Book #15 - When I Found You

My wife recommended this, and told me a bit about it. I was skeptical in the first few chapters of When I Found You, but I eventually couldn't put this book down. It's an amazing story, and some incredible life lessons in there. Some heartstring tugging, and one that really brings tears to my eyes in places.

Nathan finds a child, a one day old, abandoned in the woods while hunting. He brings it to the hospital, and is moved to ask to adopt the child. He can't, but he visits the grandmother and asks her to know the child, or that if she ever can't handle him, bring the child to him. He's a married accountant, with no kids, in the 70s, and he faithfully follows the child, never meeting him, but leaving birthday and Christmas gifts every year.

The child, Nat, grows up in a household with his grandmother, never really knowing much until he's a teenager when he finds out the truth. He was abandoned by his mother. He's learning to box, and runs away, eventually upsetting his grandmother so much she leaves him with Nathan.

It's only a couple days, but Nat gets arrested, and Nathan refuses to bail him out. However, he refuses to wash his hands of the child and visits him every week for years while he's in juvenile incarceration. Eventually he comes back to live with Nathan, who's a widower that's remarried.

Highly recommended.