Chapter 2

Having Hannah definitely didn't make life any easier, now each paycheck she had to hand a large portion over to the babysitter, it really began to seem as if she would never get ahead.

Finally she received her first promotion and with the money she was able to add a bit onto their house, Hannah could sleep under a roof now!

Meanwhile it seemed her social life was improving.  She met Henry at a club, she had dropped by one night, large with Hannah and needing some sort of distraction.  Henry danced with her all night and told her to call him soon.  Unfortunately, Hannah came that next morning, and life became busier then she ever imagined.

 She didn't even have time to think of Henry until Hannah was a few months old, one lonely late night she remembered his sweet smile at the club.  She called him up the next day and invited him over.  That night she made her second mistake.  He was gone the next morning, and she was again alone.  She called him a couple more times, but her calls were never returned.

Single Parenthood was exhuasting it seemed a constant cycle of work and tending to the baby, repeat, she found she had little time in those first years for little more then basic survival.

She loved it some days, when Hannah would smile up at her, those days she thought it was worth it all, but then the nights would come and she would sink into her bed, staring at the crumbling walls, wondering if there would ever be anything more then this.

Hannah was almost 4 before Anna became interested in another man, and this time it hit her hard and fast..
He seemed absolutely perfect, he was even great with Hannah!  Their first date was at her place, he was too polite to comment on their living conditions, instead he asked about her dreams and life.  They talked well into the wee hours of the morning.

Then he kissed her and that was all she wrote, Anna was in love again!  She saw visions of wedding gowns, wedding cake, and her gorgeous groom waiting at the end of a long aisle.

They dated for 4 long months and the relationship seemed to be stalled, nothing more then a kiss, and tender words of endearment were ever exchanged.

 Anna was desperate to take things to the next level.  So she fixed him a romantic dinner for two, put Hannah to bed early.  When she woke up the next morning, she could still feel the fireworks fluttering inside her stomach, they had definitely taken it to the next level.

Over the next weeks Anna saw less and less of Wade, he always seemed too busy to come over, and twice promised to meet her for dinner, and didn't show.  Six weeks after their romantic adventure, Ann was four weeks late, and she knew what Wade had left her with. Hannah was going to be a big sister by her 6th birthday!

She called him and told him about the pregnancy, "Anna, I'm just really not ready for that kind of commitment, we had a good run, it was fun, but it's time for you to move on."  She hung up the phone, numb, that was it, just as quickly as the dreams came they disappeared.  She straightened her shoulders back, and walked out to her easel.  She had her children, and she would be strong for them.  Just as she began to paint the baby inside her kick it's approval to the latest plan.