Years have gone by since the death of Noah his special needs son, and Wiley Cantrell realizes it’s time to move on. He and his husband Jackson try to adopt little Tony Gorzola, a deaf boy with HIV who is emotionally traumatized.<br><br>Difficulties quickly set in. Tony is a sweet boy but very damaged by abuse and neglect. And Tony’s mother, in prison, is unwilling to relinquish her parental rights. No sooner do they get the go ahead to foster Tony when another child they had considered becomes available -- the daughter Jackson always wanted.<br><br>With two children on their hands, life is complicated -- wonderfully so. But just as things begin to settle down, Tony, his immune system compromised, falls ill with pneumonia ... and Wiley and Jackson find their little family faced with crisis once again.

Go Tell It on the Mountains

We went to the french doors and stared out into the garden, now buried in snow.


We retraced our steps and went up the marble stairs. Mrs. Ledbetter had “freshened up” two of the guest rooms next to each other. They had a connecting door. If Tony got scared during the night, he could slip out of bed and easily find us.


Jackson had already put Tony’s small suitcase on the end of his bed, and somebody—Mrs. Ledbetter, perhaps—had put toys and board games on the small writing desk under the window, including a Tonka truck that Noah used to play with in the garden.


The sight of that truck brought back a rush of memories.


This is your room,I said. Do you like it?


He shrugged again, as if indifferent to these material things, as if he thought it could make no difference how he felt about them. I’m just passing throughwas his message. None of this has anything to do with me.


Chapter 7