It was a freezing evening. I was walking my dog, Max, in the woods near my house. Just as I was about to turn back, Max froze, his ears pricked. Then, out of nowhere, he darted into the bushes. I followed him, and what I saw made my heart stop. Two twin girls, no older than nine, were sitting on a fallen log. They looked identical—wide, frightened eyes, and thin clothes despite the cold. My stomach dropped. “Are you okay?” I asked. One of them shook her head. “We live in a shed nearby… Mama left us there… a long time ago.”
When I went into the woods that cold December morning, I never assumed that my and my daughter’s life would change forever. I saw two twins my dog Max brought me to and I took them home for the night. The following morning I heard strange noises coming from my daughter’s room. What I saw left me speechless.
My daughter Emma and I have built our tiny family together and our dog Max added to the joy. Ever since my husband left us for another woman and didn’t have anything to do with me or Emma, our mother-daughter bond grew stronger. He never fought for the custody over our daughter nor he asked for visitation rights, but I was fine with that. He didn’t belong with us anyway.
Life was hard, but we somehow managed to function the way I have imagined. It was like that until the day we learned Emma had cancer.
All of a sudden, everything felt different. She became fragile and barely found strength to fight the disease. I was there with her every step of the way, but things were tough.
One morning, Max and I went to the woods for a quick walk. All of a sudden, he started barking and darted into the bushes
I tried to pull him to the other side, but he was stronger and made his way through the bushes. Then, I saw something that made me freeze.
On the huge log, two girls who looked exactly the same sat together. The weather was extremely cold and they were only wearing thin sweaters
I approached them carefully, trying not to scare them. They looked at me in confusion.
I asked them what they were doing in the woods alone, and they told me they had been living in the shed for some time, after they mom left them and never came back. I knew that shed very well. It was an abandoned crumbling structure located at the edge of the forest.
They introduced themselves as Willow and Elizabeth.
Looking at their big eyes, I just couldn’t leave them there, so I took them home, planning to call social services first thing in the morning
I gave them new clothes, fed them, and showed them their room for the night.
The snow continued falling and I was too overwhelmed to be able to sleep. I couldn’t stop thinking of the girls and the curve balls life threw at me.
When the morning arrived, I was woken by strange sounds coming from Emma’s room. Thinking the twins must have scared Emma, I rushed into her room. “What are you two doing?” I yelled as I saw the girls standing next to Emma’s bed covered in my silk scarves
“Mum, they are doing a show for me. They are so fun,” Emma said.
I couldn’t believe what I was seeing. My daughter hadn’t smiled in months. This was the first time I saw he being genuinely happy since her diagnosis.
The twins made our day. They pretended to be a good witch and a princess, and their creativity took Emma places
I decided to let them stay for two more days before I called social services. It didn’t take a lot of thinking when I decided to adopt them.
The process was a long and tiring one, but Willow and Elizabeth, the most lowing twins, became part of our little family.
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Love and Peace