"Heaven it's nice of you to join us." Daloni's new social worker smiled, welcoming her into the room with the other future parents. His new social worker was a middle-aged black woman that so happened to be Kenzie's godmother.

"Hey everyone." Heaven introduced herself, sending everyone a small wave. She had only been to two other parenting classes, this was her third. Daloni's social worker Ms. Walker told her it would look good when they presentend the case to the court. Plus it would help Heaven get the hang of motherhood.

Everyone introduced themselves and then gave their attention back to Ms. Walker. This particular session they were going over attachment and neglect.

"So as we all know more than half of the kids are in the system because of child neglect. Neglect is failing to care properly for a child. Whether it's physically, mentally, and emotionally."

"Has anyone ever experienced neglect?"

Heaven slowly raised her hand biting down on her bottom lip. Heaven's parents raised her great physically but they always abused her mentally and emotionally. They had Heaven's life all planned out, but when she decided that she wanted to be a nurse they started neglecting her.

"Even if we haven't experienced neglect, there's many ways to prevent them. You always want to make sure the child is comfortable with themselves and their surroundings." Ms. Walker explained, standing up and walking to the dry erase board.

"Can anybody give me some examples on how to see if a child is comfortable?" Ms. Walker asked the future parents.

"Their body language." Heaven said.

"That's a great one. Body language can say a lot even if they are a little one you can still read their language." Ms. Walker nodded.

"You can ask them." One couple pointed out.

"Yes, we can ask, but sometimes a child that has neglect issues will be hard to talk to. One thing we don't want to do is to try and force them to talk." Ms. Walker said, writing on the board.

"Let's switch gears for a bit, lets talk about attachment. For my foster couples have you or the kid started getting attached?" Ms. Walker asked.

"So Laylah does this thing where she wants to cling to our legs all day. Like she literally wraps her body around our legs." A white couple smiled. They were fostering a black child, looking into adoption.

"But I don't have a problem with it, I actually love it." The wife nodded.

Ms. Walker chuckled and looked at Heaven."Heaven what about you?"

"Yes. We're both attached to each other. All he wants is me." Heaven smiled, just thinking about Daloni. No matter what anybody said, she wouldn't trade Daloni's clinginess for anything.

"Well our little one is having a hard time. I don't think he's adapted yet, we sometimes have to bribe him to eat his food."

"So attachment can be tricky. We need to know the difference between good attachment and bad. Secure attachment is when the child is feeling secure whenever you're around. Anxious-Ambivalent attachment is the child being anxious of their surroundings in fear of being abandoned." Ms. Walker explained.

"I think we're dealing with Anxious Ambivalent." The first couple nodded.

"Honestly I think I'm dealing with both. Daloni is comfortable with me but I also think he's scared that I'll leave him." Heaven stated.

"And that's fine. I'm going to give you both two assignments. For the McQueens, everytime Laylah clings to your legs I want you to remove her from them and see what she does. If she throws a fit, then confirm your theory and write what type of tantrum she threw and what you guys did to stop it. But you cannot let her cling to your legs just to get her to stop the tantrum." Ms. Walker explained.

"For you Heaven, I want you to do the same thing. Try not to let him cling to your body so much. I want you guys to do this for three days straight to see the kid's reaction. When we return for our next session I want to hear how you and the child adapted or handled the situation." Ms. Walker stated.

~

"Ms. Walker can I talk to you?" Heaven asked, watching the other couples leave with their pamphlets and notes from the session.

"Of course. I'm so glad you made it today. We covered a lot." When Ms. Walker was presented with Daloni's case she saw the constant neglect he went through in the system. When Heaven gave her a call about adoption she was happy.

"I'm glad I came. Daloni does this thing where he wants to drink milk from my boobs. I'm not sure where he got it from or what to do about it." Heaven stated.

"So Daloni's mom breastfed him for three days but she died just before she was released from the hospital. Even though it happened closer to birth, he's probably trying to finish the experience." Ms. Walker nodded.

"How long has this been going on?" She asked.

"Every since we met. He gets upset when I tell him no." Heaven chuckled.

"Baby boy just wants his milk." Ms. Walker chuckled. "Have you ever heard of Lactation?" She asked Heaven.

Seeing the confusion on Heaven's face, Ms. Walked figured she didn't. "It's basically tricking your body into producing milk. It takes a while but with the proper training, practices, and medication you can start producing milk."

"But I thought you could only breastfeed biological kids." Heaven frowned.

"Nope sometimes parents who adopt as soon as the baby is born wants to breastfeed. It's actually healthier." Ms. Walker said.

"But Daloni just turned five isn't that to old for breastfeeding?" Heaven asked.

"To be honest with you no. It's perfectly normal for five years old to be breastfed. It's not as normal as we see, but breast milk protects children from many immune diseases, so parents breast feed until the child wants to stop" Ms. Walker shrugged.

"Wow." Heaven mumbled. Now she was confused, she didn't know whether to go with the lactation or not.

"Here's some professionals who help with the process. Give them a call if you have any questions."

"Thank you." Heaven nodded, taking the sticky-note and leaving the room.

She walked outside to see Zylin just now pulling up with Nevaeh in the backseat. They just had a whole talk about Nevaeh's attitude.

"Tension is thick." Heaven said, buckling her seatbelt. Zylin's hand immediately went to her thigh, as the other rested under the steering wheel. This was their normal car position.

"She mad cause she in trouble." Zylin shrugged.

"Daddy won't let me go to practice." Nevaeh mumbled, trying to tell on Zylin to Heaven.

Heaven only chuckled and shook her head. Nevaeh always tried to tell Heaven when Zylin was being mean to her, but Heaven never got in the middle. Zylin was her parent.

"How was it?" Zylin asked, rubbing his hand on Heaven's thigh, making her swallow a big lump in her throat. Heaven's thigh and neck was her hot spots.

"It was great. Hopefully in a couple months he'll officially be my baby." Heaven smiled. The thought of taking Daloni home with her every single day made Heaven jump on the inside.

"You pregnant?" Nevaeh asked, leaning up in her seat trying to get a glimpse of Heaven's stomach.

Before Heaven could even respond, Zylin stopped her. "Don't play with me, you must want yo ass whooped in front of her?" Zylin asked. Nevaeh was starting to aggravate him.

"She's fine. No boo, I'm not." Heaven chuckled, trying to ease the tension between Zylin and Nevaeh.

"Well my daddy said that I can't have a baby until I get gray hair." Nevaeh shrugged, recalling Zylin telling her where babies from. He simply told her that they came from a bakery.

"That's right." Zylin smiled happily.

"Heaven you still like my daddy?" Nevaeh asked, putting her hand under her chin and sitting up more in her booster seat.

"Do you like him?" Heaven retorted.

"Duh I like him, he my daddy guh." Nevaeh rolled her neck.

"Well I like him too." Heaven shrugged, rolling her neck back. Nevaeh had finally met her match and Heaven was gone show her sass.

"Can you take me to the hospital right quick? I have to do something." Heaven asked, taking a picture of Zylin's hand on her thigh posting it to her close friends.

"How li man doing?" Zylin asked, switching lanes.

"He's getting better, you should bring Nevaeh up to meet him." Heaven suggested. Daloni hadn't been around kids in a long time, so Heaven wanted to see how he would react to Nevaeh.

"You sure? She been at school with all types of germs." Zylin frowned.

"She'll just have to wear a mask and wash her hands. He'll be fine, did she get all of her shots?" Heaven asked.

"Yeah when she was little." Zylin nodded.

"Then we're good." Heaven shrugged. It would be risky bringing Nevaeh around Daloni considering she was more likely to have germs, but they wouldn't be touching each other.

~

"Okay Nevaeh you have to wear this mask and be extra careful okay?" Heaven bent down to her level holding out a disposable blue mask.

"Okay." Nevaeh nodded.

She had never been in a hospital setting so this was all new to her. She was scared of the doctor's officer and quite frankly the hospital looked exactly like it so she was nervous.

"Look dooda you bout to get a shot!" Zylin smirked, making Nevaeh run and hide behind Heaven. Heaven mushed Zylin stomach and shook her head.

The three walked into Daloni's room to see him coloring his sheets. When he heard the door, he looked up and started reaching for Heaven.

Heaven was about to go pick him up until she remembered what Ms. Walker had said. She pouted and shook her head. "Not right now papa."

Daloni tried to get out of the bed to walk to her but he quickly fell over. "Mommy." He whined, reaching for her again, now on the floor.

"Papa, look I brought you a friend." Heaven sighed, picking him up.

"No!" Daloni yelled.

"Yes!" Nevaeh yelled, rolling her neck putting her hands on her hips and resting all of her weight on her right leg. She didn't appreciate how Daloni didn't want to be her friend.

"No!" Daloni yelled, bucking his head at Nevaeh.

"I said yes!" Nevaeh yelled, stepping to Daloni in Heaven's arms. Daloni made his mean face and bucked at Nevaeh one last time before hiding her head in Heaven's neck.

"Daddy he mean." Nevaeh frowned. She could say that her feelings were hurt.

Zylin sighed and picked Nevaeh up. "He's not feeling good, maybe next time you come y'all will be friends." He explained as best as he could.

"I'm sorry Nevaeh, he's not used to other kids." Heaven said, feeling bad for the way Daloni treated the little girl. She knew Daloni could be mean, but she didn't expect him to react to Nevaeh that way.

"It's fine." Nevaeh shrugged.

~

hey loves !

It's the weekend!! What y'all got planned ? Are y'all ready for Thanksgiving?

Would y'all want another chapter later on? No promises just trying to see something.

I feel like this chapter was boring...

So Heaven decided to go to one of the parenting classes, yall think they would guide her through this whole process?

Has anyone every thought about adopting? It's my dream to, hints to why I always include it in my books 🌚

Lol I incorporated some of my psychology classes into some of this stuff, even though I will never major psychology I enjoy the different theories of it.

How did we feel about the task that Ms. Walker assigned to Heaven?

Should Heaven start the lactation process?

Do y'all feel that Daloni is to old to be getting breast fed?

Nevaeh and Daloni met for the first time, how do y'all think that went lol?

Y'all think Daloni was being mean on purpose?

vote and comment pls!!

-JassyOut