Raising Abel

By age 37, Carolyn Nash had put away her lifelong dream of marrying and having children. Men were friends, never lovers. No child would ever stretch their arms up to her, joyfully crying, "Mommy!" No tears need be shed. Things were the way they were. So there was no risk in Carolyn's attending a meeting about adoption with a friend who was contemplating it. Certainly, fuilling out an application to adopt wasn't a commitment. Obtaining a foster care license was simply a formality. Walking out of the children's shelter with three-year-old Abel's tiny hand swallowed in hers? Oh yeah. That changed everthing. So began an 18-year journey they could only have taken together, one that led them through Abel's disclosures of horrific abuse, Carolyn's recovered memories of her own abuse, violence, destruction, police interventions, hospitalizations, suicide attempts, and, ultimately, a happiness neither one of them could have anticipated was possible -- Publisher's description.