Chapter 161 New Friends, New Experiences

• Moana
• After Ella, Edrick and I went to the outdoor painting class together, it started to become more and more apparent to me that Ella was deeply craving more interactions with other children her age. With each passing day, she begged me more and more to bring her to the orphanage to play with the other children, and began to grow a little defiant when Edrick told her that she couldn’t be going out all of the time.
• My years of working with children and my career in early childhood education taught me that one of the most important things for any child to experience was socializing with other children. Ella had been mostly cooped up her entire life, and I even began to honestly wonder if she even had any interactions with other children before I came into the picture. Maybe she ran into children at training or saw her little cousins once or twice a year during family gatherings, but she didn’t have consistent chances to socialize with other kids. I saw the toll it was taking on her, and as the days ticked closer to the beginning of the school year, I could tell that Ella was deeply upset.