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

I felt a twinge of impatience. Traumatized kids needed time to adjust—lots and lots of time. In one study I’d read, the authors concluded such kids needed two years to recover for every year they’d lost to abandonment or abuse. If a child had been kicking around the foster system for four years, for example, it would take him eight years to “recover” and learn to trust and establish normal family bonds.


I wanted to kiss his forehead, show him some affection, but I did not. Instead I gently took his hand into my own and drew a circle on his palm. I glanced up at him; he was waiting for me to do it again. I drew several more, not looking at him. When I stopped, he put out his other hand, wanting me to do that one.


Chapter 68