A little boy stops in his tracks when he answers the doorbell and discovers a box on the doorstep with a crying baby inside – but who had mercilessly abandoned the child out there in the cold, let alone in a box?
When Kevin Anderson turned 6, he asked his parents to give him something that left them awestruck. “Mommy! Daddy!” he said. “Do you promise me that you will get me what I want for my birthday?”
“Sure, honey,” his mother, Caroline, said. “What exactly do you want?”
“Well, I think I know it,” his father, Andrew, guessed. “Isn’t it the latest Transformers collection? I know Kevin wants that!”
“No, Daddy!” Kevin giggled. “I want a little baby! Paul told me that when his sister was born, his parents said she was a gift from God. Can you please ask God to give me a little sister too? Even a little brother is okay.”
His parents exchanged a quick look, their faces flushed with embarrassment. Caroline and Andrew had decided to expand their family once they had a larger house, but when Kevin suggested having a younger sibling, they couldn’t help but smile shyly at the boy. “All right, Kevin,” his father said. “You know there is a way by which God can answer your wishes.”
“Really?”
“Yes, honey. All you need to do is write a letter to him. Maybe ask Santa for a little help? He’s quite close with God.”
To little Kevin, it sounded pretty convincing, and he was relieved that his father’s idea would work. So that year, at Christmas, Kevin wrote his first letter to Santa to help him convince God to send him a little sister or brother soon. Little did the boy know that God would answer his prayers far too soon…
Kevin wrote a letter to Santa to ask for a sibling | Photo: Pexels
One wintry evening, Kevin was about to leave the house to play with his friends when his doorbell rang. “Andrew, could you please check who’s there?” Caroline asked from the kitchen where she was baking cookies.
Andrew, who was busy looking for something in his closet, asked Kevin to check the door. “Kevin, can you please check the door, honey? Daddy will be there in a minute.”
“Okay, daddy,” the boy replied, running to the door, but when he answered it, he was baffled. There wasn’t anyone standing at their doorstep, but there was a huge brown box. He tried lifting it to bring it inside, but as he shook it a little, a loud crying sound came from within it.
Kevin took a step back from the box, terrified, but the crying continued. When he finally opened it, he couldn’t believe his eyes when he saw a baby inside, wrapped in a thin rag.
He dashed to his parents with the baby in his arms. “Mommy! Daddy! God answered my prayer! Look, it’s a baby.”
Kevin found a baby inside a box | Photo: Pexels
Having just entered the living room, Andrew froze in place when he saw the child in Kevin’s arms. Caroline, too, wondered about the crying sound from the living room and gasped when she arrived and saw Kevin holding a baby.
“Where did you find the baby, honey?” she asked, worried.
“There was a box on our doorstep, mommy. I am so happy that God sent me a sibling! Yay!”
Andrew took the baby from Kevin and rushed to the door, where the box was lying. He looked around to see if the person who’d left the box and the baby was still there. But all he saw was thick snow that had enclosed the entire area.
“There’s no one there,” he said when he returned. “What should we do now?”
Caroline took the baby in her arms, and as she rocked the child to stop the crying, she sensed the little one was running a temperature. “Honey,” she told Andrew. “I think we should take the child to a hospital. We need to get the baby checked.”
With that, Andrew and Caroline decided to visit the hospital and asked their neighbor, Mrs. Clemmens, to look after Kevin while they were away.
Caroline noticed the baby was running a temperature | Photo: Pexels
The doctors said the baby had a fever because of being left in the cold, and they would keep her under observation for a while. “Your daughter will be here for a while, Mr. and Mrs. Anderson. Before we admit her, please complete the formalities at the reception desk.”
Andrew and Caroline looked at each other. They couldn’t just write it in the form that they were the child’s parents. They needed to inform the cops about it, so they did. The CPS and police were informed, and it was decided that after the baby girl was discharged, she would be placed in the hospital’s orphanage while the cops searched for her parents.
Back at home, Andrew and Caroline had to lie to Kevin that the baby was sick and would be hospitalized for a long time. However, after nearly a month passed with no news of anyone showing up as the baby’s parents, she was officially admitted to the orphanage. And it was at that point that Andrew and Caroline considered adopting her.
They decided to embrace her and raise her as her own and thought that Kevin would love to have her as a younger sibling. So they filed for her adoption, and two months later, when it was finalized and the baby came home, Andrew and Caroline felt like their family was finally complete.
But everything changed one fateful afternoon when a woman appeared on Andrew and Caroline’s doorstep, claiming to be the baby’s biological mother…
Caroline and Andrew adopted the baby | Photo: Pexels
One year later…
“Hi there, lady, my name is Laura. And the baby you’re holding in your arms is my daughter. I shouldn’t have left her in that stupid box! Give her back,” the woman said rudely as Caroline answered the door. Her demeanor was stiff and stern, and her tone was anything but sweet. Caroline was taken aback by her sight, to say the least.
“What? What did you just say? Your daughter?!” A fit of sudden anger gripped Caroline. “She’s mine, and I’m not going to give her to you! We officially adopted her a year ago, and you have no legal right to her!”
Laura smirked. “We’ll see about that in court, lady! Here,” she said, handing Caroline a document. “I’ve filed for custody of my daughter, and I’ll get her back at any cost! After all, I am the biological mother,” she said before walking away.
That night, Caroline and Andrew were very worried. The first court hearing was a week later, and they had no idea what would happen. What if they lost? What if their daughter was taken away? They knew the chances of that happening were minimal, but they were scared.
Laura challenged Caroline for the baby’s custody | Photo: Pexels
Thankfully, after hearing from both parties, the judge ruled in Andrew and Caroline’s favor. Laura’s parental rights were terminated because she abandoned her child a year ago and never bothered to look after her, and if she wanted them restored, she would have to adhere to a specific timeframe as described by the law and provide additional proof that she could care for her child better than her adoptive parents.
Laura knew she couldn’t do that. She lived in a small house and had very little money. After her husband had died, she decided to abandon the baby on the Andersons’ doorstep and focus on her new boyfriend.
However, when she discovered that her late husband had left all of his money to their daughter rather than her, she left her boyfriend so that she wouldn’t have to share all of the money and decided to take her daughter back. But it was too late. She was merely a waitress at a pub, and her living conditions would never persuade the court that she was capable of caring for her child.
So, in the end, Andrew and Caroline won the case. And years later, they also bought a new house and welcomed another beautiful baby girl. Kevin was overjoyed when he found out he had another younger sister.
What can we learn from this story?
- Love is what makes a family and not necessarily biology. Andrew and Caroline adopted Laura’s child and raised her as their own.
- Greed will lead you nowhere. Laura first abandoned her baby to enjoy life with her new boyfriend, and later, to obtain all of her husband’s money, she left her boyfriend. In the end, she ended up with nothing.
If you enjoyed this story, you might like this one about a young widow who heard her late husband knock from inside his coffin at his funeral.
This account is inspired by our reader’s story and written by a professional writer. Any resemblance to actual names or locations is purely coincidental. All images are for illustration purposes only. Share your story with us; maybe it will change someone’s life.
I’m 18 and obsessed with using sunbeds… but people online are saying I look “burnt to a crisp.”
Megan Blain, an 18-year-old who’s hooked on sunbeds, says she won’t stop tanning, even though online trolls are constantly insulting her. They’ve compared her skin to a “dirty 2p coin,” but she feels stuck in a tanning habit she can’t break.
Megan, from Seaham, County Durham, started using sunbeds at 16 to keep a tan all year. She ditched fake tan products for daily sunbed sessions and even began using tanning injections to get a darker glow. Although she didn’t know much about the risks, she spent up to 30 minutes on sunbeds, sometimes using baby oil to boost the effect.
Teenager Megan Blain, 18, has admitted to being addicted to sunbeds, despite facing harsh criticism online and noticing concerning changes to her skin
Megan said, “I liked how I looked with a tan. I wear bright colors, and the tan made them stand out more. Once I saw how good it looked, I started going to the sunbeds more often.”
But her intense tanning routine has raised health concerns. Megan now admits she’s addicted and has tried to cut back on sunbed use.
She also says the tanning injections make her feel sick, and she’s noticed a strange patch on her skin that changes size. Even though she’s scared it could be cancer, she hasn’t stopped tanning yet. Megan has tried to go to the doctor several times but gets too nervous to go inside.
“I’m the type of person who worries about everything, so it’s strange that I’m not more worried about this patch. I know it could be melanoma, but I still use sunbeds, which shows it’s an addiction. I never feel dark enough,” she explained.
She says she’s stuck in a cycle of overusing sunbeds and taking injections that make her feel sick and unable to eat. She used to go every day, but now she goes about four times a week.
Despite getting negative attention from strangers, with some saying she looks like a “burnt chip” or a “cremated” version of herself, Megan still can’t imagine life without tanning beds.
Megan said, “Everywhere I go, people stare at me. When they say I’m dark, I don’t believe them. I don’t feel dark at all, like I can’t see it myself.”
She admits she wants to stop using sunbeds one day, but she can’t imagine quitting. “I wouldn’t recommend this to anyone because you could get addicted without even realizing it, like I did,” she warned.
Megan has tried to cut down, now only using sunbeds four times a week, and she’s using her TikTok platform to warn younger people about the dangers of sunbed addiction. She’s especially worried because more young people seem to be using sunbeds than older ones, and she knows how easy it is to get hooked.
However, Megan has also faced online trolls who make fun of her tan. Some compare her to “burnt chips” or say her skin looks like a dirty “2p coin.” One person even asked if the sunbeds “cremated” her.
While Megan’s views on tanning have changed, she still struggles to break her habit of using UV lights.
Megan said, “After two years, I’ve changed my mind about sunbeds. If I could go back, I’d never start. Now, it’s not even about wanting to be tan anymore—I just feel like I have to use them.”
She explained that once she’s on the sunbed, it’s hard to turn it off. “I don’t even like using them anymore, I actually dread it, but I feel like I physically can’t stop.”
Another tanning addict, Fionnghuala Maguire, 35, from Belfast, shared her story, saying she feels “lucky to be alive” after using sunbeds almost every day for 15 years. She started at 14 and never used sunscreen during that time. Fionnghuala is now warning others not to make the same mistake, having been hooked on tanning and going to salons up to seven days a week at the height of her addiction.
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