Prologue

“How’s your drink, Eli?” Yeshua asks as I slurp down the rest.

I chuckle to myself. “The best I’ve ever had.”

“Good, there’s more if you want it,” He says.

I watch as my fancy glass refills with more red slush. “Thanks!”

“You’re welcome,” He laughs. “Now, why don’t we pick up your story where we left off? You’d rescued Fiona and the children from Tentatio with that impossible riddle,” He begins to recount. “Then you wake up three days later to find out that Miss O was adopting you,” He adds.

I nod, taking another sip of my slushy drink. “The adoption process took a few weeks, but Miss O even said that if it wasn’t for her friend at the agency cutting through a lot of red tape, that it would have taken even longer.”

“It’s sad how difficult it has become for someone to give a child a home anymore,” Yeshua says sadly.

I nod in agreement; St. Olaf’s still has lots of orphaned kids living there.

“But, you can’t let that take away from your blessings,” Yeshua says. “They’re separate things. You can be sad for one and joyful for the other.”

I grin at him. “Thanks,” I say; sometimes I have a hard time allowing myself to feel joyful about something when I know others I care about are still sad and lonely.

“I gave you a big, soft heart, Eli. Don’t ever change that,” He tells me.

I shake my head and say, “I won’t.”

“Wonderful,” he says with a warm smile. “Now, let’s continue your story…”