Given to Fly

Pain, trauma, and abuse seem to be all thirteen-year-old Allison McClanahan knows. Shame, humiliation, and fear was her life before her ambitious case worker, Ms. Rebecca Aisling, took her case and took her under her protective wings. Rescued from an abusive, drug-addled father and the loss of her mother, Allison finds herself placed in foster care. Everything is a whirlwind of confusion. She doesn’t know who she is or where her place is in this world anymore. She yearns for answers and a night without bad dreams and nightmares.Marjan Mehri, an outsider to some but a young woman of hope and faith. A young foster parent living alone, with a room to spare and a desire to help. A woman with a past that could be the key to building up a girl’s future. Rebecca Aisling sees both a challenge and an opportunity. Marjan Mehri sees herself reflected in Allison McClanahan’s frightened but hopeful eyes.Allison thinks she has been thrown away… but she is soon to learn that Marjan has come to catch her… and teach her that there is love after loss, comfort after pain, and peace after trauma. She has not been thrown away… she instead has been given up to fly.