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

It wasnice, I thought, though I wouldn’t admit to him. Noah’s death had been a terrible thing, and a sort of silence and coldness had settled over us. Or perhaps had settled over me. For a while it was hard to believe any sort of life could go on, much less one that was happy.


“He’s the one,” I said, turning to stare at Jackson, admiring his smoothly shaven face. “I mean it, Jack. He’s the one.”


I glanced in the backseat, saw Tony staring at the snow and smiling.


“I hope so,” Jackson said carefully.


“I know so,” I said. “When I look into his eyes, I can see there’s someone in there trying to reach out to me, trying to find me, trying to connect. He’s probably never had anyone like that in his life. But he’s trying. He’s scared, but he’s trying.”


“I think you’re letting your writer’s imagination get away with you.”


“Maybe,” I admitted. “But when we adopt him, his name is going to be Tony Cantrell-Ledbetter.”


Chapter 20