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

“Of course not. He just wanted to play, wanted to get my attention. We had fun, actually. I keep forgetting that he can’t hear me. Mr. Jack has been teaching me how to talk to him.”


“Do you like having him for a little brother?” Heather asked.


“He’s okay,” Amelia said. “It’s not what I expected.”


“I thought we would be fighting all the time. Like they do in the movies. But he just wants to play. He doesn’t like to fight. And we couldn’t fight anyway because we can’t talk to each other. At least not yet. And I don’t think I would fight with him anyway.”


“I don’t know,” Amelia admitted. “He’s…well, he’s not someone you would want to fight with. You know. Like a special ed student or something. I mean, it’s not a lot of fun fighting with someone like that because they don’t…you know.”


“He has enough problems as it is?” Heather prompted.


We talked for almost an hour as Heather made notes on her pad.


Chapter 87