Sara Lost and Found (25 page)

“Like I said, he's going to appeal,” Mrs. Craig warns the Chandlers on the way out.

Appeal. A peel.
I picture Mrs. Chandler's glass apple shattering.

“Who can blame him? If it were me, I'd be fighting with all I had to keep Sara,” Mr. Chandler says, gluing the broken apple pieces back together again.

“I still love him,” I blurt when we reach the car.

“We wouldn't have it any other way,” my new mom answers. “I mean that, Sara. We're not trying to take you away from your mom and dad. We want to give you a home and be the family who can love and take care of you.”

I believe her. “Do you think Daddy will ever get better?”

My new dad takes a deep breath and lets it out slowly as he gets in the car and buckles his seat belt. “I don't know if he'll get any better or not, Sara. A lot of times we learn from experience.

“Unfortunately,” he adds, “some experiences are more painful than others.” More belt buckles click, locking us all in.

We drive for a long time, with everyone deep in thought, but the deepest thoughts are buried inside me.

The sun beats warm against my cheek through the open window. Wind whips through my hair as I watch buildings flicker past. It's like seeing in reverse what I saw coming to the courthouse. I soon start to recognize stores, street signs, trees, and neighborhoods.

Except for that one awful time before Anna and I got split up, we had always been together, seeing the same thing. Now she's at the rehabilitation center going through big changes, and I'm an Olson-Chandler, trying to get the name to fit me and sound natural to my ears.

“Take time,” Ben would say. And he's right. Not everything feels natural right away.

“Did I ever thank you for getting the rehab center to say yes about Anna having a therapy animal to help her get better?” I ask, breaking the long silence.

Mom's shoulders relax as she glances at Dad and then turns to look at me over the seat. “Did we tell you that she might qualify for equine therapy?”

“What's that?”

“She'll get to work with horses.”

“They'll let horses into the rehab center?”

They grin. “No, no horses in the center; she will get to go to the Center for Hope through Equestrian Therapy. There, Anna will be assigned a horse, and a therapist who can help her deal with her emotions.”

I grin. “That sounds great, though I can't picture Anna on a horse.”

“Little steps, Sara. They won't force her to do anything she doesn't want to do, but I bet she will want to ride and care for the horse, and that it will help her put everything into place,” Dad says, when we reach our street.

“What a great day this is turning out to be,” Mom adds.

I know I'll never stop thinking about Mama and Daddy, where they are and what they're doing. I know I'll keep looking into faces I pass on the street, wondering if that's them and if they'll know it's me. But I also know as well as I know my name is now Sara Rose Olson-Chandler that my home is here, with my new family.

And maybe, someday, Anna will find a loving home too.

GETTING SEPARATED FROM PARENTS AT
an early age, and then getting separated from one's siblings, is something no child should ever have to experience. Some kids are lucky and are placed in loving foster homes, or adopted into caring families. Others are virtually left to fend for themselves.

The foster care system in our country is flawed. Caseworkers are given hundreds of cases to manage on no time and little pay, most doing what they can to help accommodate these displaced kids. Residence facilities are overcrowded. Certainly a lot has changed since I was in an orphanage and separated from my parents and siblings. Conditions have improved. But the fact is there are still kids having kids; parents incapable of or inexperienced with being effective parents; and angry, hurting, neglected kids trying to find their way through a maze of uncertainty.

I wrote
Sara Lost and Found
to share a little of my own personal experience, to give foster and adopted kids a voice, and to bring awareness to a painful abscess in our society that needs healing. It's not going to just go away. Look around. See what you can do to help. Become a Big Brother or Big Sister. Support programs that help kids through therapy. Look into fostering a child or adopting. Write. Educate. Open your hearts. Be part of the solution.

MY DEEPEST GRATITUDE GOES FIRST
and foremost to God and my faithful guardian angels, who have always been there for me; to my incredible sons, Michael, Adam, and Jon; to my adoptive parents and brother, Ken, who bravely took on a feisty six-year-old so many years ago; and to my courageous siblings, Glenda, Harv, and Eileen, whose paths were anything but smooth. Heartfelt gratitude also goes to my first editor, Deke Castleman, who patiently worked through each paragraph, smoothing the bumps and nurturing the bruises; to Steve Mooser and Lin Oliver, for giving writers and illustrators the Society of Children's Book Writers and Illustrators (SCBWI), a sanctuary of support, connection, learning, and opportunity; to the Institute of Children's Literature, where I cut my teeth in editing and instruction; to Tom, Vicki, Judy, Sharon, Brooks, Gina, Gwyn, Kathy, Richard, Pat, Neil, Jay, Coni, and
all
my friends and colleagues who have been so supportive and encouraging; to Archway Publishing, which saw merit in the manuscript; and to Fiona Simpson, my editor at Aladdin and Simon & Schuster, for her keen eye, insightful comments, and belief in the importance of the topic.

With every beat of my heart, I thank you.

This book is a work of fiction. Any references to historical events, real people, or real places are used fictitiously. Other names, characters, places, and events are products of the author's imagination, and any resemblance to actual events or places or persons, living or dead, is entirely coincidental.

ALADDIN

An imprint of Simon & Schuster Children's Publishing Division

1230 Avenue of the Americas, New York, New York 10020

www.SimonandSchuster.com

First Aladdin hardcover edition February 2016

Text copyright © 2014 by Virginia Castleman

Originally published in 2014 by Archway Publishing.

Jacket photograph copyright © 2016 by Jamie Heiden

All rights reserved, including the right of reproduction in whole or in part in any form.

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Jacket designed by Dan Potash

Interior designed by Mike Rosamilia

The text of this book was set in Scala OT.

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Castleman, Virginia.

Sara lost and found / by Virginia Castleman.

p. cm.

Summary: When their mother abandons them and their father ends up in jail again, ten-year-old Sara and her mentally troubled sister are thrust back into the foster care system.

[1. Foster home care—Fiction. 2. Sisters—Fiction. 3. Emotional problems—Fiction.] I. Title.

PZ7.C268739Sar 2016

[Fic]—dc23

2015004222

ISBN 978-1-4814-3871-1 (hc)

ISBN 978-1-4814-3873-5 (eBook)