A man, saddened by the loss of his family, adopts a girl with Down syndrome and gives her a loving home. Nine years later, a stranger calls him and tells him that the girl he adopted is a millionaire.
It was a beautiful sunny day and the birds were chirping happily in the sky. Everything seemed to be going well, but not for Brian (33): it was the darkest day of his life.
Brian’s beloved wife (Lyra) and only daughter (Amy) died in a car accident that morning. He shuddered as he went to the police station to identify them and recognise their pale faces hidden under thin white blankets. How could God be so cruel? How could he deprive him of his family?
As they were buried, Brian felt as if his body had bled to death. His gaze was fixed on the fresh ground that now covered the bodies of his wife and daughter, and for a moment he regretted that it was not he but they who lay in the ground.
After losing Lyra and Amy, Brian felt his life no longer made sense.
“Brian, you can’t live like this. You’re young and you have your whole life ahead of you. The living must move on,” his mother once told him.
It had been five years since Brian had lost his family, but it still felt like yesterday. How could he go on living? How could he forget that the people he loved most were no longer with him? It wasn’t easy for him.
One day Brian came home from work and went about his tedious routine. He sat at his desk, checking reports and doing his work as usual. It kept him busy and helped him forget his sad thoughts.
On his computer, he opened his Facebook account and suddenly there was a post about a little girl with Down’s syndrome. Brian would not have noticed it had it not been for the post: “…Rejected by 15 families and longing to find a loving home. Andrea is a beautiful girl with special needs who wants to find a family”.
He sighed and stared at the post for a few minutes. He needed family, and so did she. Life was cruel to both of them, and perhaps this was God’s way of finally sparing him the pain.
Brian had been thinking about the Facebook message all night and contemplating whether he should adopt the girl. Being a single father, he knew the process would be difficult, but this girl really needed a loving home and he knew he could give her one.
“All right then,” he thought. “I’ll give it a try.”
The next day, Brian called the number given in the Facebook message and expressed his desire to adopt Andrea. The woman on the phone gave him the contact details of the social worker dealing with Andrea’s case.
A few days later Brian met little Andrea for the first time and was very emotional. She was an adorable six-year-old girl in a blue flowery dress and looked up to him.
Unfortunately, because of her disability, she was abandoned by a single mother. “How sad,” thought Brian as she entered the room.
“Hello, Andrea,” he said softly to her. “My name is Brian. I’d like to adopt you. Would you consider me your father?”
Andrea said nothing, but smiled and nodded at him. In that moment Brian knew that he would do everything he could to give her a loving home. And he kept his word.
After the paperwork, background checks and parenting seminars, Brian officially became Andrea’s adoptive father, and it gave his life a new meaning. They were very happy with each other.
They celebrated birthdays together and Brian’s parents also loved Andrea. He tried to be the best father he could be and made sure she didn’t miss anything just because she was different from the other children.
Brian didn’t even realise when Andrea turned 15. Nine years flew by so quickly, and he was so happy with the way his life had turned out.
But after a few months things became more complicated. Because of problems at work, Brian lost his job and had to look for another one. He lived on his savings while he looked for a new job, which turned out to be harder than he thought.
Eventually it got to the point where he didn’t have enough money for his basic needs. He had to move to a smaller house and was struggling to make ends meet. But one day help came out of nowhere.
Brian got a call from a man claiming to be Andrea’s mother’s lawyer.
“Yeah, so? What do you want from my child now?” Brian said angrily. “This woman abandoned my daughter just after she was born and you think I’m ready to talk to you now?”
“Mr Hoffman,” said the lawyer. “Trust me. You must come to my office. As Andrea’s legal guardian, you will receive a wealth of a million dollars from her mother in her name. And there’s someone you should meet too. I’ll send you all the information at the end of this conversation. I hope to see you this Friday,” he said and hung up.
Brian was understandably shocked. Why had Andrea’s mother left him such a large inheritance if she wanted nothing to do with her child?
That Friday Brian went to the lawyer’s office and met the elderly man, who turned out to be Andrea’s grandfather. He said he didn’t know about his granddaughter until his daughter told him before she died.
“Andrea,” she whispered, taking his hand in hers. “Her name is Andrea…”
“I’ve missed so many years of communicating with my granddaughter,” he said sadly to Brian. “I wish I could have been there for her. I know you took her in legally, but I just want to be there for my granddaughter. Just before her mother died, she regretted leaving her… She knew her mistake, that’s why she left her possessions to her.”
Brian was very happy to find out that Andrea had a biological family. In fact, he did not want to separate his daughter from her grandfather.
He decided to take Andrea regularly to her grandfather’s house so that they could spend time together. He used the money from the inheritance to pay off his debts and move to a larger house, and he also set aside a considerable amount of money for Andrea’s future studies.
When he occasionally visited Andrea’s mother’s grave a feeling of relief arose in his heart. He thought she was happy that her daughter had a good life and a loving home.
