I did it for three years, and I thought that was the shape the rest of my life would take.
Then one afternoon we brought a box of toys to a children’s group home.
And everything changed.
Chapter 2: The Girl Nobody Kept
Her name was Georgie, and she was sitting completely alone while the other children played.
Three years old. Big, solemn eyes that followed me across the room.
A caseworker named Ms. Tate told me Georgie had been in the system almost her whole short life, and that five different families had started the process to adopt her and then, one after another, backed out.
“Why?” I asked. “Look at her. How does anyone meet her and walk away?”
Ms. Tate just pressed her lips together and said the file was “complicated.”
I didn’t care how complicated it was.
I looked at that little girl, and something inside me clicked into place like a key I’d forgotten I was carrying.
