Six-year-old Alan, an orphan, was no stranger to abandonment.

Ever since he was left on the steps of a shelter as a baby, he had held onto a longing for his mother.

He often gazed at other children with parents by their sides, wondering what it would feel like to be loved and held by a mother.

On one particular Sunday, he went to church with his guardian, Nancy. That day, Alan felt a surge of longing that he couldn’t hold back.

He walked to the front of the church, kneeling, hands clasped tightly together, his small body shaking as he whispered his pleas.