She pulled back and looked down at him, as if she were looking for something in his eyes, some way to prove this fairy tale was actually real.

A man with a beard came down the steps and introduced himself. “Shawn Cates. Good to meet you, David.” Shawn smiled broadly and it was then that David fully felt like he wasn’t an intruder in their lives. He was among people who wanted him to be there.

Shawn shook David’s dad’s hand and met his mom and Nate.

After an awkward moment of not knowing what to do next, David turned back to Courtney, who hadn’t taken her eyes off him. “Can you believe this?” he whispered.

Courtney shook her head, and the smile she gave him looked just like his own.

“Well, everybody come inside,” Melissa said.

David followed Courtney and sat next to Melissa on the couch.

“Happy tears,” his mom said to Melissa.

“I know,” Melissa said. “I’ve been crying all day. I’m sorry. I’ll calm down soon.”

“You don’t have to calm down,” David’s mom said. “Don’t apologize. Let’s just talk.”

Melissa put her face in her hands again. “I can’t believe you’re here.” She paused and studied David’s face. “I want to say so much. I don’t even know where to start.”

“No, I’ll start,” David said, and the room got quiet. “First off, I just want to say thank you. Thank you for making the choice that you did, almost nineteen years ago, to let me be adopted. I mean, you allowed me to have the life that I have now.” David looked at his mom and dad and Courtney, then back at Melissa. “Without you I wouldn’t have all this. So thank you for that. I’m pretty sure their lives would be pretty boring without me around.”

Everyone in the room laughed through their tears.

“But I was wondering if I could hear your story,” David said. “And how you made the decision.”

Melissa wiped a tear away and nodded. “Okay. Well, it was a confusing time. Scary. Your adoption was hard and easy all at the same time. I mean, going through those ‘Dear Mother’ letters was . . . overwhelming.”

“How many letters did you go through?”

“I don’t even know. A lot. But I just knew—when I got your parents’ letter, I knew.”

“It was because of the hook,” David’s mom said.

Melissa laughed. “Yeah, I wanted your mom to be down-to-earth. Basically, someone like me.” Her voice softened and she said a little sadly, “What I could have been. To do the things I wanted to do with you, but I knew I couldn’t. I wanted you to have a mom to be there for you. And she couldn’t be afraid to get her hands dirty.”

“So any one of those letters could have been my parents.”

“Yeah, I guess.”