My husband and I decided to move to the city. My parents stayed in the village, but we decided that we needed to try something new. We quickly rented an apartment and just as quickly got our daughter enrolled in kindergarten. Luck seemed to come to us by itself. The city welcomed us.
I got a job. My husband offered to pick me up by car. But I refused. I just like to walk. And the weather this fall was good, dry and warm. The road home passed by a building surrounded by wire. I thought it was some kind of facility, but it turned out to be an orphanage. It wasn’t a very pleasant place or the building looked so bleak and lonely in the fall.
One day I was coming back from work and saw a boy about four years old. He was diligently inserting leaves into the mesh of the fence. I smiled at him and said: “Hi.” The little boy didn’t take his eyes off his work and said, “Hi,” too. He was so brown-eyed, he reminded me of my brother as a child.
I stopped, found some candy in my bag, and handed it to my new acquaintance. “What’s your name?” I asked. “What do you want me for?” the little guy was wary. And then looked at me and added: “David.” Then the teacher called him and the child waved at me and ran to the other children.
All the way I walked and smiled to myself. He was so cute. I didn’t understand how they could leave such small children in an orphanage. My daughter is three years old and I couldn’t imagine what could have happened to my little girl.
I told my husband and he shared my concerns. From that day on, I went to the store every night to buy David something to eat. We became friends and the child waited for me near the fence all the time. Suddenly my father called me in the morning and told me that my mother wasn’t feeling well. I had to go away for two weeks. At work I took a leave of absence. Luckily my mother was able to get back on her feet.
I went back to work and in the evening I took the same road. But I couldn’t find David near the fence. There were children playing in the playground near the building, and I asked the ten-year-old girl, “Do you know where David is, he used to play here?” The girl said that he was sick. And then the teacher came up to me and looked at me with an unkind look. “I asked you. I warned you that a child is not a toy. He’s used to you. And then you disappeared. And David waited for you at the fence every day. And now he has a cold, he has bronchitis. But the boy is homesick and doesn’t want to eat at all,” the teacher scolded me. “It’s all because of you!” she added.
On the way home, I was choking back tears. How could I let this happen. The child was used to me, I had no idea that I could hurt the little heart so much. What was I thinking! I was thinking about myself, about my feelings, but not about David. I had no excuses. I had tamed the baby, and then I just disappeared from his life.
I told my sadness to my husband. And when we went to bed, I couldn’t close my eyes, I just stared unseeingly at the ceiling. My husband hugged me, “Well, do you want me to get off work tomorrow and we’ll check on David in the hospital?” – he asked. “Of course I do!” I exclaimed, as if I had found the solution to a difficult problem. We found out where David was laid up. My daughter picked out the best toy for him, and I bought apples and candy. I had to lie that we were relatives, otherwise they wouldn’t let us in.
David stood by the bed and looked out the window. He was so small, so dear. I didn’t dare call out to him, I didn’t know how a child would react.
And when he turned around, he put his arms around my waist with all his strength, “I knew you would come. I knew it!”. He cried, and I cried. And when I looked at my husband, I saw tears rolling down his face, too.
My husband is a serious, strong man, but he was crying. And then my husband went over to David and sat down next to him and said: “And you know that’s your real mom, and I’m your daddy.” I didn’t expect such a U-turn, but my husband felt in his heart, read my thoughts, that I wouldn’t be able to live peacefully until I picked up this child.
“I knew it, I knew it!” cried the baby cheerfully. “Just have to eat well,” my husband added. “You’ve got to get better and we’ll go home.”
My husband never minced words, so I trusted him completely.
We were able to get all the necessary paperwork together quickly. The teachers and director of the orphanage helped as much as they could. And we became parents of David. Now we have a friendly family.
My daughter is bragging to everyone that she has an older brother now. And I am pregnant. And in two months we will have our third child. That’s how we met our happiness by chance. After all, happiness is really walking around, you just need to notice it and not be afraid to reach out to him.
And all thanks to the fact that I like to walk. That’s the story.
Do you think the heroine in this story did the right thing by adopting someone else’s child? What would you wish for her?
