"They created a family out of the most unlikely of circumstances and they have been knocked around enough in life to realize two things —
First, life is precious and each day on the planet matters.
And two, happily ever after is what you make it.
It belongs to you."
love + persistence + risking everything for that love = hope
From the first moment Teaching Assistant Terrie Suica-Reed meets the always smiling Merle Thompson in a middle-school class...
she sees a bright light drowning in a sea of darkness. Disheveled, swimming in oversized hand-me-downs, and constantly kicked out of class for being ill-prepared, his sunny disposition in the face of all touches her and the teacher-in-training realizes there is a spark inside this young mind that is dangerously at risk of being forever snuffed out by a woefully overcrowded education system and, as she learns, an unmoving mother. Terrie opens her heart and mind to Merle, who absorbs these unexpected gifts like a sponge and when her husband, Tom meets him, the three fit together perfectly and an unlikely family is created. But life can be cruel and one misstep leads to another and another until… Merle is at risk of becoming just another statistic, forcing Terrie, Tom, and an entire town to fight for the life of the child they call “Our Merle.”