Denied a Mummy: The heartbreaking story of three little children searching for someone to love them

by Maggie Hartley, Penny McDonald (Read by)

Overview

When Maggie's latest placement arrives on her doorstep, it is clear that Sean, Dougie and their big sister Mary have been through unspeakable traumas in their short lives. Violent and malnourished, the siblings have been left to fend for themselves by their drug-addicted parents. Maggie must use all of her skills and experience as a foster carer to help these damaged siblings to learn to be children again. With much love, care and patience, their behaviour gradually starts to improve and social services start looking for a forever family for them.

But alarm bells start to ring when Maggie meets the couple who have been matched to adopt the siblings. It is clear that they're looking for the perfect, ready-made family, and they're not going to get it with these vulnerable brothers and sister. Despite raising her concerns with social services, Maggie is powerless to prevent the adoption from going ahead and she must put aside her own fears to help the siblings settle in with their new parents. But she can't shake the feeling of dread as she waves them goodbye.

A few months later, Maggie's worst nightmares come true when she learns that the children have been handed back to the care of social services following the breakdown of the adoption. Maggie must fight to get the children returned to her, but is it too late to undo the damage that has been done?

A true story of hope from Sunday Times bestselling author Maggie Hartley, a foster carer for over 20 years.

'This was a book I could not put down' 5* Amazon reader review

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781409177104
Publisher:	Orion
Publication date:	11/01/2018
Series:	A Maggie Hartley Foster Carer Story
Sold by:	Hachette Digital, Inc.
Format:	eBook
Sales rank:	235,329
File size:	7 MB

About the Author

Maggie Hartley has fostered more than 300 children while being a foster carer for over twenty years. Taking on the children other carers often can't cope with, Maggie helps children that are deemed 'unadoptable' because of their behaviour or the extreme trauma that they've been through. She's looked after refugees, supported children through sexual abuse and violence court cases, cared for teenagers on remand and taught young mums how to parent their newborn babies.

You can find her on Facebook at /MaggieHartleyAuthor, where she would love to hear from you.

Table of Contents

A Message from Maggie ix

1 Wild Creatures 1

2 Bed and Bath Battle 14

3 Wake-Up Call 28

4 First Days 41

5 Supermarket Shame 55

6 School Days 68

7 Testing Times 82

8 Turning a Corner 94

9 Too Much, Too Soon? 110

10 The Search Begins 122

11 A Family Found 134

12 The First Meeting 149

13 Niggles and Doubts 166

14 A Difficult Goodbye 181

15 Keeping Clear 195

16 Back to the Start 204

17 Déjà Vu 218

18 A Good Idea 230

19 Finding Forever 241

Epilogue 250

Acknowledgements 251

A Note from Maggie 252