Looking back later, Claire's favorite picture from that day was either the one where Ethan was beaming from ear to ear with his arms around both her and Alex's backs as he stood between them or the one where he and all of the other kids squished together and made weird faces. Everyone was there but Jack, who had moved out to go to school in the same city as his older brother in August.
Seeing all of those kids so happy filled her heart to the brim. Aside from Ray and Heather's three biological kids, she had been involved in getting the rest of them out of a terrible life and where they were now.
In this moment they all seemed like perfectly normal children with facial expressions and emotions. They might not know everything about society yet but they were getting there.
