Becoming a Parent

i never expected to become a parent , indeed i didn't think i had a maternal bone in my body until I saw the child who would become my daughter for the first time when she was four and a half. I had arrived at the school where I did voluntary work each summer and said as usual.'Who would you like me to work with?' They brought this little girl to me who weighed only ten kilos and said 'This one. she has been here a month and has not put on any weight'. So we started three and a half weeks together. She was not walking independently, talking, spoon feeding or potty trained and she would not drink milk.  To get her to drink milk i started by dipping her crisps in milk. i then started floating a crisp on a spoon of milk and by the end ot the week she had given up the unequal struggle and was drinking her mug of milk every day. She started to use a spoon and babble . One of the staff said ' What is she saying ?' i said 'I don't know - you speak the language'. She said,'She isn't speaking our language!' At the end of three weeks she had put on a kilo and the Head said 'You could adopt her if you like'. and that was the beginning of our journey together.  Four long  years later i went to bring her home