Mary Elizabeth Dayton was surprised to see her foster home placement agent when she answered her door on Monday afternoon. "Anna? Hi. You weren't supposed to be here until Thursday. What's up? More inspection work?"

"Oh no, Mrs. Dayton, this isn't the home inspection visit. We've completed that and your home is good to go. In fact, you passed with not one issue. We're very pleased to have you on board with us."

Mary breathed a sigh of relief; she had indeed felt she had passed the inspection with flying colors, but with state bureaucracies, you never knew. While her caseworker, Anna Simms, an eager, young black girl with a round face, and sparkling smile, had been encouraging, the home inspector who studied her ranch home in the urban working class neighborhood had been dour and grumpy.

"Oh? That's wonderful. Come in," Mary said, opening the door and stepping aside, still puzzled for the visit. "What brings you by today?"

Anna stepped inside and, "Well I was in the neighborhood and wanted to talk to you about this in person. I've got bad news and good news. At least, I hope you'll find it's good news."

Mary was shocked, and wondered what was happening. "I know you were ready to accept Julia into your home tomorrow," Anna began. "But something has happened that'll make that impossible."

"Oh?" Mary asked, puzzled, and saddened, since she had prepared a lovely girl's room for her new foster child, a 14-year-old girl named Julia.

The two had met, and Mary had found Julia to be a delightful, but terribly shy young girl, one who would benefit from the kind of nurturing that Mary had practiced with her three boys, now grown, gone, married and successful in the world.

"Julia's mom has successfully completed her rehab, and now has decided that she wants her child back," Anna continued.

"So she's going back to her mom now, immediately?"

"No. We can't risk that yet," Anna explained. "But we felt it wouldn't be fair to Julia to move her again if she could only stay here for a few months and then have to be returned to her mom. She'll be better off staying where she is while we prepare Julia's mom to take her back."

Mary sighed. "I guess that's for the best. But I had my heart set on Julia. She was so sweet."

"I know, Mrs. Dayton, but I have no other teen girls ready for care now."

"Oh, I'm so ready for a child and my heart was so set on receiving one now," Mary said with tears beginning to well up in her eyes.

"Well, that was the bad news. Here's the good news. I do still have a child for you. In place of Julia, I have a boy, almost 14, who needs your kind of care, Mrs. Dayton."

"A boy? I'm not set up for a boy. The room . . . everything I've done was to make sure all was perfect for Julia. It was all designed for a girl. I'm not prepared to take a boy."

"I know you wanted a girl, Mary," Anna said. "This is a very special boy. His name is Angelo, and he's the sweetest, shyest little boy you'll ever meet. I'm sure you'll take to him. I just know it. As soon as you meet him you will fall in love with him the same as you did with Julia."

Mary's interest was now piqued, and she listened intently as Anna explained how Angelo was orphaned a year ago and was placed with an aunt where his boy cousins constantly harassed and beat up on him, to the point that his aunt couldn't take care of him anymore.

"He needs a nurturing loving household, Mary, and I know you could provide that."

"Oh, Anna. Boys can be so rough and tumble, though. You know I raised three of them myself, " Mary said.

"Oh, not this boy." Anna countered.. "Angelo is a very smart boy. He's just small for his age, so he has trouble with other boys. He likes to read a lot, and he seems to like to do the quiet things."

Mary was interested but really wasn't sure, yet. She really wanted a girl and had her heart set on Julia.

Regardless of her feelings, she agreed that Anna could bring Angelo for a visit the next day, so the two could get acquainted. Of all the child welfare workers that had handled his case, Angelo had found Anna Simms to be the kindest and most concerned about his welfare.

Anna was young, just out of college, and she took her cases seriously; in truth, she was not sure of herself yet, and often wondered how she could even be trusted with the job of trying to save children. But here she was and right now her priority was to convince Mary Dayton to agree to just meet Angelo.
She knew that that's all it would take for Anna to fall in love with Angelo the same way she had taken to Julia.