MY SISTER SPENT EIGHT YEARS TRYING TO BECOME A MOTHER AND FINALLY ADOPTED A FIVE-YEAR-OLD GIRL. TWO WEEKS LATER SHE SHOWED UP AT MY DOOR SOBBING, HOLDING A REPORT WITH TWO NAMES ON IT — HERS AND MINE. BECAUSE THE LITTLE GIRL SHE ADOPTED WAS BORN IN THE SAME HOSPITAL WHERE, FIVE YEARS EARLIER, I WAS TOLD MY NEWBORN DAUGHTER HAD DIED.
My sister adopted a five-year-old girl after eight heartbreaking years of trying to become a mother.
Two weeks later, she appeared at my door sobbing, clutching an envelope.
“Claire, you need to sit down. I found out something about Ellie, and I don’t know how to tell you.”
When she showed me the name of the hospital where Ellie was born, the blood drained from my face.
It was the same hospital where, five years earlier, doctors had told me my newborn daughter had died.
Chapter 1: The Envelope
