While fishing one morning, my husband and I found a bottle floating in the lake. Inside was a desperate letter from a pregnant teenager named Jess. We contacted her, and she chose us to adopt her baby after years of infertility and failed adoption attempts. But as her due date neared, my husband confessed he never wanted to be a father, destroying our marriage. On the day we divorced, Jess gave birth and left me one final note: “If you’re still in—then I’m still in.” That same day, I became the mother I had always dreamed of being.
