Sophia’s parents were surprised to see their little girl entering the house with a stroller containing a baby. Unfortunately, they could not keep the child and tried to visit him often at the orphanage. Alas, the boy was sent to foster care years later. But one day, their doorbell kept ringing, and the boy was there, so Sophia’s parents had to make a difficult choice.
“Mom ! Mom ! Look!” cried Sophia, seven, as she ushered a stroller into their house.
“Sophia! Return quickly ! It’s raining!” his mother, Lillian, replied from the kitchen window before fixing her eyes after noticing the stroller. “What is that ? !”
“It was in the park. No mother ever came to pick her up! I couldn’t leave her!” explained Sophia, agitated.
“Okay, okay. We’re just going to dry you and the baby off, okay?” Lillian replied, bringing a towel for her daughter to dry off while she examined the baby. Luckily, the baby had been covered enough not to get wet. She cooed and rocked him a bit before putting him back in his stroller and placing her hands on his hips.
“Can we keep it, mum? I will be a good big sister! I can help!” Sophia begged, seeing her mother thinking.
“We’ll talk about that later, honey, when your dad gets home. Now go change or you’ll get sick,” Lillian said, smiling to soothe her daughter. But she was worried. Who would leave a child in the park? Their neighborhood, Macalester-Groveland in St. Paul, Minnesota, was pretty safe. However, it was awful.
Lillian picked up the baby once more, noticing he was getting restless, then she saw a piece of paper on the stroller. There was a note written in pencil, and the letters seemed to have been written in haste, which told Lillian that whoever had abandoned the baby had been trying to be quick. She started to read it.
“To whoever finds this letter,
Please forgive me. I’m only 19, and my husband died in a car accident. I have no money and I have no one left. I can’t take care of him anymore. I didn’t know what else to do. I know this baby will bring happiness to someone in this neighborhood. Please take it.”
Lillian’s eyes started to glow. That poor girl, she thought. It was hard enough being a mother even when you had support, and this woman felt lost after losing her husband. She couldn’t blame her too harshly, although it would have been better to leave the baby in a safer place. But now it was up to Lillian and her family to find a solution.
When her husband, Mark, returned, she showed him the letter and asked if he would be interested in adopting the baby. He wasn’t opposed to the idea, but they still had to call the authorities.
In the end, they decided not to take him in. Sophia cried and screamed when social services came to pick up the baby. But the social worker promised they could visit the baby at the Children’s Home Society.
Sophia pestered them to take her to the orphanage at least once a week, and things continued that way for years. The little boy, whom they called Paul, grew up thinking of them as family and was genuinely happy whenever they came. Even Mark went to these visits several times. When they left, he and Lillian reconsidered adopting him once more. But they never made a decision and said they would talk about it later.
One day, an employee of the orphanage announced to them that Paul had finally been placed in a foster family and that he could be adopted soon. “But we can always go see him, can’t we, Mom?” Sophia asked enthusiastically.
Lillian looked at the employee, who frowned and shook her head slowly, so she leaned in a little. “Honey, you’re already 12, so I’m going to talk to you like we’re both adults, okay?” she started and Sophia smiled and nodded. “We can’t go see him. Paul needs to bond with his new family and have a chance at being adopted. Also, we can’t go to a stranger whenever we want.”
Sophia wanted to protest, but her mother had called her an adult, and she didn’t want to prove her wrong. So she took the bad news with maturity, and they went home.
The pre-teen wished the best for the little boy she was beginning to think of as a brother and tried to forget about him. What they didn’t know was that Paul hadn’t forgotten them.
One day, Sophia was in the kitchen making sandwiches for everyone in the house when the doorbell rang. She didn’t want to stop. Sophia froze, a bottle of ketchup in her hands, and they looked toward the door. “What’s going on?” Mark asked, putting down the newspaper he was reading.
“I’ll go, I guess…” Lillian mumbled, angry at the one who was outside and kept ringing the bell. But she was flabbergasted when she opened the door. It was Paul. “Paul! What are you doing here ?”
Sophia widened her eyes and ran to join her mother. “PAUL! You’re here!” she exclaimed, delighted.
You told me where your house was. I took Mr. Garner’s phone and used the cards,” little Paul showed them the phone, and they all looked at it in surprise. Mark grabbed the phone as they ushered the boy inside.
“Are you telling me you used the GPS to come here? But did you use the keyboard?” Mark asked looking at Lillian in complete shock. He was a five-year-old using Google Maps like it was so easy.
“What is a keyboard? I told Siri to go to Macalister and Groveland to visit Sophia. I don’t like my new house. I wish I could go to my old house,” Paul replied. Sophia took his hand, and they went to his room.
“It’s incredible ! He ran away from home and found us, barely giving our address. I can’t believe it!” marveled Mark to his wife. “But honey, we have to call his foster parents or the Children’s Home.”
“I know…I just wish we could…” Lillian started, but fell silent as she looked at her daughter’s room. Mark made a decision at that moment.
They called the orphanage, informing them of what Paul had done. And Mark also told them that they were interested in adopting him. The social worker wasn’t sure until Paul told them he didn’t like his new home.
They had to call the Garner family as well and give them their phone back. The couple were sad that Paul no longer wanted to live with them, but there was nothing they could do about it. “I mean, if he managed to find your house like this, it must be fate that he stayed with you,” Ms Garner told them.
Lillian and Mark agreed. They eventually started the adoption process and got Paul almost immediately. Sophia couldn’t have been happier, even though her parents often blamed themselves for not adopting the boy from the start. But they couldn’t change the past, and for now they were looking forward to a future with their two children.
What can we learn from this story?
Little boys are smarter than you think. The older we get, the more we realize that children appropriate technology much faster than the rest of us.
Fate has its way of intervening. Paul belonged in their family, even though Lillian and Mark hesitated several times for years to take the plunge. Fortunately, fate intervened to help them.
Share this story with your friends. She could brighten their day and inspire them.
If you liked this story, you might like that of a woman who adopted the baby someone left outside her home 44 years ago.
