I had always been fortunate in the past. I was a quiet girl and I kept to myself. The sharp-tongued gossips in town had always left me alone. My life was not interesting enough for a discussion in line at the market or over a cool drink in a shady café. I studied, worked hard and spent time with the other girls my age. It was hot where I grew...

The night started out with a feeling of great excitement. I don't know if it was the electricity in the air from the approaching storm or if it was from the energy I felt at having supper out with the friends I had newly made in the cul-de-sac to which we had just moved. It was a great community. We were getting to know and love our neighborhood,...

Twenty-seven years ago this month, my mom made a promise that changed our lives forever. Now that I'm also a mother, I've come to see that promise as a kind of spiritual umbilical cord, a maternal link God used to bring new to life me and my family, and to countless others. Prayer from a mother's heart On May 30, 1975 my sister Carey was...

Angelique had never really known her father. He had deserted her mother for his homosexual lover when Angelique was just a toddler. But it often pained her when she saw other children's fathers at their birthday parties or picking them up after school. "Why doesn't my daddy ever come to see me?" she asked her mother. Her mother looked down...