This is an amazing Narrative just as it is. There isn't much anyone can do to improve upon it because it was written directly from the heart. The only thing I can really do is sort of treat this excerpt as if it were a passage from a novel. Thinking of it as fiction, I feel that I can make revisions without disrespecting the genuine and highly personal nature of Emery's account of meeting his son for the very first time. With that in mind, the revisions I've made are in BOLD.

Part III

One Sunday morning in March, we received the phone call that changed our lives forever. A baby boy had been born in Jackson, MS, at the University Medical Center! We were so excited, we jumped up and down in the air. We cried. We packed our car with everything we would need -- burp cloths, onesies, a pack-and-play, a stroller, bottles -- and drove 14 hours to Jackson. We met Isaiah the next morning. His name was not Isaiah then. We adopted him from an amazing woman named Cassandra, who realized early in the pregnancy she would not be able to provide for the seed growing inside her.

Still, she endured the pregnancy, and in doing so, made our dreams come true. We love her for that, and Isaiah will grow up hearing all we know about Cassandra (his birthmother) and Charles (whose name Isaiah took as his middle) and -- perhaps one day -- learning for himself just how incredible they both are. He will learn, just as we have, how inspiring it is when someone has the courage and the strength to turn a personal crisis into a long-awaited miracle for others. He will know that in doing so Cassandra gave us the greatest gift we could ever have asked for.


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