We adopted a teenage brother and his little sister after every other family had turned them down — a month later, their former foster mother called me and asked, “They still haven’t told you why they picked you?”
My husband and I had always dreamed of having a family, but after five years of trying and still having no children, we finally decided to adopt.
When we contacted a local adoption agency, we were introduced to four-year-old Josie, a sweet little girl with a huge smile who immediately stole our hearts.
But the caseworker warned us there was something we needed to know. Josie had a sixteen-year-old brother, Jace, and they needed to be adopted together. Adopting Josie meant welcoming Jace into our family too.
My heart broke when she told us what had happened before.
Family after family had fallen in love with Josie, but the moment they heard about her teenage brother, they backed out. They wanted the adorable four-year-old, not a sixteen-year-old they assumed would come with problems.
And Jace knew it.
Still, none of that scared us away. We wanted a family, and these two kids deserved one just as badly.
The beginning was rough. Josie woke up crying at night, while Jace barely spoke to us and kept his belongings packed, as though he was waiting for us to change our minds too.
But slowly, they began letting us in.
A month later, Josie was calling our house home, and Jace was finally laughing with us at dinner. For the first time, it felt like we were becoming a real family.
Then their former foster mother called. I assumed she wanted to check on the kids, so I told her how well they were doing.
Instead of sounding relieved, she suddenly went silent.
Then she asked, “They still haven’t told you why they picked you?”
My smile disappeared.
“What are you talking about?”
