Dear Jesus,

It was Mom who woke me.
The sun was already rising, spilling its arms all over my balcony.

I knew I slept late, but I didn't imagine I had slept out there in the cold all through the night.

There was this alarmed look on Mom's face. It was priceless.
Like she had been searching for her supposedly kidnapped child only to find her crouched between poison ivy bushes, playing hide-and-seek with her dog.

I smiled to myself as I remembered that look while I stabbed a slice of boiled yam on my plate with my fork.
The highlight of today's breakfast was the scrambled eggs. Absolutely scrumptious. Garnished with peas, hot dog, sardine and baked beans, it was nothing like the bland one I was used to eating at school.

"Why are you smiling like that?" Dad asked, looking at me intently with an amused expression.

I started. We had been eating in silence in the dining.

I relaxed, smiled brighter at him and then glanced at Mom who was discreetly watching both of us.

"Nothing serious. I was just smiling when I remembered Mom's expression when she came to wake me up this morning. I wonder how panicked she must have felt when she saw my empty bed. Much more when she came out to see me on the floor."

Dad chuckled and nodded in understanding as he continued eating.
"That's Julia for you," he muttered.

"Hey, don't tell me you wouldn't have reacted worse," Mom said, slapping Dad lightly on his arm.

Dad laughed hard now. The belly laughter was infectious so I joined in. Mom glared at both of us. 

Dad coughed, choking on his laughter.

"Serves you right, Kennedy," Mom said mischievously but filled a glass with water and shoved it into his hands.

Dad shot a smashing smile at Mom after he had drunk the water and settled from the choking.

"But Radiance, you shouldn't be exposing yourself like that. The cold, the mosquitoes, the night crawlers. Especially with your condition," Mom scolded, referring to my leg.

"I'm sorry. I didn't know when I slept off," I said with an apologetic puppy dog expression.

"I'm just glad nothing disastrous happened when you fell."

"How are you feeling?" Dad asked, his face etched with concern.

"Same," I said with a shrug, taking the bottle of pills the doctor had prescribed to reduce the occasional pain.
I shook out two capsules of diclofenac potassium to my palm and swallowed them at once with water.

"It is well with you," Dad said with a sympathetic look.

"Amen," I said and continued eating.

Dad looked at Mom, giving her a silent signal and said to me, "We want to talk to you, Radiance, after we're done eating."

I gulped, almost choking too as I felt the tension settle on me.

"Oh, um. Sure, no problem."

We finished our breakfast with no other drama, but all the while my mind was spinning, trying to bring up other possible things they could probably want to talk to me about, apart from the looming issue I knew of.

As I awkwardly leaned on my walking stick to rise, I tried to take my plate too. I almost stumbled again.

"Let me have that, young lady," Mom said and took the plate from my hand with hers and Dad's. She piled everything including our used cups and cutlery onto the serving tray and carried it to the kitchen.

"Come, Radiance," Dad said. I allowed him to steer me to the living room where I plopped into a chair in a comfortable position with my legs straddled over the armrest.
The long, flared, silky skirt I wore allowed me both covering and freedom of space.

Mom came back in no time and sat beside Dad on the three-seater sofa.

She bit her lips and searched Dad's eyes as if to confirm if they were going to do this. Dad took her hand in his and kneaded her hands comfortingly with a smile and slight nod. 

I watched their nervous exchange curiously and silently prayed for grace because my heart was already skipping out of its normal range.

"Radiance of God, my daughter," Dad started with his usual eulogies, "I'm sure you might be wondering what all these formalities are for."

"Radiance, we didn't want to bother you or place a more heavy burden on you, but the circumstances at this time have pointed us to the fact that it's high time we told you about your real identity."

I gulped and stared at them.

"Um, I guess we should begin with apologizing profusely for keeping it a secret from you for so long. We didn't want you to feel as though you were not our family. We haven't seen you as anything less than our daughter, Ray. We didn't even intend to ever tell you this. It's just so complicated," Dad said, gesturing to emphasize his point.

"You see, your Mom, at the initial stage of our marriage, was worried when after three years there was no fruit of the womb forthcoming. My family—you know how you rarely know them. I estranged myself from them because they are a bit on the fetish side and don't even support me being a Christian and a pastor at that. They always emotionally tortured your mom. When she eventually got pregnant, it was a miracle. We were so happy to finally have an answer to our long-time prayers."

Dad smiled sadly.

"Tragedy struck a month to the due date. Julia went into early labour. I was surprised because there had been no earlier complications during her term. She was rushed into the theatre, bleeding."

Mom's eyes were already glazed and her cheeks wet as tears poured.
All this happened and I never knew?

"It was a girl," Mom croaked, shaking with sobs. "My precious baby didn't even get to spend one minute in the world of the living. She died in my womb."

Mom placed her face in both hands, weeping while Dad stroked her back slowly with a grim, pained look on his face.

"At that time, I was shaken, I must confess. I questioned many things. Why would God give us a baby just to snatch her away? I was shattered. My faith was put to the test," Dad explained.

"But it didn't end there," Mom continued, trying to gather her emotions and sniffing mucus away. "I didn't stop bleeding even after the placenta evacuation. I received many pints of blood and the doctors were scared I wouldn't make it."

Mom sighed and then said lowly, "Eventually, to save my life, the doctors had to act fast. After quickly explaining the situation to my husband and getting his consent, they removed my uterus. I would never be able to give birth anymore."

Dad picked up from there after a moment of silence. I was trying to digest all the information at once.

"Outside the theatre, I pleaded with God not to take Julia away from me too. I resigned to fate when I realized all our hopes for a child of our own were dashed. All I heard from God was that he had the best plan in mind for us and that we should trust him. It was hard, I must confess."

"After almost three days in the hospital, Julia was discharged. The long drive back home that day was so cold and dry. All the baby things we came with were in the boot, unused. After a while, your Mom broke down and began to weep bitterly."

"Of course, it was grief shared by both of us, so I stopped the car and we wept together. I chose to be a man and started to comfort my wife, and out of nowhere scriptures began to flow from my mouth. We prayed too. We were there a long time."

A smile tugged at Dad's lips.

"Then something amazing happened. God began to speak to both of us at the same time. It wasn't an audible voice, just a strong impression in our spirits. It's something that happens only occasionally if God wants to tell us something urgent and important."

"To cut the long story short, God directed us to a particular route we had never passed through before. It was a lonely road at the outskirt of the town. Around The third Drea Suburbs. Ordinarily, the notion of driving that far out would have looked extremely foolish and pointless to either of us, but since we were each confirming the direction of God, we moved on."

"At last when we sensed the command to stop we parked and got down. There was nothing worthy of note, but we continued. Soon again, we heard God lead us down a path in the thicket of greenery. Cautiously, we walked on, wondering what God had up his sleeves. Wondering why now?"

"We got to a clearing. To our greatest shock, there was a small bundle scattered all around the ground. A baby was wailing from a cardboard box. There was a knife, flung to a side. And from a tree, we saw a young lady hanging. It seemed she had committed suicide. We were very scared, thinking this was a trap or something, but we felt God nudging us to pick up the baby."

"You were that baby, Radiance," Dad said looking pointedly at me. 

Silence, thick enough to be sliced through, descended into the living room.

I blink repeatedly, hard.
My mouth opened and closed with no words and the tears began pouring hard.

So, my real mother was confirmed dead?

Mom continued, a faraway look in her eyes, "When I picked you, you quietened immediately and I cried over your head, remembering my child. I bonded immediately."

"We wanted to make it official so we wouldn't regret it in the future, so we went to the authorities and reported. They said the dead lady had been missing for close to a year, kidnapped by some miscreants asking her parents for a huge ransom. They guessed she had been impregnated during that time. No one ever knew the real story. Maybe she was killed by them when she tried to escape. Or maybe she indeed killed herself after giving birth. Even more baffling was how you were unhurt."

"Anyways, her parents claimed the body, but said they didn't want the baby, so we went through the official process and got custody of you. We adopted you and made you our child."

"You're telling me that my real mother was a victim of kidnap and rape and possibly suicide?"

Dad and Mom cringed at the blunt way I said it. 
"Radiance."

"I- I, oh God. Seriously, I don't know what to say. This is too much to take in."

Dad leaned forward.

"We believe that God himself somehow miraculously preserved you. He has great plans for you, Radiance. In fact, that's why we named you Radiance. We both heard the Lord say to us when we found you, 'I give you the radiance of my glory'."

Immediately after those words left Dad's mouth, I felt goosebumps cover my entire skin. Knowing what that meant—the entrance of your holy presence—I was relieved. I still cried, though.

I felt the urge to look to my right, and I saw, through my blurred vision, Gloria grinning at me.

I looked towards my adoptive parents and saw that mighty angel I had once seen hovering over Dad. There was also another angel with a war-hardened face, hulking, behind my mom. 

A holy fear gripped me and my eyes widened as I looked at them.
My Dad must have taken my expression the wrong way.

"Radiance, calm down. I know it's a lot for you to take it. But the recent events happening to you made us realize that the word of God and prophecies concerning you were about to be fulfilled. You have come of age to manifest God's glory, and the devil is feeling threatened that's why he's been throwing arrows at you."

"We had to tell you at that time over the phone because we had been having impressions to tell but we'd been waving it off. But over the night of that day, we had a simultaneous dream where God told us both to tell you of your true origin and your destiny."

"When Nathan's father anointed you last year and said you'd be a seer, it was just a confirmation of what God had told us about you. The Lord wants to use you as his instrument of a mighty revival in this generation. Daughter, you must be prepared."

I couldn't give a reply. I was overwhelmed with all the emotions engulfing me at once.

This was too much for me to bear.
A revival?
I was still struggling with fleshy inclinations and here they were telling me of a revival.
From the little I had read, revival sprung from those faithful few who were so mature spiritually.
I was a nobody. How could you possibly use me as an instrument for revival?

And then, Mom placed a strawberry on the cake.

"Um, before we forget, your- your real grandparents recently retraced us. They wish to see you."

⋋✿ ✿⋌⋋✿  ✿⋌

Author's Note: *Dramatic drum roll* Gen gen... So there you have it. Our dear Radiance's true origin.🥺😟

If you were in Radiance's shoes, would you agree to meet your grandparents who rejected you as a child?🤔🤨

Thanks so much for reading this chapter. 😇

I hope it will be a reminder that no matter how horrible or unpalatable your past or origin is, the Lord can bring beauty out of ashes.🔥

This chapter still needs polishing, which I should get to soon. But please in the meantime, pardon all the errors.😅

Spread the word to others about this book. It's going to get more interesting. 🥵
And don't forget to vote too. 😉

God bless you all. 😁