An only child, a perfectly ordinary little girl in rural Wisconsin, I wanted sisters more than anything. When I turned seven, my parents made a decision that delighted me beyond measure: they chose to adopt.

小时候我是家里的独生女，是威斯康新州农村的一个非常普通的女孩。那时我特别想要的就是妹妹。我7岁那年，父母做出了一个让我喜出望外的决定：他们要领养了。
 
It was Christmastime when my two new sisters, aged 6 and 3, arrived from Colombia. They came with a great flourish of celebration, as friends and relatives visited us bearing gifts to welcome them. That evening our guests went home and we were left to ourselves. My sisters and I went to the bedroom we were to share; as we crawledsintosour beds, our parents came to each of us, tucking us in and saying goodnight.“Te amo,”they whispered to my new sisters in Spanish,“I love you.”

那是圣诞节期间，我的两个新妹妹，一个6岁，一个3岁，从哥伦比亚来到了我家。她们的到来带来了喜庆，亲朋好友带着礼物来我家欢迎她们。那天晚上客人们走后，剩下了我们自己，我和妹妹们走进我们共用的卧室；当我们爬上床时，父母进来了，为我们一一掖好被角并且道了晚安，“Te amo”，他们用西班牙语向我的新妹妹耳语道，“我爱你”。
 
From the beginning these newcomers were like my own flesh and blood; we played and bickered and learned just as if we had always been sisters. From the beginning we all were my parents' daughters equally, as they supervised and scolded and encouraged us.

从一开始，新来的妹妹就像是我的亲妹妹；我们一起玩，一起斗嘴，一起学习，仿佛我们一直就是姐妹；父母对我们指教、训斥或鼓励时，我们都是父母的女儿，谁都不受偏袒。
 
Life seemed great. Beneath the surface, however, my parents were struggling with their own marital problems. As we girls were approaching our teen years, my parents uttered the fateful words,“We're getting a divorce.”

生活看上去非常好。然而，在表象之下，父母却在为他们之间的婚姻问题而苦苦挣扎，当我们姐妹十几岁时，父母说出了那句致命的话：“我们要离婚了。