Taking her hand, her mother said two words, “You’re adopted!”Pulling her hand away and grabbing me tightly, Steph was instantly shaking her head...and screaming, “NO!”I lightly put my hand on the back of her head and pulled her to me. She cried on my shoulder for a while.I looked at her parents, er ... her adopted parents and saw that that was only the first shoe.“Steph,” I said, holding her head and looking in her eyes, “I think there’s another shoe to drop,” I turned to Matt and Karen and. I think any Marine hearing Benny’s story would pat him on the back and say, ‘Good job, Son.’ So let me say it. Good job, Son.”“Thank you, Sir.”“Now have a seat.”While Benny sat down next to Cathy, Judge Lane straightened a stack of papers on his desk. He said, “We are present today to hear the petition for emancipation of Catherine Peterson. Would the next friend for Catherine Peterson please state her case?”‘Next friend’- is odd sounding term, but it has a legal definition. It denotes the. It wasn’t long after that that Charlie finally started to fill out a little, although with the outfits she wore, it was hard to tell. Still, the only time she got any kind of notice was at the senior awards night, when was she was named among the high honors graduates, with scholarship offers from several colleges. She surprised a lot of people that night, because she had pulled her hair back, worn a rather snug dress (for her) and put on a little bit of makeup. As she walked up to receive her. "Tony smiled. "Her friends think she's pretty special too."Tony took his seat as more students filed in.Rebecca's almost constant physical and aquatic therapy over a six month period had transformed her. Outwardly little had changed, but her 95 pound body had gained a full ten pounds simply by converting what was formerly fat to lean muscle. Exposure to the sun during the pool sessions left her skin a light golden tan. Except for the waning balance issues she was the epitome of a healthy 15.