Children who are abandoned by their parents carry a lot of hidden emotions. Six-year-old Alan was one of those kids—he dreamed of seeing his mom, but he never got the chance.
One day, everything changed for Alan in a surprising moment at church. He was crying and asking God to send his mom, saying how much better life would be if she were with him.
In the middle of his tearful prayers, he suddenly heard a voice behind him, saying they would take him…
“Dear Jesus, they say you hear everything. The people at the foster home told me to come to you and ask for whatever I need. I want my mommy. Can you please send her to me?”
“Alan, my boy! I’ve come for you. I’ve come to take you home.”
Alan cried as he folded his hands in prayer, looking up at the cross. His eyes were red and his cheeks were wet with tears.
“My nanny said you answer everyone’s prayers. So why won’t you answer mine?”
His loud cries echoed through the church. Alan was heartbroken; he didn’t want to go back to the shelter where the other kids teased him. They often said his mom would never come back and he would just have to wait for someone else to adopt him.
“Nobody would want to take a crybaby like you home,” some of the other kids would say. That day, Alan poured out his heart, desperately asking God for an answer.
“Alan, shhh!” his guardian, Nancy, gently interrupted. “This is a church. Please don’t cry so loudly. People are watching. Try to calm down.”
Alan tried to hold back his tears, but he couldn’t take his eyes off the cross. Then he saw a woman with a child walk into the church, and he couldn’t stop himself from crying again.
“Jesus, why aren’t you answering me? I just want to be with my mommy, like that girl. Nanny, you said Jesus answers all our prayers, so why isn’t he saying anything to me?”
Nancy looked at him and smiled softly at his innocent questions.
Then, suddenly, a woman’s voice from behind them said, “I’ll take you. My child, I’ve come for you. Please don’t cry anymore.”
Alan and Nancy were startled. They turned around and saw the woman with the child that Alan had noticed earlier.
“Alan, my boy! I’ve come for you. I’ve come to take you home,” the woman said, crying.
Nancy held Alan tightly and asked, “Who are you? How do you know his name?”
“My name is Annette. I’m Alan’s mother. I come here every day to see him and make sure he’s okay.”
“Your son? Do you have any proof?” Nancy asked, suspicious.
Annette pulled out a photo of herself holding a newborn baby. “I left him at the shelter’s doorstep six years ago.”
Nancy looked at the photo and said, “This is unbelievable. This is exactly how Alan looked when I first found him outside on a rainy night. I heard a baby crying and found him on the patio. Why did you leave him? How could you do that to your own child?”
Annette began to cry and shared the heartbreaking story of her past.
Six years ago, she was only 16 when she found out she was pregnant with her boyfriend’s child. But when she told him, he broke up with her, moved to another state, and blocked her from contacting him. Annette’s parents wanted her to end the pregnancy, but she couldn’t bring herself to do that.
“My parents gave me only one option—to give up my baby or to lose them and the family support I depended on. I was young and scared, so I left my newborn at the shelter and tried to move on with my life.”
Annette explained that she later finished college, got married, and had a daughter, Amy, with her husband.
“But I never stopped thinking about my son. I often come to this church just to see him from a distance. But hearing him cry for his mother today—I couldn’t stay quiet anymore. I want to take him home.”
Annette soon began the legal process to get Alan back. She took a DNA test, which confirmed she was his mother with 99 percent certainty. Finally, she was able to take Alan home, and they rebuilt their relationship, but it wasn’t without sacrifice and hardship.
Annette’s parents turned their backs on her and cut her out of their lives and their will. Her husband, Jason, also turned against her, even though he already knew about her past.
“I married you because you were honest about your past with your ex, and I thought you’d never want that child back. Now even your parents have disowned you. I’m not willing to raise someone else’s child. I’ll support my daughter, but our marriage is over,” Jason said, and he immediately filed for divorce.
Annette and Jason divorced soon after, with Annette keeping custody of her daughter. She was overjoyed to have Alan back in her life.
“Don’t come to us asking for money again,” were her parents’ last words to her. But Annette didn’t mind. She felt complete, even without their approval or support.
What can we learn from this story?
God listens to our prayers. Alan often cried and prayed in church, asking God to bring his mother to him. One day, his prayers were answered when a voice spoke up, and it was his mother, ready to take him home.
Don’t leave your children to suffer for mistakes you made. When Annette got pregnant at 16, her parents told her to leave the baby. She listened to them and moved on, but didn’t realize how much it would hurt her son as he grew up without her.
