A Perfect Match Read Online Free PDF Page B

got home he turned into a monster. Swear to me you’ll never go there, Sean, do you hear me? Never. This girl may seem normal now, but mark my words once she steps foot inside that country she’ll be a different person. No, Sean, you’ll just have to tell her to go and find someone from her own background and you find yourself a nice Irish girl.’
    ‘Don’t be ridiculous, Mum,’ snapped Sean. ‘That’s like her parents forbidding her to see me because I come from Ireland and I could be a member of the IRA. I really like her, so you better get used to the idea.’
    ‘Dan, talk to your son,’ said Mum, glaring at Dad.
    ‘Well, Sean, to be fair, our cultures are very different. It could cause problems down the line.’
    ‘She’s not the bloody Ayatollah’s henchman for God’s sake. Her father’s a surgeon, her mother’s a teacher and her brother’s an accountant. They’re a normal family, just like us.’
    As if on cue, Babs – who had tied her napkin around her head so you could only see her eyes – roared, ‘Hey, guess who I am? I’m Sean’s new girlfriend – Shahreeeeeeee.’
    I looked at James whose mouth was twitching and had to look away before I started to laugh. He leant over and whispered in my ear, ‘I’m glad we’re adopting. Imagine if our children inherited Babs’ genes!’
    ‘Or her schnozz,’ I said giggling.

5
    I spent the next two weeks standing in long queues waiting to get my birth certificate and our marriage one – neither of which I could find at home. When I called James’s mother to send me his birth certificate, she had it to hand, which didn’t surprise me. Mrs Hamilton was one of those super-organized women who always knew where everything was. Whenever we visited, I was always amazed by the neatness of the house. There didn’t seem to be any ‘stuff’ hanging around. No unopened mail, old newspapers and books, tennis rackets in the hall, coats hanging on the end of the stairs, shoes kicked off in the kitchen, crumbs on the bread board, out of date cheese in the fridge … The house was immaculate and every time we came home from a visit, I’d try to emulate her tidiness. It usually lasted a day. James had not inherited his mother’s genes and neatness was certainly not my forte, so by day two we were back to our untidy but familiar surroundings.
    I completed the adoption form, filling in our referees’ names and at the last minute decided to write a covering letter to send in with the application, although it didn’t ask for one. I thought that a bleeding heart letter might help our chances of jumping up the queue.
    Dear Sir/Madam,
    I am writing to apply for an Intercountry adoption. See enclosed a completed application form and the necessary documents.
    My English husband, James, and I have been trying to have a baby for two years now, with no success. We are dying to have a family and give a child a happy and loving home. We are not fussy at all and are open to children from any country of any colour or creed. If the child has sisters, brothers, cousins or even very close friends, we’d be happy to accommodate them too. We are prepared to do anything that will help speed up the process. As we have an intercountry marriage, we feel we are particularly well suited to an intercountry adoption.
    I look forward to hearing from you soon,
    Yours sincerely
    Emma Hamilton
     
    I checked it for spelling mistakes, and sealed the envelope. I felt the fact that James was English might give us a more international feel and make us stand out. Granted he wasn’t from deepest darkest Africa and we weren’t exactly being stoned on the street for our inter-racial union, but nonetheless it was an intercountry union. I also thought that stressing our openness to children of different creeds and cultures would help and if there were siblings to hand, sure, we might as well take them too and do it all in one go. I hadn’t discussed the possibility of a one-off, multiple