By the time Naomi’s first birthday rolled around, she was legally ours. This means that the state of California officially established and recognized us as her parents, granting us full rights under the law. This is the point in time…

I did what I could do, learned how to manage life in general with four little ones. We moved into our new home and slowly settled in. Every night I was careful to check all the door and window locks,…

When Naomi turned four weeks old, Pam called us. She wanted to meet up at the mall again, with Patti and Cassandra, for another visit. The conversation was light as we managed to avoid talking about anything in particular. Of…

It did not take long for us to receive a call from Mary: Pam wanted her to facilitate a meeting with Joe. If my Mama alarms were not already going off, maybe this declaration would not have seemed so threatening.…

Two weeks after Naomi’s birth we scheduled to meet with Pam, Patti, and Cassandra at the mall. We met in the parking lot, hugged, continued onto the food court, and found a spot we could all comfortably sit, along a…

We walked out of the hospital room and down the corridor. From the moment I stepped through those swinging glass doors I could not breathe; shallow breaths helped me sustain consciousness. My feet kept time, one after the other, as…

The day finally came. Mary would be driving up from down the hill, bringing the paperwork with her. Pam would be relinquishing her rights before we even left the hospital; this was a new experience for us. We had scheduled…

Although there were special times while I was recovering in the hospital, there was an underlying sense of dread for the time I would leave. I felt this was for a couple of reasons. The first and most obvious reason…