It had no column for the joy, and it had no column for the fierceness either, for the will, for the humor, for the way she narrows her eyes in concentration exactly the way our sister used to, for a thousand particular things that make her herself and not a diagnosis.

That is the flaw in all such files, and it is why they should never, ever be trusted to describe a child.

A file is a list of a person’s difficulties, because difficulties are what systems are built to track.

It records the diagnosis, the deficits, the anticipated needs, the risks, all the things that a cautious institution wants a prospective family to know before they decide.

And I understand why the files are built that way; the intentions behind them are good.