If you’re the kind of person who can’t resist peeking into a stroller or cooing at other people’s babies, you’ll understand Linda. Linda was born to be a mom, but it never happened.
First, she didn’t have the right partner, then it wasn’t the right time… Finally, when it was the right man and the right time, her body betrayed her. She had lost all hope until she peeked into a stroller in a busy shopping mall…
Linda saw the stroller parked outside a store that sold baby clothes and furniture. She thought that maybe the mother had ducked inside to look at something for her baby.
Of course, it was something very dangerous, and Linda went over to make sure everything was okay with the baby. She saw a small child sleeping soundly, with pale, delicate eyelids and a mouth like a rosebud.
«Oh, my little treasure!» whispered Linda. «I wish you were mine…» Little did Linda know that her greatest dream was about to come true.
Linda waited by the stroller for twenty minutes, but no mom appeared. She began to worry. Had something happened to the baby’s mother? She asked a passerby to go into the baby store and ask if the child was a customer’s baby.
But no one was there. No one in that store or in nearby establishments had seen the baby or his mother. So Linda called mall security and the police. More than an hour passed.
Security guards and police searched the mall, but the baby’s mother, whoever she was, was missing. Linda was horrified. Who would abandon such a precious baby in a busy mall?
Children’s Services took the baby (he was a boy), but over the next few months, Linda stayed in touch. She would check on the baby and eventually asked social services if she and her husband could apply to adopt the little boy.
Linda and her husband Ron had to go through many interviews, but in the end, they took little Davy home. Linda and Ron are thrilled.
Davy is the center of his parents’ world, a bubbly, rambunctious little boy who started running before he could walk. Linda’s heart overflows. She loves this baby more than her own life.
But the little family’s peace was shattered when Davy turned three. Children’s Services called to say that Davy’s birth mother was demanding her baby back.
«But we adopted him!» exclaims Linda. «He’s ours! He never knew any other parents!»
However, Davy’s birth mother claims that her son was stolen from her and that she has been searching for him for three long years. She was ready to sue Linda and Ron to annul the adoption.
«Please,» Linda begs the social worker. «Let me talk to her! If she’s a mother, she’ll want the best for Davy! He will be heartbroken if we take him away from us!»
To the social worker’s surprise, Anna, Davy’s mother, agreed to meet with Linda and Ron. She was a tall woman with full, sensuous lips and long, sharp artificial nails. She didn’t look like a mother at all.
«I know you love Davy,» Linda said. «I know you want what’s best for him…»
«Honey,» Anna related. «You can drop the sweet mommy act with me! I know what you want! The same thing I do, right? How much did you get for my child?»
«How?» exclaimed Linda. «I don’t understand!»
«Money, honey!» said Anna. «I’ve done some research, and if you know how to milk the cow, you can earn thousands of dollars in federal grants, state aid, welfare, not to mention heart foundations!»
«Money?» exclaims Ron, «You think we want Davy for MONEY?»
«Why else?» asks Anna.
«We love him,» says Linda, obviously very angry. «That’s what else it is. Is it for the money that you want our son?»
«My son!» said Anna. «And don’t you forget it! When he was born, I was with a rich guy. We traveled a lot and partied a lot, you know? So the kid put me in a tight spot.
«So I left him, but when Frank dumped me, a friend told me about life as a single mom. This kid is my meal ticket, and I’m going to cash it in!»
Linda smiled.
«You think so?» she asked, holding up her cell phone. «I just recorded this whole conversation, and I’m going to present it to the judge!»
Anna was furious, and she screamed, but in the end, she had to accept the judge’s decision. Davy was Linda and Ron’s son, and he would be theirs forever.
