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

Ready?I signed to Tony, pointing to the pills I’d placed on the counter.


He lowered his eyes. He was still clutching his dinosaur book. Now he placed it on the counter, frowning as he did so.


I handed him a glass of water, and he took a sip. Slowly, dutifully, he put the pills in his mouth and swallowed them down, grimacing and sighing all the while.


“Should I put out something special for him?” Lydia asked. “French fries? Something to make sure he eats? He don’t need to be taking medicines on an empty stomach. That much I know.”


“Maybe something,” I agreed. “His file says he loves peanut butter and jelly sandwiches. Not that you’d have peanut butter and jelly in this house.”


“Oh, we got lots of things in this house, Mr. Cantrell.”


The food choices at the Ledbetter table were always rather rarified and not much to the liking of a seven-year-old. And I was quite sure Mrs. Ledbetter would rather die than serve a peanut butter and jelly sandwich.


Chapter 24