Finding a Family

Chapter 25

Jack's POV
Annie and I were busy getting some last minute things prepared for the arrival of our new foster child. We were told we would be getting a girl who was regressed to the age of 4 or 5. I was little nervous as this was our very first foster child we were taking in and I knew the fact that she was regressed would bring it's own set of challenges. While I was sitting there worrying, Annie was busy making sure everything was perfect. "Okay we have her room put together, juice in the fridge, Jack do you think they packed her enough cloths or should I go wash some more?" Annie fussed. "Annie, Annie, I think we have everything we need, if we're missing anything we can always go get it later," I eased her. "Oh, I know, it's just I want everything to be perfect when she gets here. I'm sure she's been through so much, I just want her to feel comfortable here," Annie said as she wrapped her arms around me and kissed me. If you asked me, Annie was fussing about the wrong things. Annie seemed worried about the material things Hannah would need, I was more worried about her emotional needs. Social services told us that Hannah had previously been in a severely abusive home before living with her adoptive parents; they said the abuse was so severe she regressed to a child like state. I knew someone who had gone through that much in their life would need a lot of attention and I was worried if we were up to the task. If I'm being honest, I thought that Annie was being a little too enthusiastic about Hannah's arrival. Don't get me wrong, I wanted Hannah here and was ready to welcome her with open arms but Annie was treating this as if it was an adoption more than a foster placement.

For as long as I've known Annie I knew she wanted kids. Her mother was not the most nurturing woman and I think part of Annie wanted to break the cycle with her own children. After we got married, Annie and I tried to have children but we never got pregnant. After months of trying we found out that Annie has a condition which made her unable to have children. Annie was heartbroken when we first found out; for months she fell into a deep depression and I had no clue how to pull her out. That was until she joined a support group for women experiencing infertility and talked to other families who became foster and adoptive parents. One day Annie came home and announced that she wanted to look into becoming foster parents. I was a little nervous at first, I thought that Annie might still be a little too raw for this. But Annie told me that she saw our infertility as a sign, that this is what we were meant to do; maybe the reason she couldn't have kids was so we could open up our home to other kids who needed a safe place. When she told me that I was convinced and thought this would even be good for her. It wasn't until we found out that we were going to be fostering Hannah, I realized that Annie might not be going into this with the right mindset. When we found out about Hannah, Annie starting going on about us introducing her to our families and even spending Christmas with her. I reminded Annie that we have no way to be sure how long Hannah would stay with us and regardless we would need to take things slow with her. She said she agreed with me and wrote it off as nerves and excitement. But if I didn't know any better, I would say that Annie was hoping to keep Hannah forever.

I thought I would just remind Annie that we are just Hannah's foster parents and that we needed to be careful with how we proceeded but just as I was about to say something to her we saw the car pull up. "Jack, she's here!" Annie said excitedly. Annie hurried to the front door and I trailed behind. Annie opened the door to find Emily, the social worker we had been talking to, standing there. "Emily! So nice to see you but where's Hannah?" Annie asked. "She's in the car with Officer Stevens. I wanted to talk to you both before she came in. Hannah is pretty upset. She was very distraught when we removed her from her home and is pretty shaken up. It's going to take her some time to open up and she might not take to you at first," Emily said. "We understand, we'll take things slow with her," I replied. "Yes, we're really excited to meet her," Annie said. "Okay, she's in the car, she's a little hesitant to come out, why don't you come with me to go get her," Emily suggested. Annie and I followed Emily to the car, Emily went to open the door and Annie was about to approach the car door too when I held her back. Annie looked at me with confusion, "we don't want her to be overwhelmed with too many faces at once," I said gently. "Yeah, you're probably right," she replied. Emily opened the door and I could see a small girl with a tear stained face, clutching a stuffed elephant for dear life. "Sweetheart this is Annie and Jack, the people I was telling you about," Emily said to Hannah. Hannah just sat there trembling. "Hannah why don't we come say hello," Emily said. Hannah just shook her head no. "Hannah honey, you have to come out of the car now," Emily said gently, Hannah just sat there. Emily nodded at the police officer to carry her out of the car. As the officer attempted to grab her, she tried to avoid him by backing herself further into the corner. Even though she was trying her best to avoid him, the police officer managed to get a hold of her. "Come on Hannah, time to go inside," the officer said as he picked her up. As soon as he picked her up she started screaming and thrashing around. "NO, NO, NO, NO! I WANT MY DADDY AND PAPA," she screamed. I was a little taken aback and I could tell by Annie's expression that she was too. Hannah continued to thrash and scream until the police officer put her down in our living room. After he put Hannah down she just stood there trembling. "Hi Hannah, I'm Annie and this is Jack, we're really excited that you're here," Annie said. Hannah just looked at Annie with a terrified expression on her face. Before we could stop him our chocolate lab, Bailey, came to investigate and jumped on Hannah. Bailey was a bit too enthusiastic and scared Hannah when he jumped on her. She yelped and looked frightened, "oh, that's just Bailey. He gets a little excited when he meets knew people, he won't hurt you," I said as I pulled Bailey off of her. The way Hannah was looking at Bailey, it was almost as if she had never seen a dog before.