The Worst Has Happened

Before We Were Yours by Lisa Wingate tells the story of every parent's nightmare.  Six children are stolen from their parents.   The oldest was twelve years old and babysitting while the father brought their mother to the hospital to have twins.    Some people swooped down and kidnapped all the kids.  And the parents in the hospital were told that their twins were born dead when they weren't.

The frantic parents didn't know where to begin to look for their children.  The mother died soon after from an infection she probably picked up at the hospital.  The father took to drinking and drank himself to death.

All the children were brought to the Tennessee Children's Home Society Orphanage.  The youngest was adopted immediately.  Another who was a feisty handful disappeared one day.  I got the impression that she was killed because she was too much trouble. The others were eventually adopted.

As adults, detectives were hired and four of the girls found each other.  But it's only a story, right?  Yes, it is but there was such a place as the Tennessee Children's Home Society Orphanage and terrible things happened there, including kidnapping children.  Lisa Wingate is such a good writer that this story will haunt you for a long time. 

The characters do get confusing, but I was reading so fast to see what would become of the children that it was probably my own fault for skimming.  It is a good read.