An Unwanted Adoption

The laughter of the care-gome cascaded like a waterfall of joy around me was we entered through the wide glass doors and stepped into a large hall that was full of happy children. I gripped my husband's hand tighly, glancing at him with a smil before we started to work our way through the mobs of young children.

Little boys chased each other, crashing toy cars against their opposition whilst the girls giggled, chattingwith each other, others played with their home-made rag dolls or Barbies. A young girl who looked like she was only 7 years old, stepped towards me with a smile playing on her lips. Her almond shaped eyes staring straight at me, widening their bright blue depths.

"Hi! My name is Lilly, I hope you pick me!" She said, quite seriously. I could not help but laugh softly at her sweet expression. She seemed to expect the response andjust shrugged, causing something inside of me to twinge with guilt and I reached down to embrace her small frame.

Our hug was only a matter of seconds long and I pulled away to witness her beaming grin before she raced away to play with her friends once more.

I tossed a look over my shoulder to Thomas, my husband, who only smirked.

"You are such a softie, you know that?" He teased. elbowing me gently in the side of my ribs.

I winced in mock pain and stuck out my tongue. Yes, childish, but it had to be done. I opened my mouth to go on a rant about how I wasn't a softie, when I saw a short woman, who appeared to be n her late forties approach us; a smile playing on her rosy red lips. Did everyone here always smile? I wondered to myself, putting my hand out towards her in a formal greeting.

"Oh, good morning. I assume you are the Jones?" She asked, cocking her head to the side, which made her glasses slant sideways off the bridge of her nose. "I'm Claire, by the way, and I'll be helping you choose your child.

"Yes, we're the Jones. I'm Thomas and this is my wife, Caroline." Thomas nodded, his dusky brown eyes were warm with excitement.

"Well, on behalf of everyone here at Klipton Care Home we welcome you to our humble abode. Is there anyone else in the household?" Claire said, her tone was bubbly as she spoke. Her high heels clicked on the marble flooring as she led us through some narrow corridors before we ended up in a rather small and dim room.

A large light filled the room with a small amount of light from the center of the ceiling, illuminating the strange looking plants that were dotted around the room. Shadows were cast almost everywhere I looked, creating a shiver that ran down my spine. I had never liked the dark.

Thomas opened his mouth to answer but I interrupted him so fast that I even surpised myself.

"Only our son, Sam, who is 14 years old. We would actually really like a girl. I have always fancied myselfto have a little girl of my own to shower with love and clothes. However, it simply couldn't happen the natural way so we decided to adopt." I explained, my face lightening up as my dreams played out in front of me. "Oh, and we've filled out all the forms about safety and what not."

Claire nodded thoughtfully, thinking about what I had just said. "Yes and how old?"

"About 6 to 11 years old." I added, sitting down on a leather chair that was opposite where Claire sat on the other side of the work desk. Thomas took one glance at me and followed my lead, pulling up a chair of his own. 

The woman took out a book from one of the top drawers and flipped it open to the 8 year old section. "These are all the eight year old girls that we have currently."

Her words barely hit my ears, as I was only too interested with tracing my index finger over the smiling portraits of little girls. All of them were smiling apart from one whose photo had been placed in the left-hand bottom corner, almost out of sight. The girl had jet black hair that swept over her heart shaped face and brushed her narrow shoulders. Her skin was milky white which made her startling green eyes stand out even more. The lips were a plae, natural colour and were etched in a woried line.It was hard to see what she was wearing as the picture had been taken from her upper-chest and above, only allowing me to see her accessory. It was a jade green ribbon that was tied in a neat bow on top of her head.