I didn’t yet know that earning a place in the lives of those 4 boys would be far more difficult than confronting my entire family.

PART 3

There was a gap between knowing four boys were mine and having any right to enter their home.

I learned that gap on the first Monday after the canceled proposal.

I stood outside Lauren’s apartment building for nearly twenty minutes, holding four identical model airplanes in a shopping bag, before remembering that I had not asked whether gifts were welcome.

I called her instead.