Kathryn Kennish Quotes

“Perhaps somewhere, someone has done the research, has calculated the precise odds of a newborn child in the United States of America accidentally being given to the wrong parents. I suspect the likelihood is similar to the chances of being struck by lightning.”

“It’s funny how the darkest moments of your life can bring about the best ones.”

“We absorb the world and make sense of it on our own terms. The conclusion is the same, even if the paths we take to get there are not.”

″... the one thing you do not wonder is if she is yours.”

“You need not fear it, but you must always bear in mind that the past is never quite as finished with you as you think you are with it.”

“Because we see things, always, through the filter of who we are.”

“And then one day, after the longest (and somehow, shortest) nine months of your life you get to take part in a miracle. It’s a blur of pain (which you promptly forget) and joy (which you remember forever). And then, suddenly, you’re cradling a tiny bundle in your arms.”

“You’re still my sister. You always will be.”

“They laughed at it was a sound I recognized in my heart: My two children laughing... together.”

“I failed my daughter, and my family and my myself. At least that’s what I believed at the time-that’s what I felt in my heart, in my bones, and in every atom of my body.”

“It doesn’t matter what they said. It’s what they felt. And that in their own way, in their unique, clever brother-sister shorthand, they were working it out.”

“Although, I don’t suppose there’s any chance this kid they switched you with with could be a boy? Cause a brother would be a major upgrade.”

“I. Felt. Ashamed. Ashamed, and embarrassed and stupid, because I had brought home the wrong child and I didn’t even know it.”

“It would get weirder, I knew that, and it would take time until we all understood this new world of ours.”

“Well this is my story- the story of me and my daughter, of my husband and my son and of two perfect strangers. It is the story of how one day, sixteen years ago, without notice, without warning, we were all struck by lightning.”

“And that was when I realized that somewhere in the last twenty-four hours a decision had been made: This was a secret. A secret with a capital S. A secret that we, as a family, would attempt to keep out of circulation for as long as we could.”

“Where were my instincts? Isn’t the female of the species hardwired to recognize her own offspring?”

“Red tape is no match for green money.”

“Red tape is no match for green money.”

“Isn’t there a scent, an energy, a singing in the blood, a sharing of the soul? Or have we evolved from even that most basic ability, the deepest of human connections?”