Hillbilly Elegy

God for three signs that an adoption was
in my best interest. Those signs
apparently appeared, and I became the
legal son of Bob, a man I’d known for
barely a year. I don’t doubt the truth of
this account, and though I empathize with
the obvious difficulty of the decision, I
have never felt comfortable with the
idea of leaving your child’s fate to signs
from God.
Yet this was a minor blip, all things
considered. Just knowing that he had
cared about me erased a lot of childhood
pain. On balance, I loved my dad and his
church. I’m not sure if I liked the
structure or if I just wanted to share in
something that was important to him—