Board Thread:Character Discussion/@comment-1773585-20141111210845/@comment-24674051-20141112151834

Good points, Utter. I totally agree.

And while I have had the privilege of knowing my biological parents, I also did have 2 foster "siblings" growing up. The first I don't remember too much about other than I was sad when he left, but the second was a child my parents were considering adopting, and they were with us during a trial period. Sadly, there were too many issues that my family wasn't equipped to deal with, and she eventually went back into the system (to a foster family that just happened to have both parents as child psychologists).

All of this to say that, while there can be feelings of family during the time in foster care (and even trial adoption periods), they are not part of the family tree, unless, and until, the adoption paperwork is finalized.

As for the Swan family, my guess is that the family was still in the "Trial" period when Mrs. Swan became pregnant (I think we can at least safely assume a Mrs. Swan, and given the time period that Emma would have been adopted, we can also assume a Mr. Swan). The family decided that, since they could have children of their own, they would give Emma back to see if some other family would be a fit that was unable to have a child.

Having known several families where the adoption was completed and years later the mother became pregnant, the children at that point are not given back. In fact, I don't think that is even an option at that point.