When Deborah Gold and her husband signed up to foster parent in their rural mountain community, they did not foresee that it would lead to a rollercoaster fifteen years of involvement with the traumatized yet resilient birth family. They fell in love with Michael (a toddler when he came to them), yet they had to reckon with the knowledge that he could leave their lives at any time.

In Counting Down, Gold artfully tells her story of forging a family within an often-confounding system, in ways that defied the expectations of everyone involved. The remarkable characters we meet...

When Deborah Gold and her husband signed up to foster parent in their rural mountain community, they did not foresee that it would lead to a rollercoaster fifteen years of involvement with the traumatized yet resilient birth family.