CLEAN || Taylor Swift Adoption

TWO

"Mama named her Lucky on a starlit night,
a rabbit foot in her pocket,
she dances in spite of the fact that she's different and yet she's the same"

~TAYLOR~

July 15, 2019

"Hello?" I asked, picking up the phone to see the unfamiliar number. At first, I assumed it was someone from the industry that my publicist, Tree, had connected me with in some way, so I didn't hesitate to pick up the phone. I knew she was trying to get me in touch with a few new members to add to my staff for the next music video I was filming, and I was eager to speak to any new possible recruits.

"Hi, is this Ms. Swift?" A woman's voice asked from the other line. Part of me thought I may have heard the voice before, but in my lifetime, it felt like I could've heard almost everyone's voice before. There was no reason to get caught up over a voice that had a familiar tone. For all I knew, this woman could've just had a very similar voice to some fan that I'd met before.

"Yes, this is," I replied. "Who am I speaking with, please?"

"Miss Swift, this is Ashley Jacobson from the Department of Children and Family Services," the woman replied. "I have your record still on file, although you haven't been active in years, and I was calling about a potential placement for you."

It was safe to say that out of every single message I would've guessed I could've gotten, this was definitely not one I thought I was going to get. I hadn't fostered in a few years—not since I went under the radar for a couple of years before the 'Reputation' tour started, and it had completely faded out of my mind since then, especially with the upcoming release of my newest album, 'Lover'.

Still, I was willing to help, or at least, try to see if there was a way that it was possible for me to do so. "Okay," I answered, sure that I had spent far too much time thinking and the woman from DCFS—Ashley Jacobson—would've probably given up on me at that point. Still, I figured that it wouldn't hurt to try. "Can you tell me a little bit about this girl?"

"Sure," Ashley said, speaking with an upbeat and sugary tone that I assumed was to try to get me interested in letting this girl stay with me. "Her name is Everleigh, and she's fourteen years old. She's been in the system since she was four—her mother died from complications with childbirth, and her father died from cancer a few years after that. She's been in multiple placements, but there's always been something that hasn't worked out, so she's being moved back and forth. Would you be willing to take her?"

I let out a slow breath. It almost seemed as if there was something I wasn't being told, and I didn't want to commit to taking care of someone that might not be able to handle my lifestyle, or being thrown into the spotlight. "Do you have any information about her personality, or what she's like?" I asked. "Something to get to know who she is and not just the statistics of her life."

I could hear Ashley suppress a sigh from the other line, but I didn't let it bother me too much. I wanted more than just the basic facts about this girl, especially if I was going to seriously consider fostering her for the foreseeable future. It didn't make sense for me to just have the basic statistics.

"She's very sweet," Ashley said after a while. "Good kid. No behavioral problems, if that's what you were implying when you asked about her personality. She's good in school, gets high grades and takes pretty advanced classes for someone her age. She's smart, too. She likes music and does a few extracurriculars. Does that help?"

"Yes it does, actually," I replied. "Thank you."

I chewed on my lip. It sounded like I had a pretty good chance with this girl. She just seemed like the right kind of kid for me to foster for a bit, and I hoped that I would be able to provide her with something better than she'd had before, especially considering the length of time she'd been in foster care. I mean, she'd been bouncing around between families since before she'd even started school. She probably just needed someone to give her a chance and to love her a little more than most people were willing to.