There’s a hushed silence the first time you bring your newborn baby in through the front door. No matter who’s with you there is just a moment when you can’t really believe what has just happened, you have brought your baby home. The silence doesn’t last long of course, soon enough everything returns to bustle and movement and noise, but for a brief moment everything is wonderful and the future stretches out in front of you full of possibility and joy.
It is at this point that it hits you. You are the proud owner of one unused child, although it quickly becomes clear that the transaction hasn’t quite worked out the way you thought it had and you’re looking for the receipt to find out exactly who it was who did the purchasing.