The Perfect Child(29)
I took Christopher by his arm and led him to the living room. He scanned the room, taking it all in. It took a second for the words on the banner to register. His eyes grew huge.
“Are you serious?” he asked. He set Janie down on the floor. She looked around curiously at all the balloons and eyed the banner, trying to decipher the letters.
I nodded. “I am.”
He threw his arms around me and lifted me off my feet, twirling me around as he shrieked with laughter. “Really? This is so amazing! We’re finally going to be parents!”
I smiled as he danced me through the living room. It was just like I’d imagined he’d react when I showed him a pregnancy stick with two red lines in the window. Maybe this wouldn’t be as different as I’d thought.
He cupped my face in his hands and kissed me slowly. “I can’t believe we’re doing this.”
I leaned into him, his arms encircling me. “Me either.”
CASE #5243
INTERVIEW:
PIPER GOLDSTEIN
It’d taken me over three months to grow my nails out beautifully and only a few minutes to chew them back down to nubs. It was so nerve racking. Why did they insist on asking me questions that they already knew the answers to? I took a deep breath, hoping I’d give them what they needed this time.
“I did a home visit with them the day after their hospital visit.”
“Which hospital visit?” Ron asked.
“The first one,” I said. Janie had gotten into the bathroom during her third week with the Bauers and swallowed a bunch of shampoo. They’d pumped her stomach and kept her overnight for observation. “And yes, I did suggest respite care then because I was shocked at how tired Christopher and Hannah looked.”
Respite care was a break for foster parents. Another foster family took your child for the weekend so you could rest. It would’ve been horrible for Janie, but I had considered it because the two of them had looked awful. They hadn’t even looked like the same people.
Christopher had been bleary eyed and unshaven. His clothes had been wrinkled and unkempt, like he might have slept in them the night before, which was completely out of character for him. He had always looked like he’d just stepped off the golf course, with his polo shirts tucked into his pressed khaki pants. He had sat slumped in the upholstered chair next to the fireplace in the living room. Hannah hadn’t looked any better. She had bustled around the living room with frenetic energy like if she stopped moving, she might fall asleep on her feet. There had been heavy black creases under her eyes.
“And they refused respite care?” Ron asked.
I didn’t like his tone. “Lots of family don’t use respite care, but I always offer it,” I said. “We sat down and had a discussion about learning to take care of themselves and developing a support network for all the challenges that would present themselves as time went on. Janie had an entire team helping her with her issues, but they didn’t have anyone. Lots of parents forget about themselves.”
“What sort of things did you discuss?”
“They’d been keeping themselves fairly isolated inside the house. I stressed the importance of getting their family and other trusted people involved so they could have help caring for Janie. When you’re dealing with an emotionally troubled child, it gives a whole new meaning to ‘It takes a village to raise a child.’”
“I imagine.” Luke’s expression was blank. “Why were the Bauers so set on keeping Janie away from their family?”
Why did they make everything sound so bad and ill intentioned? I tried to keep the annoyance out of my voice. “It wasn’t like that. Christopher had read all these books on how to make adoptive children feel comfortable and settled in their first month. He and Hannah had taken time off from work so they could both be home with her during her first month. Lots of the experts said it was best to keep the number of new people to a minimum and to work on developing the parent-child relationship first before bringing other people into the circle. But like I told Christopher, the experts aren’t always right.”
Luke raised his eyebrows. “Do you consider yourself an expert?”
I blushed. “I . . . I mean, I’ve been doing this for over twenty years . . .”
Ron nodded, signaling that I could continue. He gave Luke a slightly irritated look.
“I explained to them that sometimes they had to make decisions based on their own situation. I suggested they introduce Janie to their families.”
“Why did you push so hard?”
“Because they needed help. They were going to fall apart if they didn’t get someone to help them.”
SEVENTEEN
HANNAH BAUER
I had listened to my married girlfriends complain about their in-laws enough to know how fortunate I was that my and Christopher’s families had gotten along since their first introductions. We were lucky that way. Christopher’s parents had always wanted a bigger family, so they were happy to welcome mine. Both couples had moved to Florida after retirement like traditional Midwesterners did. They lived two hours away from each other in the southern panhandle. Even when we weren’t visiting, they still went out to dinner with each other occasionally. Christopher’s dad had passed away three years ago, and my parents were a huge help to his mom, Mabel.