In the summer of 1832, my sister and I were waiting, and waiting, and waiting ever so patiently. We had been waiting at the docks of Liverpool every afternoon for six months, waiting for our parents to come back from the stunning and brilliant United States. Why were we alone, with no money, and homeless? It's a long story.

It was during the month of January when our parent's friend had dumped us on the street with no money, no clothes other than what we were wearing at the time, and no food. Our parents had entrusted him with providing us these things, and even paid a very generous sum to him. However, he decided we were too expensive and too noisy to take care of, and threw us out.

My sister and I were thrown out with very little clothing during winter. There was at least two feet of snow on the ground, I kid you not. We had wandered for a day straight, trying to find some place that we could make camp in, and stay warm. Our feet had been so cold that they had become blue. At last, we had found an empty and abandoned farm. There was even hay in there! We had used the hay to our advantage, and my sister made blankets as well as a hasty bed for us. Now, we had shelter covered as well as warmth. All we need is food, warmer clothes, not just blankets, and our parents to come back.

My sister had said to me, "Jack, we need to find food. Let's go looking for it tomorrow morning, okay? Now, we sleep. Rest up."

I had replied eagerly, as I had not eaten in two days now. I was craving for a scrumptious meal at the time, but I knew that it would not happen. We would be lucky to even find the smallest crumb of food.

The next day, we had scored jackpot. We had passed by a bakery, where we had smelled absolutely positively mouth watering smelling bread. We had walked closer, just to be able to smell the radiating aroma. Just then, a boy had walked out of the bakery. He was looking down at a burnt piece of bread, and sighed to himself. It looked like he was about to throw it away, but then he saw us.

He shouted, "Hey! Do you guys need any bread? I mean, it's burnt and all, but it's still something! It looks like you haven't eaten in days!"

We readily agreed, saying "Thank you, thank you, thank you, thank you, thank you!" before leaving to go back to the barn. My sister commented on how lucky we were, but the luck did not last.

After winter had ended, we were in for an unpleasant surprise. When we were just sitting around, minding our own business, a wrecking ball suddenly hit the side of the barn! My sister and I frantically grabbed our belongings, and rushed out the back. On the way, I dropped my straw hat.

"My hat!" I exclaimed, starting to go back for it.

"Jack! Stop! If you go back, you're just going to get crushed! It's not worth it for the hat." Jill had looked me dead in the eye when she said this. Whenever my sister, gave this look, I knew to drop it. We rushed out, holding our makeshift blanket. Now that I think back on it, we must've been quite a sight, emerging from a barn being destroyed holding a blanket made of hay. This is how my sister and I had lost our only shelter, as well as our bed. Even though it was only made of hay, it was better than sleeping on the hard cold floor.

We had gone to the dock, hoping to find a job that could offer even the most remote shelter. However, all of the jobs had declined because of the simple fact that we were children. We had to breathe in the ever so salty ocean air and feel the cold blood chilling spring air. It was even colder than winter in my honest opinion. However, I just felt that way because we did not have a bed to sleep on, and we slept out in the open.

My sister had decided to wait for our parents to come back by waiting on the dock every day, for six hours. This continued for four more months. When we were not watching, we would be trying to find food, and shelter. The only warmth we had was the thin blanket made of hay which was not warm at all.

We continued to wait through the dreadful, terrible nights. We had to scavenge food from dumpsters quite often. Sometimes, when it was really cold, we even had to sleep in the dumpster!

At times when waiting for our parents, I would get really discouraged and feel like they would never come back. At these times, my sister, being the good sister she is, would comfort me by reassuring me that our parents would come back.

One day, when we were walking back from the dock, a man just happened to coincidentally drop his purse. We had helped him pick up all of the money, and he even happened to reward us! He offered to give us a miniscule amount of money. For him, it was a miniscule amount. However, for us, it was more money that we had seen in the past six months.

After much consideration, we had decided to spend the money on a letter to send to our parents in America. We had thought about using the money to buy food and clothes, but decided against it. My sister and I knew inside that seeing our parents again would bring more comfort than any amount of food and clothes could ever bring.

After we sent this letter, in addition to the daily trips to the dock, we also took two trips daily to the post office to see if our parents had sent a letter back. We were so anxious to hear from our parents, that we were even falling out of imaginary seats.

We had sent the letter two months ago. There was still no response from our parents. We had given up all hope of ever seeing our parents again, and focused mainly on survival.

The days had passed by, ever so dull. It was the same routine, over and over again. Wake up, try to find some food, go to the post office, go to the dock, find some more food if possible, go to the post office, and find a peaceful place to sleep. Even though we had given up all hope of seeing them again, we still went to the dock every day just to pass time. I don't know about my sister, but I went to the dock just to have the slimmest chance of hope that my parents would be on a ship, coming back some day. We are still waiting, waiting, and waiting ever so patiently.