Sweet and Innocent (Demi Lovato)

Chapter 6

Demi's POV

Today is the day. After Wilmer and I were told that we could never have kids of our own, we knew that we wanted to adopt. Ever since we got married 3 years ago, we have wanted to have kids more than anything. It would make our life together complete. A baby girl. That's what we decided. But none of the baby girls at the first orphanage felt special enough. We wanted to feel a connection.

The next place we are going to doesn't have babies. The orphanage is called, "Home For School-Aged Children". To be honest, the name is horrible, but we'd tried everywhere else. Even though we had originally wanted a baby, a child could still be a huge part of our lives if we found one to adopt.

When we show up, we are lead to a room called the "meeting room" that looks like a living room only it is quite large compared to most.

"Hello, I am Miss. Carrie, a main caretaker," a kind-looking, young woman says.

"Hi, I'm Demi," I reply, "and this is Wilmer."

We sit down and are told to wait while she goes to receive some of the girls from their room. Apparently it is time for them to clean up their rooms. "Normally they're everywhere," she says.

We sit patiently, but I'm anxious. I know we've waited long enough. Still, I can't help but think that we could meet our child here. I can just imagine how close we would feel as a family. 

"So, Brooke is 7, Sarah is 6, and MacKenzie is 7 as well," Miss. Carrie says, stepping back into the room with 3 girls. "I had originally planned for you to meet Lillian, but she didn't want to come down... Her sister was just adopted last week."

I look at the sweet girls in front of us. None of them really spark my interest, although they are all cute and I would love any one of them. 

"Hi," Wilmer says.

The girls don't really respond. One starts crying, the other two try to comfort her. It's not that I don't feel bad; I just really wanted to immediately know which child was a good fit for us.

"Could we go see her then?" I ask.

"I'll try to get her to come down again, but I'm not sure if she's really up to it." She stands up again and tells the girls that they can go play if they're done their chores.

We continue to wait. I look over at Wilmer. He may look less nervous than I am, but his foot is bouncing, so I know he isn't as calm as he looks.

"She won't come down," Miss. Carrie says as she comes into the room. "If you really want to see her, you could come back sometime next week. Maybe Tuesday, during school time if you can."

"Does she not go to school?" I ask.

"No. She came from her uncle's house about a month ago. She'd never been to school, never even heard of it. She's 9, but looks much smaller."

I know Wilmer is feeling sympathetic, I am too, but the story just makes me want to meet this Lillian even more.

"Okay. We'll come by next week," Wilmer says as we leave.

I don't understand why I want to see this girl. She's 9 years old, which is older than we wanted, and she has never been to school. We would be in way over our heads.

"Do you have your heart set on Lillian?" Wilmer asks while we are driving.

"I don't know," I reply. "Do you?"

"I just know we need to see her," he says and I nod.