Borrowed Lives - Carol McClain - Bog

"Distraught from recent tragedy, Meredith Jaynes takes pity on a young girl who steals from her. Meredith discovers "Bean" lives in a hovel mothering her two younger sisters. The three appear to have been abandoned. With no other homes available, Social Services will separate the siblings. To keep them together, Meredith agrees to foster them on a temporary basis. Balancing life as a soap maker raising goats in rural Tennessee proved difficult enough before the siblings came into her care. Without Bean's help, she'd never be able to nurture these children warped by drugs and neglect-let alone manage her goats that possess the talents of Houdini. Harder still is keeping her eccentric family at bay. Social worker Parker Snow struggles to overcome the breakup with his fiancâee. Burdened by his inability to find stable homes for so many children who need love, he believes placing the abandoned girls with Meredith Jaynes is the right decision. Though his world doesn't promise tomorrow, he hopes Meredith's does. But she knows she's too broken"--