The Robinsons

Chapter 29

Drew and Alex were on their way to meet with the adoption agency to meet a potential child. They wanted a baby but they're exploring their options.

They'd got to see a six month old in a foster home and today they were meeting with a pregnant teen, named Erica, who was giving her baby up for adoption.

"You two seem like a lovely couple." Erica said, nervously looking at her mother, Rhonda, who sat next to her. Erica's mother seemed to be up to something and Alex could feel it. She wanted to talk to Erica alone, but her mother was a bit clingy to her own child.

"What school do you go to?" Alex asked Erica.

"Franklin." She answered.

"Really? I went to Franklin as well." Alex responded with a little excitement.

"Once she has the baby, she's going to Cabrini." Rhonda chimed in.

"Oh yea?" Drew joined the conversation. "I wanted to send my daughter there." He said. "But she didn't want to go there."

"You should have sent her anyway." Erica's mom commented.

"Well, we like to let her make her own decisions. Not on everything, but when it comes to things that she want to do. It's about her. She'll be going to college soon, so we're taking baby steps to her freedom, however there are still boundaries." Alex explained.

"Well, no child of mine, won't get freedom until they turn eighteen and leave this house." Rhonda commented, giving her sixteen year old daughter the side eye.

Alex and Drew both gave her a look and then glanced at each other.

"So do you play any sports? Well did you?" Alex asked.

"Just volleyball." Erica answered.

"You love it?" Alex asked.

"Yea, it's fun." Erica shrugged off her answer.

Staying and talking to Rhonda and Erica for another hour and a half, Drew and Alex were on their way home.

"Rhonda seems a bit pushy over her daughter."

"Some parents are overprotective. I'd be like that if Joy ever popped up pregnant." He responded.

"You don't know that. You'd be full of mixed emotions if your daughter were to become pregnant." She said.

"You're right." He said.

"But what I'm saying is that I don't think Erica wants to give her baby up for adoption. I can tell. Rhonda seems like she makes all the decisions for her daughter. Sometimes parents have to allow their children the opportunity to make their own decision." She said.

"Not all parents because Joy Danielle, won't make a decision of her own until she turns eighteen. Maybe until she moves out the way she's been acting." He commented.

"Well, that's understandable for when you give your children a chance to make a choice, but Erica seems like her every move is controlled by her mother. It was like she was so scared to say the wrong thing to us. Her mom is like shipping her off to another school, making her give up her baby. I don't want to take her baby from her." She said.

"What?" He frowned.

"I don't want to adopt her baby."

"Why not?" He asked.

"Because, she doesn't want to give her baby up." She answered. "I just know it."

"So, we would have to find another baby?" He said.