An Unwanted Adoption

A struggle...

Recap!

All of them were smiling apart from one whose photo had been placed in the left-hand bottom corner of the page, almost out of sight. The gilr had jet black hair that swept over her heart-shaped face and brushed her narrow shoulders. Her skin was milky white, which made her starling green eyes stand out even more. The lips were a pale, natural colour and were etched in a worried 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 neatly on the top her head.

I felt my husband stiffen beside me as he followed my line of sight, and my body immedietly jerked around to face him. "What's wrong?" I hissed, glaring into the depths of his eyes. "Not liking the look of an innocent little girl you don't even know?!"

He pulled back in shock, shaking his head wildly. "No, it's just hr expression is...." Thomas hesitated, appearing to struggle finding the appropriate word. "...Different..." He sighed, apparently dissapointed with his choice of word, which only made me even more irritated.

"She might have been through a lot! Anyway, I think she looks like a young girl who has a traumatic past and only wants a loving couple to come and sweep her off her feet!" I argued, before turning to Claire who was busy looking at her newly polished nails. "Um, excuse me but could you tell us a bit more about this one?"

Claire suddenly seemed to jerk awake, her plain eyes staring at me for a long while before she said anything. "Oh, that is Rebecca. We have not found out who was her parents were, or are, but we found her one-day when she turned up on our door-step. She has had a few past families however they all either have had unexpected tragic ends or have just returned her. A sad past for a sad girl." She paused, thinking once more, before bringing out a file from under the desk. "All the details are in here so feel free to take it home to have a closer look into Rebecca's past."

I smiled. "Well, that's settled it. She's coming with us!"

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An hour later, I found myself sitting at our wooden dining table facing Sam with Thomas one side of me and Rebecca on the other. The under-floor heating provided good heat on my sore feet and heated my weary, cold body.

"Okay, look. I'm going to quit work for a while to look after dear Rebecca and your father is going to try and get more work sent home so he can look after her as well. This is going to have to be the case until we get her enrolled in a primary school." I explained, going over the facts once mroe as Sam tried to get his head round it.

Rebecca lifted her head and turned slowly to look at me with her bright green eyes. "If it's okay, can I please have Sam show me around?" She asked, her voice was as smooth as velvet and I couldn't help but weaken as I listened to her polite, mature question. She was very mature for her age.

I nodded shrugging away my thoughts. "Of course, Sam go and show your sister around." Sam grinned and stood up, pushing the chair out of the way using only the backs of his legs. Within seconds, he had darted around the table and was holding Rebecca's hand.

"I'll show you everywhere! My room, your room, Mum and Dad's room, even my hiding places that I used to go into when I was younger!" He chuckled, seemingly over-joyed at the thought of showing Rebecca around It was also quite nice of him to show her his hiding places as they were a great secret. They were such good hiding places that it had taken us a good 30 minutes looking for him before we gave up and he made us close our eyes so we could not see where he came out of. Thus, the hiding places were still a mystery. I smiled at the memories, hoping that we could have the same with Rebecca. My new daughter.