We Adopted a Teenage Brother and His Little Sister After Other Families Turned Them Down – A Month Later, Their Former Foster Mother Called and Asked, 'They Still Haven't Told You Why They Picked You?'

“He specifically asked for us?”

“Yes,” Rebecca said. “But if you want to know why, I think that's something you should ask him.”

After we hung up, I thought about the duffel bags still sitting in Jace's room.

He had asked for our family.

So why had he spent a month preparing to leave it?

That evening, I almost decided not to ask him.

Then I saw his suitcase again.

What bothered me wasn't that Jace had kept something from us.

It was that he'd apparently asked to come here and then spent every day acting as though we might send him away.

Those two things didn't fit together.

Not yet.

I needed to understand.

After Josie finished dinner, she climbed onto the couch with a coloring book.

Jace was rinsing his plate when Daniel said, "Hey, can we talk for a minute?"

Jace froze.

It was tiny, but I saw it.

After all this time, his whole body prepared for bad news.

"About what?"

His eyes moved toward Josie.

I hated how fast he checked for her.

We sat at the table.

I told him Marlene had called.

His expression changed immediately.

“She said something strange,” I told him. “She asked if you'd ever told us why you picked us.”

Jace looked down.