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

“You didn’t come home for Christmas.”


“You know how she is. Said you were thinking about adopting, getting pretty serious about that little boy.”


“Yeah,” I said. Then I fell silent and said nothing further, glancing at Jackson to make sure he noticed. He lifted one eyebrow ever so slightly.


“Jack, how’s your mom and them?” Bill asked.


“They’re doing fine,” Jackson said.


“Well, there you go. I’m parked just outside in the lot.”


Jackson sat scrunched up in the back of the cab on the two-hour drive home from Memphis to Tupelo. He made a gentle point of putting in his ear buds and listening to Pandora while simultaneously tuning us out.


“Well, tell me about him,” Bill said when the silence had grown. “How was the visitation?”


“He has a lot of problems, but he was a sweet little kid.”


Chapter 43