Are you going to separate us today?
His voice was low, but the four youngest children heard it. Mia immediately tightened Mason’s hand more tightly.
I crouched down in front of them.
I will do everything I can to prevent it.
Do you promise?
The question almost destroyed me.
I knew what it felt like when adults made promises they couldn’t keep.
“I promise I won’t stop fighting for you.
Three weeks earlier, I was having dinner alone in my workshop when I saw his photograph on the county emergency shelter page.
Five frightened faces appeared under one sentence:
Brothers need immediate care. probable separation.
Something inside me broke.
Before dawn, he had filed an emergency care application.
The social worker thought she was joking.
“You’re a single carpenter,” Beverly said. You have no experience as a parent and only have two bedrooms.
I have a workshop that I can convert.
Five children need more than just beds.
I know.
“Really?”
I didn’t answer, because the truth was, I wasn’t sure.
But I emptied my savings account anyway.
I stopped accepting new furniture orders and spent every hour awake transforming the unused half of my workshop into a warm bedroom. I built oak bunk beds, installed security locks, covered the plugs, added smoke detectors and painted the walls a soft blue.
I bought five child seats for the car, children’s clothing, night lights, toothbrushes and more stuffed animals than I could afford.
Then I hired Diane, a family lawyer, with the last money I had left.
Everyone rated my plan as reckless.
Maybe it was.
But I had survived something worse than recklessness.
I had survived to be separated from my own brothers.
When the sheriff called our case, Eli got up and helped the little ones get off the bench.
Inside the room, the state attorney submitted photographs of three approved foster homes. They all looked comfortable and clean.
“Honourd,” he said, “Mr. Carter’s intentions may be admirable, but good intentions cannot substitute for preparation. He is applying for the responsibility of five traumatized children despite having no wife, additional guardian, limited income and no experience raising children.
