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@kayla-skywriter

In answer to your question, there is the ability of sinful human nature to hide for a time, and then when it thinks the coast is clear, reveals itself.

What I mean by this is, the family that adopts Jane might seem like a nice family, but after the adoption is complete, the accountability is gone and things can get ugly. This might mean neglect, abuse, and even sexual abuse (which is ugly to think about, but sadly, it’s almost assumed to be true of children who go into foster care that they have been physically and/or sexually abused at least once by someone close to them. Girls are particularly more at risk, and it doesn’t really matter what age. Our 2 year old girl had been sexually abused before she came to us.) Adoptive parents are also able to do these repulsive things once the accountability is greatly lessened.

Now, the adoptive parents might not be monsters whose only purpose in adopting Jane was to neglect, abuse, or sexually use her. They might have honestly cared about her, gotten swept up in the charitable thing they were doing, had honestly good intentions, and then once the newness wore off and the humdrummery of life started again, the good intentions faded away, and she began to get neglected and/or abused. (I personally would not make them sexually abuse Jane mainly because there is A LOT of emotional and mental trust and physical issues that come afterward, and while it might be interesting to see how her faith helps her, I don’t think it’s worth opening that can of worms, particularly since you are so young. I’m 21, and I wish I didn’t know anything about that world. And, physical abuse has plenty of trauma of its own.)

Physical abuse could start a variety of ways. Maybe it hadn’t hit them yet that some of their treasured dreams were no longer a possibility because they had to save for her college, or the retreat they wanted to go to the following summer didn’t allow kids, or something like that. Resentment might build up, and they might start off by withholding things they know she wants but she hasn’t asked for, then maybe things she she did ask for, then maybe there would be harsh looks, then words, then maybe a little slap or two, and then maybe it progresses to kicking and beating.

Neglect could stem from the parents being overwhelmed with the new responsibility. Maybe grandparents and aunts and uncles and friends were excited at first, and very supportive, but now that the excitement is over, they don’t help out as much as they used to, and the parents were counting on them for the long term. This could result in neglect emotionally and physically. (It could also spark resentment, which might lead to abuse.)

The family dying didn’t actually cross my mind at all when I mentioned the adoption falling through.

I hope that was helpful. I hope you get your book’s plot and stuff straightened out, and I would love to read it again once you’ve finished it!

~Katy