We Adopted a Teenage Brother and His Little Sister After Other Families Turned Them Down – A Month Later, Their Former Foster Mother Called and Asked, ‘They Still Haven’t Told You Why They Picked You?’

That evening, I almost decided not to ask him.

Then I saw his suitcase again.

What bothered me wasn’t that Jace had kept something from us.

It was that he’d apparently asked to come here and then spent every day acting as though we might send him away.

Those two things didn’t fit together.

Not yet.

I needed to understand.

After Josie finished dinner, she climbed onto the couch with a coloring book.

Jace was rinsing his plate when Daniel said, “Hey, can we talk for a minute?”

Jace froze.

It was tiny, but I saw it.

After all this time, his whole body prepared for bad news.

“About what?”

His eyes moved toward Josie.

I hated how fast he checked for her.

We sat at the table.

I told him Marlene had called.

His expression changed immediately.

“She said something strange,” I told him. “She asked if you’d ever told us why you picked us.”

Jace looked down.

“Rebecca said you were the one who told her you wanted our family.”

“I did.”

He glanced toward the living room, where Josie was coloring.

“Because Josie picked you.”

Of all the answers I’d imagined, that wasn’t one of them.

The person who had barely reached my waist had apparently made the biggest decision in the room.

“Josie? But she’s four.”

Jace rubbed his thumb along the edge of the table.

“Exactly. Nobody listens to her about important stuff because she’s little. They ask what toy she wants or what color cup she wants, but when it’s something real, adults decide for her.”

He looked toward his sister again.

“So when Josie told me she wanted you guys, I made sure Rebecca listened.”

Suddenly, that sounded exactly like Jace.

He’d spent a month barely asking for anything for himself.

But when Josie wanted something, he’d made sure an adult heard her.

She must’ve heard her name because Josie looked up.