We can be on the same team, occupy the same space, and still experience a disconnect from one another. We need someone greater than ourselves to declare that we all belong.

Julia had been “robbed” by her boyfriend/husband at the age of 14 and promptly taken to the United States to begin a new life.

When my children were young, a friend invited us to share the experience of going strawberry picking in the Georgia countryside with her and her children. The place was vast, and there was plenty to pick.

Maude is a 32-year-old Central Asian woman who came to our big city with her two small children to join her husband. After arriving, she learned her husband had taken another wife.