Chapter 25

Danika got up from her chair and walked over to AJ. She put her arms around him and hugged him tightly. "I love you both too!" she told them and then hugged Jessy as well.

"I think that what you are doing is highly admiralble. The two of you will be wonderful parents and Danika is a really lucky girl," Bud told them.

Harriett was quick to agree with her husband, "You guys are going to be fantastic parents and Danika will be just as fantastic a daughter to you!"

Danika had tears in her eyes at being accepted by these people that hardly knew her. It was something that had never happened to her before. "Do you guys know that I'm not the only homeless kid at school?"

"What?!" AJ and Jessy exclaimed at the same time.

"Are you sure?" Jessy questioned.

"Yeah, he's a freshman so I don't have any classes with him but dad has him in one of his baseball classses," Danika answered.

"I do?! Who is it Danika?"

"His name is Allen Dekker, I think he's about fourteen."

"Danika where is he living? He wasn't staying in your car was he?"

"No, he stays in town with the twins. I'm not really sure where."

"Twins?" Harriett asked.

"Two other homeless kids. They live in town but they don't want to go to school."

"How old are these twins?" AJ wanted to know.

"I think their close to my age, about sixteen."

"I had no idea there were that many homeless children in McLean," AJ said.

"Well those are the only kids I know of but there are a lot of grown ups that live under the interstate bridge. But the kids don't live there cuz they're afraid of them," Danika reported.

AJ put his arms around Danika again, "Thank you for telling us this sweetie. We'll find a way to take care of this."

"If you're gonna adopt them too dad you're gonna have to add onto the house."

"You would be okay with us adopting more children?" Jessy asked eagerly.

By the way she asked the question AJ knew his wife was already prepared to take in these children. He waited for Danika's answer before he chimed in.

"It would be SO cool to have a big family!"

AJ smiled at both Jessy and Danika, "We have acres of land we can add as many rooms onto the house as we need."

"Really?!" he got excited gasps in unison from both of them.

"Yes really," AJ told them then turned to Bud and said, "We might need to ammend those adoption forms."

Bud smiled widely, "I'd be happy to Sir!"

"You guys are SO amazing!" Harriett insisted cheerfully.

The evening ended shortly thereafter. When they got in the car Danika requested from the backseat, "Dad, mom did you really mean that we can adopt Allen?"

"Did you hear that my love?" AJ asked Jessy.

"Well since you have to know I did, since you did. So I'm guessing you are referring to something special she said."

AJ laughed, "You are a very smart woman Jessy Chegwidden. She said when 'we' adopt. Like all three of us would be adopting. Danika already sees herslef as a part of 'us'."

Jessy turned her head to look at the young girl, "You already see the three of us as a family don't you?" she asked.

"Well yeah…I mean you wanna adopt me and I'm already calling you mom and dad. That's okay isn't it?"

"Perfectly okay," AJ assured her.

"I agree," Jessy added.

"When will you talk to Allen, dad?"

The freshman group is my middle class of the afternoon so I won't have time to do so then. I think the best idea would be after school."

"Then if that is the case we should take both cars to work tomorrow," Jessy suggested.

"Sounds good," AJ answered.

Morning arrived and all of the three of them could talk about over breakfast was the possibility of what would happen after school that night. It was agreed that AJ should be the one to contact Allen because he knew him best from the baseball classes.

To be continued…..