The Perfect Child

Piper steps outside to get some air, knowing that the worst part of the interview is yet to come. She thinks back to the day she met Becky’s mother in prison. Becky’s mother was a rough personality who had a loud, booming laugh. As she described what she had witnessed and endured, she laughed.

Becky’s mother explained that Becky’s drug use meant that she couldn’t care for Janie and left her with her own mother for the first two years of Janie’s life. Becky’s mother describes Janie as a baby who didn’t seem to care whether she was there or not. As Janie got older, she became impossible to manage and would hurt herself or others to get her way. Janie also started defecating wherever she pleased, and Becky’s mother responded by beating her. She often saw Janie’s eyes turn black when she would get upset. She has no idea who Janie’s father is but knows that every man Becky ever dated abused her.

Everything feels strange and new when Christopher and Hannah bring Janie home for the first time, and they’re both terrified of something going wrong. They get on Janie’s good side by offering her a choice of any snack from the fridge, and the rest of the day goes well.

However, Janie refuses to fall asleep at night, so Christopher sleeps beside her (against Piper’s advice). He wakes later to a smack on his forehead and Janie standing over him, holding a toy train. Christopher asks Janie if she hit him and tries to take the train, but she throws it at him and runs out of the room, screaming. Janie tears through the house, breaking whatever she can find and screaming as loud as she can. Hannah and Christopher have to restrain Janie for an hour until she calms down, and then they lie in bed with her for the rest of the night.

Hannah finally has a chance to meet with Allison after a long week with Janie. She describes Janie’s tantrums, including how they can last for hours and how Hannah and Christopher often have to restrain her. Janie sometimes becomes upset about being refused something, but sometimes she has a crisis for no apparent reason at all. Despite all of this, there have been many highlights and rewarding moments, and Hannah wants to be a mother more than ever.

Two prospective adoptive couples meet Janie, but Christopher finds something wrong with both. He doesn’t like how they react to Janie or how Janie reacts to them. Piper points out that Janie will probably act that way with everyone they meet, and Christopher proposes becoming Janie’s permanent foster parents.

At first, Hannah is upset when she finds out that Christopher proposed keeping Janie without consulting her first. Hannah is torn because she knows that she and Christopher would be the perfect parents to raise Janie (especially because they both have medical experience), but on the other hand, she always wanted to have a baby to raise herself. Hannah spends days considering it, and each time she talks to Christopher, he tries again to convince her. Hannah worries about unforeseen challenges as well, but Christopher thinks they can handle everything. Hannah ultimately feels that she has a responsibility to take Janie in, though she grieves the loss of ever raising a baby. When she makes her decision, she sets up the house as though for a pregnancy announcement to surprise Christopher, who is overcome with joy.

Piper finds the interview increasingly stressful. She tells Luke that during her first home visit with the Bauers, she found Christopher and Hannah completely exhausted and almost frantic with stress. She suggested that Janie be put in respite care for a weekend to give them a break, but they didn’t like the idea, so Piper suggested involving extended family to help instead.

Hannah and Christopher invite their families over to meet Janie, and everyone is excited about it. Hannah’s parents, sister, and nephews, along with Christopher’s mother, all show up for the event. Christopher and Hannah aren’t sure what to expect of Janie, but she surprises them by allowing them to dress her up. Janie reacts with warm and open arms to everyone she meets and instantly bonds with Allison’s twins. Christopher and Hannah are overjoyed to see how well Janie takes to the family, but Allison is confused because Janie is nothing like how Hannah described.

Everything seems to be improving with Janie, and she even starts letting her grandmothers sleep next to her so that Christopher and Hannah can get some rest. Christopher and Hannah go out for dinner one night while Janie stays with the grandparents, and they talk about the highs and lows of raising Janie. Some nights, they find her staring at them with anger as they sleep, but other nights are uneventful. After two months, they have learned that Janie’s favorite thing to do is go outside and discover new things and people. Christopher is about to go back to work, but Hannah is taking another two months off; she looks forward to having some time alone with Janie.

On Hannah’s first day alone with Janie, she becomes confused, hurt, and angry when Janie refuses to speak to or even look at her all day. Nothing Hannah tries works, and even when she takes Janie to the park, Janie ignores her while talking to the other mothers. When Christopher comes home, Janie rushes to him and happily welcomes him. Later, Hannah tells Christopher that she believes Janie was acting this way on purpose to punish and hurt her, but Christopher thinks it’s just an adjustment period.

Piper goes to see Hannah shortly after Christopher returns to work and sees that even after two weeks, Janie is still refusing to talk to Hannah. Piper understands how hard it must be to be in Hannah’s position. Hannah admits she isn’t even sure if Janie likes her, and Piper assures her that adjusting could take months or even years. She recommends that the family meet with a child therapist named Dr. Chandler.

Christopher and Hannah meet Dr. Chandler without Janie to tell her what they’ve observed and experienced, as well as what they know about Janie’s history. Dr. Chandler’s office is filled with toys and looks like a place that Janie would enjoy. She’s a patient, calm, and open person who listens as Hannah describes Janie’s behavior. Christopher insists that Janie is improving, but Hannah thinks they have just found ways around Janie’s behavior rather than actually changing it. Hannah is also concerned about Janie standing over her while she sleeps; she is convinced Janie is doing so with hate in her eyes. Dr. Chandler explains that children often have two sides to their personality, and in Janie’s case, this division could be even more extreme than usual. The side that Christopher describes and the side that Hannah describes both exist. On the way home, Hannah is quiet, feeling like Christopher is against her.

Christopher has to work during Janie’s first appointment with Dr. Chandler, so Hannah takes her on her own. Janie kicks her seat the whole way there and ignores Hannah while going inside. Hannah is losing patience with Janie, especially after she ran away from her in a store the previous day and started knocking products off the shelves. When Hannah tried to stop her, Janie yelled that she was hurting her, which embarrassed Hannah.

Janie meets Dr. Chandler and is as friendly as she is with every other stranger. Dr. Chandler tells Janie she’s a “feelings doctor” and there to help her learn to manage her emotions and to play with her. Janie picks an elaborate dollhouse to play with and begins separating the dolls into the ones she wants and doesn’t. Janie takes all the female dolls out of the pile and puts them aside before putting a man and a little girl inside the dollhouse. Hannah watches as Janie does this, and whenever Dr. Chandler asks Janie if Hannah can join in, Janie doesn’t reply.

After the session, Dr. Chandler talks to Hannah alone and empathizes with how hard it must have been to see what Janie just did. She explains that Janie is projecting her anger at her mother onto all mother figures, including Hannah, and that it isn’t personal. Hannah understands this, but it doesn’t make it any easier to deal with. When she tries to explain what happened to Christopher later on, Christopher denies that Janie has any ill feelings toward Hannah. Hannah argues that she thinks Janie hates her, even if it isn’t her fault.

Christopher finds it difficult to agree with Dr. Chandler, although her advice about ignoring Janie’s negative behavior has so far been working. When Dr. Chandler decides it’s time to address Janie’s refusal to speak to Hannah, she suggests that Christopher refrain from saying goodnight to Janie until Janie says it to Hannah. Christopher finds it distasteful and manipulative and doesn’t understand why Janie can’t just be allowed to work through her problems without anyone trying to force her. Despite his feelings on the matter, Christopher goes to sleep beside Janie’s bed without saying goodnight to her, and she screams and cries for two hours. When Christopher sees that Janie bit through her bottom lip, he instantly feels overwhelming guilt.

Piper was always certain that the Bauers didn’t hurt Janie, and when she heard about the lip incident, it was no different: Piper had witnessed Janie do similar things when she was upset. Even though Janie got angry about the tactic of not saying goodnight to her, it did work, as she started talking to Hannah again.

While the family is getting groceries, Janie runs away in the parking lot. Hannah is convinced she did it to get Christopher’s attention because he was talking to Hannah and not Janie. Hannah tries to lecture Janie sternly, but Christopher just picks her up and holds her. Janie calls him “Daddy” now but still doesn’t call Hannah “Mommy.”

When Christopher and Hannah decide that Janie should start going to school, they discover that nobody will accept her without her being potty trained. Potty training Janie proves to be a major challenge, and when Christopher suggests that Hannah accompany her and provide an example of how to urinate in the toilet, Hannah refuses. Christopher implies that she isn’t willing to make sacrifices for Janie, and Hannah starts to wonder how long Janie is going to come between her and her husband.

Christopher and Hannah manage to potty train Janie and find a great Montessori preschool for Janie with a patient and understanding teacher. Janie hates the idea of going to school, however, and asks if Christopher and Hannah will be there with her. Hannah has to take Janie to school by herself on the first day, and Janie refuses to get dressed or eat beforehand. When she finally gets Janie to school, she is called back two hours later because Janie soiled both sets of her clothes. Within a couple of weeks, Janie is expelled for misbehavior, and Hannah is convinced she did it on purpose. At Janie’s second preschool, she is expelled even more quickly, and when Christopher asks her why, she says it’s because she doesn’t like school.

Luke asks Piper why she thinks Christopher and Hannah were never curious about Becky’s death and why Janie never talked about Becky either. Piper always thought it was because Janie was traumatized; every time Piper brought up Becky, Janie would get upset. When Christopher and Hannah formally adopted Janie, they were overwhelmed with joy despite Piper’s warnings that there was no reversing an adoption.

After getting Janie to start sleeping on her own, Christopher and Hannah find there is distance and awkwardness between them because they have focused on Janie for so long. They break the ice with a couple of drinks and then make love to one another, and Christopher starts to remember the importance of connecting with his wife.