Halfway to forever by Karen Kingsbury

relaxing with Matt had given him hope again. His friend's enthusiasm about adopting was contagious. It left Tanner believing that one daymaybe
one day soon-they'd be celebrating their own good news.
"So, what's the next step?"
Matt let his hands rest on the edge of the guitar, and Tanner was struck by the calm in his friend's face. A calm that was only possible by
walking through the fire and coming out refined on the other side. "We've already talked to our social worker and she's looking for an available
child."
"A girl, right?"
29 I K A R E N K I N G S B U R Y Matt nodded. "Hannah and I both want a little girl. Three or four years old, doesn't matter what ethnic
background. We would have a better choice of children if we were interested in the foster adopt program. We're licensed for it, but neither of
us wants to risk getting a child and having her taken away" "So you want one who's already legally available?" "Right. Our social worker
doesn't think it'll take long." Again Tanner was struck by Matt and Hannah's faith. So much could go wrong with a child abandoned to the
social services sys tem. Drug abuse, bonding issues, or worse. Watching Hannah and Matt go through the adoption process was like watching
a liv ing illustration of faith. "What about that Haitian agency?" "Heart of God? Great group of people. We filled out the paper work and paid
the program fee, but they didn't know how long it would take until they had a girl that age. Right now, their older children are almost all boys."
"And now Hannah wants to adopt from the U.S.?" "At first she was afraid to. That's why we looked at Haiti. The statistics are..." Matt's
voice drifted and he clenched his jaw. "More than ninety percent of the U.S. kids legally free for adop tion have been abused. Some of them so
bad it would take a miracle to make a difference." Tanner narrowed his eyes, barely making out a sailboat on the darkened horizon. "You're
taking a big risk." "Yep." Matt didn't sound worried, only accepting, confident. "There's always a risk." An easy silence fell between them
again, comfortable, mean ingful, and Matt moved his fingers over the strings, blending his music with the sounds of the sea. Muffled voices
broke the reverie Jade and Hannah were back-and Tanner looked at his watch. He swung his legs over the side of the lounge chair and patted
Matt on the shoulder. 28 "Well, friend, I guess we're both in need of the same thing then." Matt set his guitar down, stood and stretched.
"What's that?" "A miracle. Nothing short of a miracle." 32 pi
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I~I
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III;~~I~~ IIII~I Illi
race Landers lay in her sleeping bag and trembled. The oices were always loud, but tonight they were too scary to sleep, too scary not to think
about.
Besides, the handcuff was hurting her wrist.
The van was small. Grace's sleeping bag was at the very back
on the floor, against the double doors. There was barely enough
room to sleep there, and she'd had to fold her sleeping bag in half
to make it fit.
Mommy slept on the backseat; the front part of the van was
where they kept their ice chest. The living room, Mommy called it.
Grace ran her finger over the place where the cold metal
scraped against her hand. She would have been a good girl. She tried to tell her mommy, but Mommy wouldn't listen.
"I'm having a man friend over tonight. I don't want you gettin'
in the way, ya hear?"
Her mommy locked one part of the handcuff to a pole near
the bottom of the backseat and the other part to her wrist. Then
mommy made a really mean face and told her to keep quiet or
else.
"Not a peep, Grace. If anyone finds out about us living here,
the cops will take you away again. This time forever."
Grace was very afraid about that. If the cops took her away, she'd have to live with someone she didn't know. Or maybe even go to jail. That
would be scarier than the man her mommy was with tonight.
It was always the same when Mommy had a man friend over.
30
H A L F W A Y T O F 0 R E V E R
They'd talk a little and make slurping sounds, like they were drinking pop. Then her mommy's voice would get funny, all tired and slow.
The noises would change after that, almost like Mommy was getting hurt. Then the van would start shaking... that was when Grace closed her
eyes and pretended the handcuff was a good thing, that it kept her from being hurt like her mommy She would lie there in her little bed on the
floor at the back of the van and think about something else.
Flowers or butterflies or clouds. Something that helped her fall asleep.
But tonight... It was different.
Mommy's friend yelled a lot, and no matter what Grace tried to think about she couldn't make her arms and legs stop shaking. "I paid ya for
more than that, woman."
There was a sharp sound, like when Mommy spanked her for being bad. Then her mommy started to cry. "You gave me dope, not money,
Hank. I need money."
The sharp sound came again. "Dope is money, idiot. Now lay down."
The man shouted at her mommy for a long time and used words Grace wasn't allowed to say. Over and over the sharp sound filled the van,
and Grace began to cry. Be quiet, she told herself, and she held her breath so Mommy and the man wouldn't hear her crying. She couldn't let
the cops take her away. Never, never.