"...If I were an angel of the Lord, I would mark the doors of each of my children's homes with an X, so that plague and misfortune would pass over them. Alas, I lack the qualifications. So when there was still world and time enough I fretted. I nagged. I corrected. I got everything wrong."

"Marriage is a core component of the patriarchal system. According to Gerda Lerner's research on ancient societies, a woman could achieve at least some status, and with that, better treatment and privileges, through preserving her only capital – her virginity – and eventually offering it to just one man."

"Daddy,' I whispered, feeling my own breath hitch in my throat. 'I love you.'Just when I was sure he was asleep, the one corner of his mouth lifted in a smile. 'I knew that,' he murmured. 'Always knew that."

"The only big things I've purchased are my dad's heart valve and a Rolls-Royce for my parents, for their anniversary. And that was only because my dad had a Lady Gaga license plate on our old car and it was making me crazy because he was getting followed everywhere, so I bought him a new car."

"And sometimeswhen she does remember,she calls me her little angeland she knows where she isand everything is all rightfor a second or a minuteand then we cry;she for the life that she lostI for the woman I only know about through the stories of her children."

"The mother is always at fault. So is the wife, really. Women are supposed to control men, isn't that how it goes? What's that saying again: 'behind every great man is a great woman.' we're supposed to be the ones holding them back. Forget having our own lives. Forget our own careers and loves and losses. We're the matriarchs."

"Every word, facial expression, gesture, or action on the part of a parent gives the child some message about self-worth. It is sad that so many parents don't realize what messages they are sending."

"Because we are the only women who are mothers of men.' Gorgo: when asked by a woman from Attica why Spartan women were the only women in the world who could rule men."

"May each of us remember this truth; 'one cannot forget mother and remember God. One cannot remember mother and forget God.' Why? Because these two sacred persons, God and mother, partners in creation, in love, in sacrifice, in service, are as one."

"It’s such a relief to know these are universal truths for so many of us in the adoption triad. Gosh, how much easier things could have been for you, for me, and your folks, if literature like this had been around, say, five, ten years ago, when we could’ve all really used it."