Then, on Emma’s fourth birthday, Carol gave her a massive stuffed elephant, which Emma immediately adored. But something felt off. The elephant was heavy, and it smelled weird. I couldn’t shake the feeling that something was wrong.One night, curiosity got the better of me. I cut open the elephant and pulled out crumpled papers—adoption records with hateful messages scrawled on them: “Not real family” and “She’ll never be yours.” Carol had hidden these papers inside the toy to remind us Emma wasn’t “blood.”

Furious, I set the elephant on fire, watching it burn along with the hateful messages. When Ethan came home, he was horrified by what I’d found. We immediately cut ties with Carol. Ethan called her and, with cold fury, told her she was no longer welcome in our lives.Weeks later, I still couldn’t understand how someone could hate an innocent child. But I knew one thing: Emma is ours, and nothing—no matter how vile—would change that. “I’d burn the whole world to protect her,” I whispered to Ethan. “I know,” he replied. “And we will.”