“Me too, totally all in!” Maggie said.

Looking at Layla play with her Cheerios on top of the table, I said, “So let’s just go about our business and help Layla find her ground and see what happens.”

“Sounds like a plan!” Maggie said.

“Never a dull moment around here, huh, Layla?” I said as I picked her up and gave her a big kiss on her cheek.

Layla cooed and said, “Daddy.”

“That’s right, sweetheart, I am!” I said, smiling at her and noticing the light in her eyes that seemed to be shining brighter every day now.

* * *

With our plan in place and with Mama and her family’s full support, we continued on with our lives. The months passed into years and, with Layla surrounded by her tribe of modern-day Nubians and a loving mother and father, she was allowed to simply become who she was destined to be.

We never noticed anything extraordinary about her over the next two years, other than a rapidly developing intelligence that seemed to run the full spectrum of all aspects of her life, especially her capacity for joy and an increasing confidence that seemed very mature for a now three-year-old child.