The Desire by Gary Smalley

Author:Gary Smalley [Walsh, Dan and Gary Smalley]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: FIC027020, FIC042040, Adoption—Fiction
ISBN: 9781441219589
Publisher: Baker Publishing Group
Published: 2014-07-21T16:00:00+00:00

32

Christina had left Michele’s home that afternoon with Michele’s heartfelt gratitude for even considering her and Allan worthy of such trust, and with her assurance that they would talk over Christina’s offer that night and pray together for God’s guidance.

Since then, it had set so heavy on her heart. She could hardly get her head around it; it was such a big deal. She’d actually called Allan to see if he could come home early so they could talk, but he couldn’t. He was working with a client right up until five. She’d told him they had something important to discuss, big enough to put dinner on hold when he got home.

He was upstairs getting changed now. Allan had suggested they take a walk. Something about a walk just made listening and thinking easier to do. She got up from her chair when she heard him coming down the stairs. “It’s really nice out right now,” she said.

“I could use some fresh air,” he said. “I hate being shut up in the office all day.” Half of Allan’s time was spent out in the field. He opened the front door for her. As she walked past him, he said, “So, what’s this big news? I can’t tell by the look on your face if it’s good or bad.”

They walked down the sidewalk, holding hands. “It’s not really a good or bad kind of thing. It’s just very unusual. Potentially life-changing.”

They reached the end of their walkway. “Which way do you want to go?” he asked.

“Doesn’t matter.” They turned right, started walking up a slight incline.

“You’re not going to keep me guessing.”

“No, I won’t do that. I had a visit from Christina today. She texted me this morning saying she wanted to talk about something important.”

“Did she come to the house?”

“She did. I wasn’t at all prepared for what she had in mind. She wanted to know if you and I want to adopt her baby.”

“What? Really?”

Michele nodded. “She’s totally serious. She said she’s given it a lot of thought. And prayed about it too.”

“What brought this about? Do you know?”

“I guess she’s reached some fork in the road with the adoption agency she’s working with. She hasn’t used very much of their money yet, but that’s about to change. She said she’d feel guilty if she let them pay for some of the big-ticket items coming up and then pulled out of their arrangement.”

“So if we did this,” Allan said, “we wouldn’t be going through her agency?”

“No, if we did that, it would cost us just as much as anyone else.”

“So . . . we’d be doing, what, a private adoption?”

Michele nodded. “I don’t know what that involves, since I haven’t been looking into adoption, but I guess you just agree to pay the hospital costs and some attorney fees. Whatever it is, it’ll be a fraction of what it costs going through an agency.”

They walked in silence a few moments. “This really is big,” he said. “Bigger than when we decided about the house.

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