Nate

“What makes a family is neither the absence of tragedy nor the ability to hide from misfortune, but the courage to overcome it and, from that broken past, write a new beginning.”
― Steve Pemberton, A CHANCE IN THE WORLD: An Orphan Boy, a Mysterious Past, and How He Found a Place Called Home

“Sister, why do you do that?"
"Do what?"
"Cage the animals at night?"
"Well..." She looked up and out through the barred window before answering me."We don't want to, Jennings, but we have to. You see, the animals that are given to us we have to take care of. If we didn't cage them up in one place, we might lose them, they might get hurt or damaged. It's not the best thing, but it's the only way we have to take care of them."

"But if somebody loved one them," I asked, "wouldn't it be a good idea to let them have one? To keep, I mean?"

"Yes, it would be. But not everyone would love them and take care of them as you would. I wish I could give them all away tomorrow." She looked at me. There were tears in her eyes. "But I can't. My heart would break if I saw just one of those animals lying by the wayside uncared for, unloved. No, Jennings. It's better if we keep them together.”
― Jennings Michael Burch, They Cage the Animals at Night: The True Story of an Abandoned Child's Struggle for Emotional Survival

“There's nothing more important in this world than caring for a child.”
― Seth Adam Smith, Rip Van Winkle and the Pumpkin Lantern

“He sounds so tired. "I know if there was any choice at all, they wouldn't have left me alone. They would have made sure I was taken care of."
In a heartbeat, a thousand memories at once. All the times I knew things I couldn't have known. All the times he was assigned to me.
"Julian," I say, "maybe they did.”
― Robin Roe, A List of Cages