were inspired by her words to at least look into them. Unfortunately, since Vicky and Riley were arrested and lost their fostering ability, Diego and Sasha were both tossed around from one terrible situation after another.

My heart broke for them, so after considering it for several weeks, we decided to bring them into our home as foster kids. Of course, because the caseworkers knew how to pull on our heartstrings, they informed us that Sasha had a biological little brother named Benjamin that they would like to see placed with her.

So, that made us a family of seven. In the beginning it was difficult, to say the least. Diego was a preteen with major attitude, and Sasha and Benjamin were constantly acting out. All three of them picked on Carlie, but she just took it all in stride and insisted she wasn't willing to give up on them. "They just need to know they're loved," she kept telling me.

It was definitely a new challenge for Edward and I since Carlie had never given us much trouble at all. Add on the fact that Anthony was still a baby, and we started to wonder if we bit off more than we could chew. If it hadn't been for Carlie's unyielding faith that it would all work out, I wasn't sure we could have gotten through those first couple of months.

But somehow, we did get through it. Little by little Diego started trusting us, and he even apologized to Carlie for being mean to her. Carlie was also right about Sasha and Ben just wanting to be loved, so when they finally did let us in, it was truly a magical thing. We all began to click as a family, and surprisingly, Carlie and Diego even became the best of friends the way a brother and sister should be.

We bought a big estate outside of the city, where the kids had space to run and they all had their own bedrooms, but we also bought a four-bedroom condo that we stayed in whenever we had business in the city, which was often.

I expanded my café and opened up four more locations, which was amazing in of itself, and Edward's band was never short on number one hits. Things were going amazing for our family, but the only real setback we had was adopting Diego. Sasha and Benny were originally from Russia and had since become wards of the state, so their adoption was relatively smooth. Whereas Diego's mother wasn't fit to raise him, but she sure as hell didn't want anyone else raising him either. It was a four-year battle, and she only now fully relinquished her rights and finally allowed us to adopt him once and for all.

The moment the judge officially named Diego ours, we all celebrated, and the weight lifted from Diego's sixteen-year-old shoulders was incredible. It was truly the most amazing feeling knowing nobody could ever take away any of our children.

Our lives weren't perfect, and there were often times when all of the kids were screaming at once and I wondered if my head was going to explode. But then Edward would swoop in and take me in my arms and whisper in my ear – "It's all music, my love. You just have to hear it."

I smiled at him and couldn't believe how far we had come. From strangers on a rooftop, to parents of five, and so much craziness in between. It really was a symphony. All of it. From our sweet introduction, to the tumultuous crescendo, and the beautiful chorus and riffs that followed. The end of any song or passage was called the 'coda', but that was one aspect that we would never reach because our song was never-ending in the best possible way.

Our life and our family were the music of our souls, and I thanked God every day for the opportunity to not only experience it, but to truly hear it….

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A/N: I have waited far too long to hit the complete button on this story, and I'm so freaking excited to finally get to do it now. Thank you so much for everyone who has read and reviewed, and an even bigger thank you to those of you who read the original posting and have waited all this time for its completion. I appreciate your patience more than you know!

*If we aren't already connected on Facebook, send me a friend request at KC Nicnort to see a bunch of visuals for this story and so much more. Thanks again!