For nineteen years, I raised my sister’s abandoned baby as my own, but on his graduation day, she walked in carrying a cake that said “Congratulations From Your Real Mom” – and when my son stepped up to give his valedictorian speech, he looked straight at me and folded the paper in his hands.

at midnight on an old laptop. She discovered that Dylan could not be laid down too soon after eating, or the colic would return. So after every feeding, she held him upright for twenty minutes, often sitting on the kitchen floor with her back against the cabinet because it was the only position that did not hurt.

The colic lasted eleven weeks.

During continue reading …