My 8-year-old adopted granddaughter was left at home while my son and his wife took their biological son. She called me at 2:00 AM crying, ‘Why Grandpa?’ I booked last-minute tickets and within 12 hours we crashed their vacation!

Daisy stood up and told Amber that she had hurt her many times by forgetting her and calling her selfish.

“And you let her do it,” Daisy said to her father before she walked upstairs.

Patrick sat on the stairs and admitted that he had screwed up because he did not know how to handle his grief.

“Skyla looks so much like Claire that it hurt to look at her sometimes,” he whispered.

I told him that he had punished his daughter for resembling the mother she had lost.

The court granted temporary custody to me and I began the process of moving Daisy to Tallahassee.

We packed her room and she found a birthday card from her mother, Claire, tucked inside a book.

She cried because she did not remember her mother’s voice, and I tried to describe it to her.

“Your mother’s voice was warm and she always laughed before she finished a joke,” I told her.

We framed the card and put it on the wall in my house so she could see it every day.

The first few weeks were filled with the logistics of school and therapy and buying new clothes.

Daisy had good days where she sang and played, but she also had days where she pulled away.