How we cite our quotes: (Chapter.Paragraph)
Quote #4
Now they awaited action on the fat folders filled with copies of the children’s birth certificates and school records, with government papers in triplicate, saying everything that could be written down in numbers about Gram and the farm, about Momma and the kids. (3.27)
Even though Dicey, James, Sammy, and Maybeth are already Gram’s family, it doesn’t feel official to them until she actually adopts them. Anyone who’s ever waited anxiously to get a test back knows the anxiety a stack of papers can bring; multiply that by a hundred and you’ve got Dicey’s situation.
Quote #5
Dicey listened hard, not to hear precisely what they were saying, but to hear what the two speakers were like. If she was going to hold on, then she wanted to have a clear idea of who she was holding on to. So she could get a good grip. (5.236)
Dicey’s listening so intently is one of the things that makes her able to help customize Maybeth’s reading lessons, or at least to recognize the need to do so and put James on the task. So even though we know it's not necessarily a good thing that Dicey's holding on so hard, at least some good comes from it.
Quote #6
What did it matter then if he was getting into fights, or Maybeth never learned to read, or James pretended to be less smart than he was? Nothing mattered nearly as much as sitting together around this table, in the warm yellow light, all of them together. (6.132)
Oof. If this doesn't make you want to go hug every member of your family right now, we don't know what will. Dicey truly appreciates her family, messy baggage included, because she knows what it would mean to lose them.