56 Baby Alana

The group continued to eat their breakfast as Debra and Dennis recalled the story of how they met their daughter Alana.

"Alana was four in a half years old when we met her." Debra said before Dennis added, "She was Omar's grandparents neighbor, a skinny little chocolate thing with wild coilly hair and absolutely gorgeous."

"When we would come over, Omar and Alana would be playing in the yard together. They were inseparable and did everything together. At night the two of them would be so filthy from making mud pies and their roughhousing. However, some nights we notice Alana would be extremely dirty and in the same clothes from yesterday, it was obvious she didn't receive a bath the night before or for many days." Debra recalled shacking her head. "It made my stomach turn seeing this child in the state she was in."

"Where was her mom?" Jill asked as she finished the last of the fruit on her plate.

"Well, we got fed up and went over to Alana's house and no one was there. Little Alana thought we were just going to leave her there and went straight to her bed, which had dust and dirt all over it from outside." Debra recalled in disgust, finishing the last of her peppermint tea.

"Oh wow." Sheri exclaimed.

"Well, actually, the whole house was dark and filthy." Debra continued after dabbing her mouth on her napkin. "When we asked Alana where her people were. Poor thing didn't know. So I stayed over Omar's grandparents that night to wait for someone to show up. During that time we gave Alana a bath three times to get the dirt off her body and hair. She had so much dirt on her that her skin wasn't even as dark as we thought she was."

Jill and Sheri could not believe what they were hearing.

"The poor thing was smiling and playing in the water like it was something she never experienced before, she even started to sing." Dennis added with a smile.

"Aw." Jill and Sheri said in unison.

"And she had the most angelic voice." Debra added. "We had a good time taking care of the child, she was even more beautiful than we originally thought when all the dirt and grim was off of her and we played with her as I combed and did her hair. We lost track of time caring for her and putting her to bed with Omar. We even dozed off watching them together." Dennis said reminiscing. "By the time someone came home, it was minutes to 2 am."

"Oh my gosh. How do you leave a four-year-old child at home alone all day?!" Sheri hated stories of abuse it made her think of her own childhood trauma.

"Right?!" Debra exclaimed in agreement. "Her mother came home high and drunk, dressed like she just came from a dancehall. Then the girl had the nerve to be crying and screaming looking for Alana."

"Well how concern could she have been, since she was wiling to leave her four year old all alone at home." Jill added shaking her head.

Dennis spoke up then and said, "Girl, it was one hell of a commotion when she saw us holding her baby and refusing to give Alana back to her. We had to call the police and the children's protective service got involved."

"Good, she didnt deserve that child anyways." Jill remarked.

"That girl really had no grip on her life and it was sad to see a child be effected by it." Debra said.

"After the whole fiasco was over and everything went back to normal. We adopted Omar a couple of months after. Omar would ask for Alana every day, and would cry whenever we took him to visit his grandparent's house and would look for Alana."

"That's when you guys decided to adopt Alana as well?" Jill asked.

"We couldn't take our mind of her so we decided to make her ours." Debra said sweetly.

"You guys are probably the most compassionate people I've met." Sheri couldn't remember the last time she me a more genuine couple.