"Over the last two years, my mother had observed our wedding, then watched us scrape the bumper sticker off our car: 'If I wanted to hear the pitter-patter of little feet, I'd put shoes on my cat.'  She'd watched us attempt to adopt from China before new restrictions in that country required us to be married for five years.  She'd seen us embrace Vietnamese cooking  in anticipation of choosing a toddler from that country.   And now we considered adoption of a foster child from our state.

"Whatever you decide is meant to be," she said, hugging me.  "You can do this."

Read the rest of this essay,  "Where the Heart  Is,"  in the May 2008 issue of Horizon Air Magazine.