After adopting Anthony, Jane woke up the next morning to find two other boys who looked exactly like him in his bedroom. When the triplets told her the truth, she had only one choice.
“So, Anthony, would you like me to adopt you?” Jane asked the ten-year-old boy, whom she had visited several times over the past few months at the local group home. No one wanted kids his age, so the directors and staff had encouraged this bond.
Fortunately, Anthony seemed to like her over any other adult. He laughed at the silly jokes she tried to make when she came over. They played hide and seek in the backyard, and the kid confessed to some other workers that it was nice to have so much attention.
So, Jane decided to start the process of adoption, which was a bit more complicated than expected and involved a visit to her house from a social worker and responding to personal questions since she wasn’t married.
That was hard to answer. The truth is that she wanted a traditional family and would’ve been happy as a stay-at-home mom. But Jane had terrible luck with men. None of the ones she’d dated wanted anything serious, and eventually, they left her.
Finally, she decided to take her future into her own hands, and in the 21st century, women didn’t need men to become mothers. At first, Jane considered using a sperm donor and getting pregnant, but she drove by the group home one day and saw all kinds of kids.
Curiously, she entered and asked questions. Timidly, she approached a few kids and had meetings with the director. Nothing seemed to click until she had Anthony and wondered why he was older than other kids.
“Oh, yeah,” the director, Mrs. Fields, nodded at the time. “We took him off the streets recently, and he’s resisting being placed in a foster home, so we kept him here. He plays with the little ones and loves our small library, but I can tell he’s lonely. He’s often in the yard, looking out as if waiting for someone to rescue him.”
Jane’s heart broke, and she asked for permission to approach him. The click was almost immediate for her. By the end of that day, she asked Mrs. Fields about adopting him, and they started discussing the lengthy process. It would also be better to give Anthony some time...CONTINUE READING