My sisters and I frantically rushed around the house. We were dusting, mopping, and sweeping everything in sight. I put the broom away and sighed. There wasn’t a speck of dust or dirt in sight. Our house was sparkling.

“We’re finally done!” my older sister, Nasrine, exclaimed. I felt as tired as I was excited. My little sister, Sofia, was coming home for the first time. For the past two days, our cousin Alex drove us to the hospital so we would see our newborn sister, Sofia. We would fight over who got to hold her and now she was coming home.

“The cake’s ready!” Aanniya (my other little sister) remarked. I got out the homemade chocolate strawberries from the night before to add the finishing touch. I plopped each of the berries on top of the cake, making a ring of brown. After writing “Welcome Home!” on the cake in icing, we were done. We decided to eat the left over strawberries. I usually don’t like the bitterness of strawberries but mine tasted sweet from the chocolate. Aanniya looked out of the window.

“Are they here?” I asked.
“Nope,” she sighed.
“How ‘bout now?”
“It was only a few seconds ago that you asked me.”
“Whatever.”
Five minutes dragged by with Nasrine, Aanniya and I sitting on the window seat, looking out the window. The whole house was silent.
Suddenly, we heard tires on pavement.

The familiar red van pulled into our driveway and all three of us ran to the door. The next few minutes were chaos. Nasrine went to open the door. Aanniya got a “Welcome Home” balloon out from the garage. I grabbed my mom’s camera. It was like I was the paparazzi, ready to take pictures of Sofia, the superstar.

My dad came in holding a car seat which cradled a sleeping Sofia. She lazily opened her eyes and looked around. She had this confused look on her face that I couldn’t help but smile at. My mom slowly walked up the stairs to take a nap and my dad followed her, bringing Sofia up too. My sisters and I raced to get to the stairs, tripping over each other to see Sofia. When we reached my mom’s room, we became silent.
“Hi Sofia,” Aanniya whispered. Sofia was staring at the ceiling. She must have liked the fact that my mom’s room was baby blue. After a while, Sofia decided that she was done with looking at the ceiling and went to sleep, a little smirk on her face.

“Let’s go,” I said. We tiptoed out of my mom’s room and down the stairs. We decided we would play with Sofia when she woke up.
“When is Sofia going to wake up? I want to play with her!” Aanniya whined.

“Be patient!” Nasrine hissed. Our day continued and we waited. And waited. And waited. However, Sofia never woke up until after everyone was asleep.

I won’t forget the day Sofia came home. She was so tiny and very calm. Now she is the complete opposite. Just like the rest of my family, Sofia is very important to me. It has been 15 months since she arrived. Even though she has changed a lot, I haven’t changed how important she is to me.