Hey, Cor-it's Eric."

Leaning against the wall and pressing the end of the receiver against his ear, Eric glanced out at the water-streaked windows of the orphanage. The thin patches of grey clouds covered the usual blue skies of May, and the rain soaked into the ground outside, darkening the sidewalks and streets while leaving wavery puddles that reflected the images of hurried passersby.

"Hey, we're getting ready to leave to pick up Angela, are you almost ready?" Cory said.

"No, I'm actually not going to be able to come with you guys." Eric responded, his eyes now reaching up at the clock ticking above his head. "I have someone coming in a few minutes to talk to me about putting their child up for adoption."

,

"Aw, that really stinks." Cory said sadly, knowing how awful it must be to deal with such a heartbreaking situation. "Sorry, Eric."

"It's alright." Eric said. "I'll do as much as I can to guide her in the best direction-I just hate to see something like that happen, you know? Someone giving up their child, walking out and knowing they'll probably never see them again…"

"Yeah…" Cory said, trailing off into silence for a few moments before continuing. "We'll tell Angela where you are. Good luck."

"Thanks, Cor. I'll be around in the afternoon to spend some time with you guys." Eric said. "Bye."

Hanging up just in time, Eric spotted the lady rushing in through the rain, sheltering the baby carrier her jacket and making sure to jog around puddles. Eric stepped over to open up the door for her, smiling at her as she looked up and returned a grin.

"Thank you." she said, shaking out her jacket and peeking into the carrier to make sure her daughter was okay.

"You're welcome." Eric said, heading over to the spot where they met yesterday. "Let's just step over here and talk, there's nobody around."

Sitting down, Eric took a folded piece of paper and detached a pen from his front shirt pocket. "So, uh-I guess we'll just get straight to business. I'll just be asking a few simple questions to start, and if I see that what you really want is to put your daughter up for adoption, we'll move onto background information and things like that."

The young woman nodded, seeming nervous about starting a process that Eric could tell was something she really didn't want to go through with.

Suddenly, the baby began to coo and stretch her chubby limbs, looking over at Eric with wide eyes for before smiling.

"She's really cute, by the way." Eric said, becoming distracted as he smiled back at her. "How old is she?"

"She's a little over four months now." the woman responded, tenderly smiling down at her daughter.

Eric looked up at the woman and smiled, noting how much love and kindness her face reflected for her daughter. "Alright, so there's really not too many questions to be asked, so I'll start with the most important one. Why are you wanting to put your daughter up for adoption."

"I-I feel like I don't have any other options." the woman said, not even removing her eyes from her daughter.

"Are you a newly wed?"

"Yes, I am. Funny enough, though, my husband is off who know's where, so I'm just struggling to provide for only me and her right now." She continued to fuss over the arrangement of her daughter's blankets, her eyes full of pain and regret as she gazed at her. "I feel like she'd have a better future with someone else rather than me, someone who could properly care for her and-well, give her a more stable environment to be raised in."

Eric nodded his head, feeling utmost sympathy towards her. "I understand. So, I'm guessing you'd probably like to go deeper in this discussion then, right?"

With mournful hesitation, the young woman responded. "Yes, I-" She sighed as she tried to get out the last, painful part of her sentence. "I guess I would."

"Okay. Let's step into a more private place, and we'll move onto background information." Eric said rising up.

Suddenly remembering something, Eric added, "Oh, by the way, I never got you or your daughter's name yesterday, I had to hurry out to get somewhere-what's your name?"

The woman looked up from her baby, unlike she did yesterday, and sadly smiled. "Katy Hart. And my daughter is Maya."