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Characters: Dad Tom 41 years old Health care worker at nursing home Mom Cindy __ years old Brother: Ralph 12 years old D O B: December 4 Adopted: Sofia 8 years old D O B: March 6 Adopted: Raquel 4 years old August 16 ________ Present day: August 20___________ Ralph had been excited that whole day, as he thought about picking up his new sisters. For the longest time, nearly two years, he had thought he wanted a brother, way back then, he was lonely for a sibling. He got in trouble when he was in fifth grade for searching an adoption site in computer lab, and actually got banned from the computer lab the year previous for the same things. However, his counselor helped him understand what he was thinking and feeling, and the counselor, under his supervision, let him search the pages of the adoption site. He had wanted a Brother at first, but as his counselor gave him more time, and they talked more, this girl's picture came up, Sofia. He kept browsing that page at the list of boys on it, but the real reason, is he wanted to see Sofia's picture. He thought she was really cute. Then one day, the counselor told him to open a girl's profile, so he did, and when he read her profile, he liked her even more. She liked some of the stuff he liked. He didn't read at first that she had a sister. Then, he wrote a first letter sometime last year. Dear Sofia. I am Ralph. I am sorry that you don't have a mommy and daddy now, but I want to be your brother. Can we be friends? Now, here he was, in the car, waiting for his parents to bring her out, knowing she had a sister, knowing that her sister was likely going to come with them, but he was more interested in meeting his now 8 year old sister. He felt like he knew her so well from all the letters they exchanged. She was in second grade when they started the letter sharing, so her writing was hard to read, and she could only say a few things, but her drawings spoke volumes to him. Finally, Tom held Sofia's hand while he looked back at his wife, making sure she was managing Raquel well enough on her own. Raquel was still wearing diapers even though she was four years old. The social worker said that no one had ever gotten around to potty training her because every time they thought they found a family for them, something happened. In the last case, the foster parents were deemed too abusive, and so once again, the children were taken from them, and spent about a year in a group home. Ralph opened the car door immediately when he saw his new sisters, and he ran right up to his dad and bent down to Sofia's level not realizing she was so small. He smiled at her and gave her one last letter. Dear Sofia, Welcome to our family. I am Ralph, the brother who kept sending you all those letters. Then he drew a picture of mom, dad, himself, and the little girls. The youngest was in daddy's arms in his picture and Sofia was between mommy and Ralph holding their hands. "I hope you like this last letter" he told her as he handed it to her. "Now, we don't need letters to talk. We are in the same house, now." And he reached out to hug her.