David wants us to adopt a little brother, so he can have someone his age to play with and a bunk bed in his room—he has already claimed the top bunk. Having listened to all these old fashioned books, he knows about orphanages.

David: Mommy, do we have orphanages here?

Debby: I don't know. I know we do have places for kids to live when their parents are too sick to take care of them. Some of those kids get adopted.

David: What do you mean sick?

What I mean is drug addicted, physically abusive, mentally unstable, and dead. What I say is. . .

Debby: Sick, like Peggy's birth mom is too sick to take care of her and that's why Nancy and Myron get to take care of her.

David: What's a birth mom?

Debby: That's the mom who gave birth to you, but sometimes she's too sick to take care of you, like Peggy's birth mom.

David: But she's going to get better.

Debby: No, she's not.

David: Yes, she is.

I'm not sure why David is resisting this hard fact so hard, but I change tact.

Debby: I am never going to get so sick that I can't take care of you, and if I did, you would never go to an orphanage because there are so many people who love you, and they would take care of you.

David: Would you make me a packing list?

Debby: Yes, dear. If I were so sick I couldn't take care of you and you had to go live somewhere else, I would make you a packing list. Now, go take a bath.