My sister Erin became a mom of a baby boy, Noah, and the entire family traveled few states away where she lived to celebrate the much-anticipated arrival of their bundle of joy.

Excited to meet my nephew, I bought a bunch of baby stuff and a teddy bear for Lily, my beautiful goddaughter whom my sister adopted some two years prior.

However, when we arrived at Erin’s suburban home, I noticed that Lily’s plastic slide wasn’t in the yard. The little garden she and I planted that summer was also gone. Puzzled, I knocked on Erin’s door, and the moment I got inside together with our mom and dad, Erin appeared at the door, holding her son in her arms.