Welcome to Gaia! ::

She barely had time to glance at the titles of the bulletins. The door on the opposite side of the room opened and a woman in a blue dress with a folded white cloth hat and matching white apron entered. She looked like she had stepped out of an illustration from the nineteenth century. She wore a bright smile under her pile of frizzy red hair. "I am Sister Adeline. May I help you?" she inquired politely, hands clasped in front of her, eager to be of assistance.

Giggling politely into her hand, Adeline shook her head. The little red curls sticking out from under her bonnet bounced back and forth with exuberant energy. "Oh, no! Of course not! We welcome all of our visitors!"

Adeline gestured to a nearby chair. Since the waiting room was otherwise empty they might as well sit there and not go into the back office. Adeline hated going in the office, it was such a small space, not breezy and bright like the waiting room! She continued, "Especially those visitors who have chosen to make the greatest commitment by brightening their lives with a child. Why don't you tell me a bit about yourself?"

Adeline's smile strained just a bit, those sorts of things being what least interested her in people. More important to her than steady paychecks and living space was what she called quality of spirit. "That's so lovely!" she said regardless, cheerfully optimistic. Olivia seemed a nice person, with a bit of poking that spiritual quality was bound to come shining through. "Do you enjoy what you do? Is it fun?"

"Oh," said Adeline, crestfallen, her voice laden with disappointment. She went from happy excitement to morose depression in the blink of an eye.

Just as quickly, she brightened again. "But that must be important, so someone has to do it!" Instantly, Adeline had turned Olivia from the average, bored office worker into a hero toiling for the good of the masses. She clasped her hands over her chest and swooned. Here was a potential mother just as self-sacrificing as one of the Sisters! "Does it keep you very busy? Do you have anyone to help you do it?"

"Oh yes, there's--"

Adeline never got to finish her sentence. She was interrupted by a voice calling her name: "Addy!" A moment later the door to the nursery opened and a tall, dark-skinned woman emerged. She was dressed identically to Adeline in every way except for scale. At five-foot ten, she made Adeline look all the more like an excitable child. When she spoke, her voice had a deeply accented richness to it, placing her origin somewhere in Africa. "Sister Adeline!" she said reproachfully.

Hopping up and clapping her hands again, Adeline exclaimed, "Olivia, this is Sister Ruth! Ruth, this is Olivia, she's come to consider adopting! I was just about to tell her about the forms!"

Ruth was everything Adeline was not. She went straight to business, no need for introductions or chit chat. With slow grace and effortless poise she reached into a brown plastic paper holder mounted on the wall nearby and retrieved a set of papers. In two steps she had deposited them with Olivia. "Fill out these and deposit them in the slot on the wall. Sister Adeline and I will prepare the nursery for your visit. When you're ready, please knock on the door." Sister Ruth gently took Sister Adeline by the arm and guided her out.

"And if you need anything just knock!" added Adeline cheerily, giving a little wave.

The forms were fairly straightforward, though they looked like they had been devised by someone with an odd sense of sanity. "Govenment identification number and type from world of origin (if applicable)" and "Government identification number and type for world of current residence (if applicable)." It seemed nearly every field was left up to applicability, and there were a lot of fields that did not apply. There were also a lot of check boxes, including one for surname: "matrilinear or patrilinear." There were probably ten pages in all. Thankfully, there was also allowance for attached documents, which Olivia was prepared to provide and which would preclude her filling out most of the form by hand.

The door opened so quickly Olivia had to wonder if someone had beem standing behind it, waiting for her knock. That would just be silly, of course. No one would wait behind a door for over an hour.

Then again, that Adeline was rather strange.

But it was Ruth, not Adeline, whe answered the door. Her face was impressively neutral. "Come right this way," she invited with a sweep of her hand.

The nursery was plain but filled with sunlight from the large windows along the left wall. Feathery white curtains billowed in the faint breeze, filling the room with fresh air from the courtyard. It was impressively tidy and clean. Cribs in three neat, even rows of seven, most empty save for a handful of children.

If the goal was to meet a variety of children, this nursery seemed not quite to work, but for finding that one special child it just might be the place.

Sister Adeline was on the other side of the room, just putting down a baby in one of the cribs. She waved at Olivia. Most of the children were sleeping after a lunchtime snack. As excitable as Adeline was, she was always considerate of the children and did not call out any greeting lest it wake them.

At Olivia's elbow, Sister Ruth said, "Take your time. You may ask us any questions you have."

Ruth's reply was calm and smooth as ever, making Olivio sound as childish as Adeline in comparison. "Certainly," said the sister, "your application has been approved. Would you like to take her now or do you need more time?" Is was a polite way of offering Olivia the chance to reconsider, or rush home and do up a baby room.