Adopting a child isn’t always like a beautiful fairy tale about love and salvation. Sometimes you want to save people who have already adopted. Orphans who didn’t have loving parents as kids sometimes go through things so bad that it seems like they can’t be helped to become normal people. This is how everyone saw baby Beth Thomas many years ago.
When their mother died, Beth was just over a year old and her brother Jonathan was only a few weeks old. The children stayed with their father, who turned out to be a real monster and psychopath. He didn’t take care of the kids and even did sexual things to his daughter, who was only two years old at the time.
The girl and her brother were taken from their father when they were only 19 months old and put with a foster family. Jonathan was seven months old, and because he spent so much time in his crib, the back of his head was completely flat. And Beth had horrible nightmares.
The children’s new parents didn’t know everything about their old family. Also, they were sure that the kids would quickly get over the trauma if they were cared for and treated with warmth. After all, they had only lived with their dad for just over six months.
But soon, Beth’s strange behavior became clear to everyone in her family. When Beth’s parents took her to a psychiatrist, they quickly found out the terrible truth about her. Because her father was always mean to her, the girl didn’t feel either love or pity.
The psychiatrist put Beth’s conversation on video, and Beth’s parents cried as they watched her talk with a horrible smile about how she wanted to kill the whole family while they were sleeping. The Thomases decided to go to a place that helps victims of violence so they could help their daughter.
A lot of time went by, but in the end, the experts taught the girl to recognize and respond to other people’s signs of attention. The girl had to start from scratch to learn how to treat herself as a loved and valued person. Beth was a year older than other girls her age before she started to act like them. She started going to school, making friends, and singing in the church choir.
But it was a long time before Beth learned to trust and love people. She went to college and got her degree. Now, she works as a nurse in the maternity ward. She even got a professional award for her great work. Who knows, maybe childhood traumas still make themselves felt and help a woman keep her cool and not feel sorry for the patient.
Every year, a few thousand kids who were adopted end up going back to orphanages. When the child acts strangely, the foster parents realize they have taken on a huge responsibility. And they return the child… Like a product that doesn’t work.
Children who have had a hard life can sometimes be left alone more than once. They lose the ability to love and care for others as they become more and more angry and sure that they are not worth anything and that the world has no soul.