A little about Barb

Barb was an only child and really had never dealt with babies or children in her life. But what could be so hard about it? I mean, everyone had children, didn't they? Many people in her parish had 8 or 10 or 12 - there was even one family with 21 children. And somehow they all coped and the children grew and all was right in God's heaven.

As a newly married woman - to a doctor! - Barb was determined to do everything "right".
She had the right husband, now she just needed the right home and the right family.
After several years of marriage and no pregnancy, she was shocked to discover it was not in the cards for them. The doctors carefully told them it was no one's fault - and perhaps if they had each married someone else, they would have children. But together it would not happen. She felt down and somehow less worthy when she learned of this. She thought the doctors were just being kind, and knew it was her that was to blame.

When Barb told her mother the news, she replied that she should be grateful for her good luck. "If you don't have to have children, don't have them," was the advice given. Her mother was not supportive in the least about her life-altering news. Plus, it made her wonder about  her own mother's thoughts about having given birth to her. She had always felt like she just wasn't quite good enough somehow.

But Barb had to have children. That's what married women do, Catholic married women especially. They have children and they keep house. And throw fabulous dinner parties for their (hopefully soon-to-be rich) doctor husband. And play bridge. And bring in a housekeeper once a week. And take the children to the shore for vacations. She could see it all in her mind's eye. And attend Mass every Sunday with the children all dolled up in adorable outfits, to be cooed and fussed over by the priest and her friends.

So she sat down with her husband and they decided what to do. They would adopt. They would adopt the perfect family - 2 boys and 2 girls. If they only had two, people might wonder why? But more than 5 seemed excessive. Four seemed just about perfect. It was a known fact that there is no difference between raising an adopted child or a biological child. They would be able to have it all.

Barb knew all about adoption because she was an adoptee herself. She had been raised by her mother and father in the normal fashion. But one day, after she had graduated college and was working in an office, a man came into where she was working and asked for Herman Cordes' daughter. She replied that was she and he declared, "No you're not. You're my daughter." She was taken aback and somewhat frightened and asked him to leave. She asked her mother about it and heard the story about how that man had abandoned them both when she was just a few months old, they had gotten a divorce and her mother then married Herman (who had held a torch for her since high school, it was said.)
She determined right then and there that he had no right to know her, and she did no further investigation into the matter. It was now a closed book. Herman was her real father, since he had raised her. And she would be her adopted children's real mother in the same way. Absolutely.

They would adopt babies with brown hair and eyes, who would look like them, and people might never even suspect.

Oh, sure, her mother would know and would disapprove. But what didn't her mother disapprove of really? Even though she had married a doctor, her mother still wished Barb had married her high school sweetheart, Jimmy. Jimmy was a charmer and her mother was convinced he was "the one". She honestly just never stopped going on about it.