"Okay-" Eric glanced over the sheet he was supposed to fill out, beginning to sort the questions in his head as he continued, "What's Maya's date of birth?"

"January 16th, 2001…"

"Yours?"

"March 17th, 1978."

Scratching information onto the papers, Eric handed the clipboard over to her as he said, "I need your personal information written here, such as your address and things like that."

With a pained gaze, Katy gently grasped the clipboard and began filling out the papers. As every long second passed with each click from the clock hands, Eric continued to thoughtfully gaze at Katy. Living with these orphans every day had taught him a lot of things, one of them being how much children need love and the supporting structure of a real family in their lives in order to grow up in the right behavior.

Many of the older children were unwilling to communicate Eric, sulking and slinking around the orphanage with a long for something to replace the empty pain they were feeling. Many of them viewed their childhood as a failure and their approaching adulthood as hopeless.

Without the company of their peers from the orphanage, they imagined themselves as alone and unable to begin working on a solid future.

Family couldn't be depended on, as most of the older ones would end up going unadopted. And without a family, who could they turn to in life?

As Eric gazed at the innocent baby girl, feeling secure and loved in her mother's lap as she slowly drifted to sleep, he couldn't bear to think of Maya as someday going through the exact same pain.

There had to be something that he could do to save this broken family from breaking apart even farther.

"Stop."

Katy looked up with confusion in her eyes, slowly handing the clipboard back as Eric motioned for it with his hands.

"Katy," Eric began, "I live with orphans everyday, and I've seen how their hearts long for a family to call their own. Judging by the amount of disappointment, heartbreak, and lack of stability and security in their futures, the chances that this little girl will ever be lucky enough to have the family she has in you right now, are not very good."

"And even though you may not be able to provide for her through money, I've seen how much you care about this little girl, and I'm confident that you'll be able to provide for her through love. And that's all that really matters to a child-trust me. You'll be doing her more of a favor by not putting her up for adoption rather than giving her up forever."

Glancing down at her baby girl, who was silently and contentedly sucking an invisible pacifier in her sleep, Katy concluded that Eric was right. The last thing she wanted to do was put her firstborn up for adoption, and if it wasn't even doing her daughter a favor, then it there was no other reason to even go through with it.

Katy smiled up at Eric as tears began to fill her eyes, which were now more happy than pained. As she gently laid her baby back in the carrier and tucked the blankets over her, she stood up and rounded the desk, reaching out and hugging Eric with a sudden, jerking sob.

"Thank you." she whispered. "We'll owe you for the rest of our lives."

Little did Eric know that he had just done a life-changing favor for not just the Hart family, but for the Matthews family as well.