“Cool.” I snuggle into Mum’s side. She’s always all warm and squishy.
Daddy coughs, and I look up as he and Mum look at one another. The pain in my tummy is back.
Mum kisses the tip of my nose, smiling at me in that funny way she does sometime. “We love you very much, Dillon.”
“I know.” Mum says it all the time to all of us. She even says it to Daddy when she thinks we aren’t listening. I squeeze her tight. “I love you, Mummy.” I twist my head around. “You too, Daddy.”
“You have brought so much joy into our lives, Dillon. We all love you so much.”
This is getting boring. “Okay. Can we go for pizza now?”
Mum smiles, and Daddy squeezes my other hand. “Not yet, love,” Mum says. “We wanted to talk to you about adoption. We know you’re curious. We didn’t talk about it yesterday when you first asked because we wanted to find some quiet time to talk with you alone.”
That’s what they want to talk about? I wish I hadn’t said anything yesterday when I got home from school, but I was afraid I’d get in trouble for punching Ross, and I had to tell my parents he was being nasty to Charlie and saying mean things like nobody wanted him ’cause Charlie is ’dopted. “I asked Charlie McGovern in class today, and he told me everything.” I jump up. “So, can we go now? Puh-lease?”
Daddy lifts me back onto the log. “I was adopted,” he says, and my eyes pop wide.
“You didn’t have a real mummy and daddy?” That’s what Charlie said it means. But he’s not sad. He’s happy. His ’dopted mummy and daddy are really nice to him, and they even gave him a Spider-Man bedroom for his last birthday and everything.
“Everyone has a mummy and daddy,” Mum says, tucking some of my hair behind my ear. “It’s how babies are made, but sometimes, for various reasons, that mummy and daddy aren’t able to look after the baby.”
“That’s sad.” I have a pain in my heart now.
“Sometimes it is,” my daddy says. “But sometimes it’s not so sad because other mummies and daddies adopt the baby and love and care for him in a way the other mummy and daddy couldn’t.”
I scrunch my nose, not really sure what they mean.
“Sometimes it’s the best thing for the baby,” Mum says. “Lots of married couples can’t have babies, and they have so much love to give.”
“Like my parents.” Daddy pats my shoulder. “They tried to have children of their own for a long time, and they couldn’t.”
“Why not?”
“It’s complicated,” Mummy says. “But it’s not important now. What is important is that your granny Mary and grandad Jack adopted your dad, and he had the best life with them. They loved him and cared for him, and he was very happy.”
“I love my granny and grandad. Why do they have to live in Kerry? It’s so far away.” We only get to see them a few times a year, unlike my other nana and grandpa who live in Greystones. We see them all the time.
Daddy rubs his beard. “I’ll call your granny and see if maybe we can visit them over Easter for a few days.”
“Yay!” I hop up again. “Can we get pizza now?”
“You need to sit down and let us finish telling you.” Mum pulls me down onto her lap. Daddy moves in right beside us as Mum’s arms go around me.
“Being adopted was the best thing that happened to me,” Daddy says. “My life could have been very different if your granny and grandad hadn’t opened their home and their hearts to me. Your uncle Eamonn is adopted too.”
“The things Ross said yesterday were cruel and untrue.” Mum rubs my back while biting on the side of her lip. “Charlie is loved, and it makes no difference whether he was adopted or not. Jenny and Ian are his real parents in all the ways that count.”
“Just like your granny and grandad are my real parents too.”
I lean back against Mum, wishing we could just get to the pizza and ice cream part.
“We need to tell you something, Dillon. We weren’t planning to tell you quite yet, but this seems like the right time to mention it.” Mum brushes her fingers across my cheek. I look at her and then my daddy. That weird feeling is back in my stomach.
“We adopted you when you were a baby, Dillon,” Mum says.
I just stare at her.
She holds me tighter, staring into my eyes. “Your biological parents—the mummy and daddy who made you—weren’t able to care for you, and they asked us if we wanted to love you and cherish you and have you be a part of our family, and we said yes, yes, yes because you’re a very special little boy, Dillon.”
