Page 1

PROLOGUE

Ten Years Old

Riiiiing! Riiiiing! Riiiiing!

“Shhhh . . . Quiet, you loudmouth, or you’ll wake everyone up!” I whisper to the alarm clock on my nightstand, putting my index finger to my lips.

The room is still dark. It’s a little while before sunrise, but this is my special time to say my prayers.

I’m sure God must be way too busy at night when I go to bed—He’s got the whole world to listen to.

I saw on the map at school the other day that our planet has lots and lots of countries—it feels like the list never ends.

I tiptoe out of bed so I won’t wake up Mom, who sleeps in a bed close to mine.

I use the little light coming in from the hallway to find my slippers, trying my best not to make a sound.

In the living room, I step around the loose floorboards so they don’t creak. Mom will be up soon to go fishing, but for now she can sleep a little longer.

Fishing is her job. Besides catching them for us, she sells to rich folks in our town and the ones nearby, and even to a few restaurants.

I finally make it outside.

I have this crazy idea that if I pray under the stars, God might bump my prayer to the front of the line. I do it every night, and so far, it’s worked. It’s been a few months since my mom found me at the orphanage.

I kneel down, and the breeze brushes against my skin. I need to be quick or I’ll catch a cold.

“Dear God, first of all, please don’t get mad at me.

I know people are supposed to thank You for different things every day, but I picked just one.

So thank You for helping my mom find me.

You really did hear my prayers before, and now I’m here again to ask, like always, please don’t ever let her lose me again.

I’m happy here. I don’t want to leave. In return, I promise to keep being a good girl. ”

“Alexis, what are you doing, kneeling out here in the dirt?” I hear my mom ask from behind me.

Uh-oh! Am I in trouble?

I stand up quickly and turn to face her, trying to see if she’s mad, even though I’m pretty sure she’s not. She never really gets mad.

“What are you doing awake at this hour, my sweet daughter?”

Daughter. I love when she calls me that.

“Praying.”

“Weren’t you supposed to do that before bed?”

I walk over to her, a little shy. I’m still not used to hugging her—actually, I’m not very good at hugging at all—but she solves that by pulling me into her arms.

“I just think maybe God’s too busy at bedtime. What if He forgets my prayer?”

She laughs and kisses the top of my head. “What were you thanking Him for?”

“For you finding me. I want us to stay together forever.”

She cups my face and gently tilts it up so I’m looking at her.

My mom looks a lot like me, but I think she’s prettier, probably because she doesn’t have as many freckles.

“I was really young when you were born. With everything that happened, like I told you, I was scared and couldn’t take care of you.

It would’ve been too dangerous. I thought leaving you at the orphanage was the safest thing.

But when I got better a year later and found out you’d been moved and that the orphanage had burned down with all the kids’ records inside .

. . I started searching for you. I never would’ve stopped, Alexis.

I know I haven’t had much time to be your mom yet, but I would never aban?—”

“Please don’t say it.”

“What?”

“I don’t want you to promise me anything, Mom.

I’d rather you just live with me. I don’t like words, because sometimes they’re true and sometimes they’re not.

I want to live until tomorrow, then the next day, and then the next—until all our days together turn into a whole life.

That’s why I pray every night. It’s my way of making sure God doesn’t forget what I asked for. ”