A Mother’s Conviction
The title A Mother’s Conviction by Karen Lenfestey probably refers to a mother’s conviction for vehicular homicide after she killed two people while driving drunk. She had two little girls.
The book deals with the issue of when children in foster care are ready for reunification with their birth parent or parents. Lenfestey accurately portrays the dilemma of foster parents when they fear they will have to hand over children they have come to love to a parent who may abuse or neglect them again. It deals with the question of what’s best for a child. It also deals with parental rights.
Foster Care: Bethany and Willow
When Bethany Morris saw the return address from the Tennessee Prison for Women on the envelope, her protective instincts immediately kicked in. It had to be from Gola, Willow’s birth mother. Should she open it? Willow, Bethany’s six-year-old foster child, was just beginning to feel safe. Bethany loved Willow as though she were her own.
A Mother’s Conviction (Secrets Series Book 3)
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A single mother and daughter of a minister, Bethany had become pregnant as a teenager. She had given her baby girl, Hannah, who was now sixteen, up for adoption without consulting her parents. Her father had never let her forget it. Now Bethany finds it hard to be around him. She does take Willow for visits, though, since Bethany believes the contact with her parents is good for all of them. (This story of Bethany’s earlier life is told in the first book in this series.)
Bethany’s current boyfriend, Parker, is the father of their child. He had been married but is no longer. He regrets he married the wrong woman, but he has Huntington’s Disease and he doesn’t think it’s fair to marry Bethany just so she can watch him die. As the two talk after Bethany has read Goya’s letter, she reveals that Goya said she will be getting out of prison soon, she is no longer drinking, she has turned her life around. She plans to take Willow and her step-sister Skye home with her as soon as she can so they can be a family again. Bethany and Parker also discuss Hannah’s pregnancy. It seems Hannah has followed in Bethany’s footsteps in that department.
Who Should Have Custody of a Child? Conner and Skye
Not far across the state line Melodie, a widowed lawyer with one child, Zoe, is looking for a job because she is beginning to hurt financially. Although she has experience with a prominent law firm, her interviewers don’t take her seriously because she is a devoted mother. They are afraid that will detract from her work. She leaves her latest interview discouraged, knowing they will not hire her.
When she returns home, she sees her new neighbor. He had seen her demolish her front door in the morning before she left for her interview. She notices he has replaced her door for her.
Instead of being grateful, she is furious, since she doesn’t want anyone to think she is dependent on a man’s help. The neighbor, Conner Walker, and his daughter Bella, had just moved into the house he’d inherited from his grandfather. He doesn’t think much of lawyers. He does, however, love his daughter, very much.
Melodie pays Conner a visit to chew him out for replacing her door, but he makes peace with her and the two become friends. As it turns out, their daughters also become friends. Their teacher had told them they are twins because they share a birthday.
Conner is upset because he realizes his wife Gola has hired a private investigator to track him down. He and Bella have kept moving so that it would be hard to locate them. As the reader has already guessed, Bella is really Skye, Willow’s half-sister. Conner, too, has heard about Gola’s upcoming parole hearing and he is determined to keep Skye.
Neither Bethany nor Conner believes that Gola is ready to be a good mother. She had neglected the girls and often left them alone for more than a day with no food, while she partied.
She finally had hit another car while driving drunk, and two people died. That’s why she was in prison. No one had expected her to survive the accident herself, and that is why Conner took Skye. Gola claims Conner kidnapped Skye.
My Response to A Mother’s Conviction
This book hit me close to home, since I was once a foster parent. So was my next door neighbor. Both of us were in fost-adopt programs, hoping to adopt children we were fostering, just as Bethany had wanted to adopt Willow.
I remember taking long walks with my neighbor as we shared our concerns and our fears that something might interfere with the adoptions. Our children had been abandoned by their mother when their father had gone to prison. He was the only one contacting them.
The mother didn’t want them back, but she had promised our daughter she would come get them. She would promise to call at a certain time, Sarah would wait by the phone, and the calls never came. I learned this from Sarah’s previous foster mom. Nevertheless, Sarah kept hoping.
Our daughter still dreamed of being reunited with her birth mother. Our son didn’t even remember her. Even though the children had been neglected and had experienced much of what Willow and Skye had experienced, my Sarah still wanted her real mother, just as Willow did. She had been nine, older than Willow, when she came to live with us.
Unlike Conner, our only custody battles have been with the county, but we know the fear that comes when you think someone will take your child from you. Karen Lenfestey captured that fear very accurately. She also portrayed pretty accurately how torn the children in foster care can feel.
When foster parents have truly loved them, the children know it. They don’t really want to leave foster parents who have given them love, stability, and a home where they have made new friends. If they feel settled into a neighborhood and adjusted to a new school, they don’t want leave. Yet there is still a pull to go “home.” Sometimes it doesn’t dawn on them that going “home” will mean a separation from a foster parent they’re bonding with.
Is A Mother’s Conviction for You?
A Mother’s Conviction is the third book in the Secrets Series by Karen Lenfestey. You can get all three books at once to see what happened to Bethany before she took in Willow.
Secrets Series (3 Book Series)
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This book will strike a chord with anyone who has been a foster parent, a foster child, a single parent, a young widow, or anyone who loves children. There is an “R” rated scene, but it fits the context and relationship. This book has a subtle message for pregnant teens and their families, as well. The characters are well-developed and likable. You may find your sympathies going to all of them.
I will not tell you how the book turns out. I don’t want to spoil it for you. I hope you will read it because it deals with many issues relevant to today’s families
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