The first months were chaos.

Talia had no close relatives who could take him.

Warren’s family, when the calls were made, declined to assume any legal responsibility — I will never fully understand that, and I have stopped trying.

Child Protective Services stepped in almost at once, and the machinery of the state began deciding what would happen to a boy I had already, without quite admitting it to myself, started to think of as mine.

A family lawyer named Cynthia took my case for free.