Chapter 58

Redeeming Love

Lydia smiled at the cooing baby in the incubator. The doctor said that the first few weeks were difficult, but her baby was officially weaned off the insidious drug. Miracle of miracles, she would have no adverse side effects. Her baby would be healthy, as if her pregnant mother had never touched crack at all.

This would be the last decision she would make in her daughter's life. In her opinion, it would be the best.

Sara Parker, her lawyer, gave her a kind smile. "Now Lydia, you do understand what you're agreeing to. Your full rights as a parent will be forfeit, and you will have no say in her life, either financially, medically, or personally?"

The young woman nodded. "My baby deserves a stable home, and I don't want any of my mistakes to follow her. She deserves that much."

Sara gave her a word of warning. "And you thought long and hard about this? You cannot change your mind after signing."

Lydia emphatically stated, "Yes, I've prayed over it, and discussed it with the counselor. It's for the best."

The lawyer pulled out the paperwork, and Lydia spent the next few minutes going over some finer details and affixing her signature.

"If my daughter wants to find out who her mother is, she can later on, right?"

"Yes, Lydia, the adoption record can be unsealed at her request when she becomes of age."

The woman signed her name on the final line, breathing a sigh of relief.

Sara double checked everything and gathered to leave.

As she shook her client's hand one final time, she spoke, "Off the record, Lydia, I went through the same thing. No matter what anyone says - not your boyfriend, not your parents, not even what society says, if it's what you want, then you're doing the right thing."

Lydia sobbed with tears in her eyes, as she hugged the only other person who knew what it felt like to have her heart given away.

This episode really put Alanna Urbach through the wringer. She was awesome as always. The actor from The Wonder Years is always typecasted as a stern father. The withdrawal probably should have been done at a hospital.