Maine Department of Human Services

The Maine Department of Human Services (DHS) is the state child-welfare agency involved in Kyra Devore’s placement and Mike Noonan’s effort to adopt her after Mattie Devore dies. Its presence frames the novel’s final custody struggle: Mike and Kyra’s strong attachment matters, but it must be weighed and recognized through a process that moves slowly and subjects a middle-aged unmarried man seeking to adopt a child to heightened scrutiny.

Role in the Custody Process

Before Mattie’s death, Kyra’s custody dispute is conducted through the court system. A deputy serves Mike with a subpoena to give a deposition to Elmer Durgin, the court-appointed guardian ad litem for Kyra, regarding what he knows about her well-being. Durgin is to report in connection with the proceedings before Castle County Superior Court and Judge Noble Rancourt. The distinction between that court-appointed inquiry and the positions of the plaintiff and defendant establishes a formal channel for gathering information about the child, separate from either side’s lawyers.

The novel explains that a guardian ad litem is appointed to protect a child’s interests and that the appointment is paid for through court costs. The role, however, does not guarantee that the guardian’s judgment is neutral in effect: judges generally give such recommendations substantial weight. This account places the guardian’s assessment within the legal structure that shapes the custody case, while also showing why Mike and John Storrow regard the process as consequential.

From Custody Dispute to Adoption

After Mattie’s death, Kyra spends time in two foster-home placements while Mike pursues adoption. The narrative does not depict DHS as a single malicious actor; Mike says that individual employees are mostly decent, yet finds the agency, like the state court system, difficult to navigate when its personnel and procedures operate together. The contrast is between the care he observes from individuals and the impersonal delays of a system that continues to determine where Kyra may live.

Mike tells Frank Arlen that the adoption effort is proceeding slowly. John Storrow explains that single-parent adoptions take time and that applications by men face additional difficulty. Mike sees that disparity as sex discrimination; Storrow acknowledges it while arguing that suspicion around male applicants has a social context, even as he insists Mike will ultimately prevail. The novel thus presents the agency’s scrutiny as part of a broader institutional process, not as a decision whose specific findings or final ruling are disclosed in this account.

Kyra’s Attachment and the Delays

The clearest evidence of Kyra’s wishes comes through Mike’s observations and Storrow’s account of her repeated statements. Whenever Kyra sees Mike arrive, she responds with unmistakable excitement; her desire to live with him is also reported to judges and DHS workers. Storrow believes this attachment is helping Mike’s case more than anything else, though it does not make the process quick. The child’s expressed preference and the continuity of her bond with Mike therefore have emotional force without immediately overcoming the institutional timetable.

Mike recalls the strain of waiting through repeated setbacks and describes Kyra as subdued in foster care, coming alive when he visits. The narrative contrasts these placements with the weekends and Christmas holiday she spends with him, which deepen their bond and give the adoption effort a lived measure of what she wants. It does not supply detailed accounts of the foster homes or claim that DHS itself caused her distress; rather, it shows how the placements and delays are experienced by Mike as separation from a child who visibly seeks his company.

Institutional Limits and Narrative Significance

The agency’s role remains entangled with the court process: DHS workers are among those to whom Kyra voices her wish, and the adoption requires ongoing review rather than a single decisive interview. Storrow tells Mike that a single man’s adoption application will be especially slow, while pointing to Mike’s clean record, financial ability to continue, and Kyra’s consistent statements as strengths. These are presented as part of the advocate’s assessment, not as a disclosed DHS ruling or a guarantee of a particular timetable.

The ending leaves the adoption unresolved. Mike hopes the process may move forward by spring, but the narrative closes with the institutional wheels still turning and Kyra’s future not yet legally settled. DHS consequently represents both a route through which a permanent home may be secured and a source of delay: the state’s protective procedures keep the question open even as the child’s attachment to Mike becomes increasingly clear.