After years as a drifting college instructor with no real home - her family and longtime friends scattered - Nancy McCabe yearned to settle down, establish a place she could call home, and rear a child there. A tough academic job market led her to accept a position at a church-connected college in the deep South, a move that felt like an uneasy return to the conservative environment of her childhood that she thought she had left behind. McCabe had many reservations about rearing a child alone in this climate, but the desire to become a mother would not go away. Meeting Sophie tells the story of McCabe adopting a Chinese daughter and the many obstacles she faced during the adoption and adjustment process. Especially poignant is her struggle to bond with a sick, grieving baby while in a foreign country during political unrest. Next she sought to renegotiate a role within her family and fought the difficulties she faced in her job as she learned to be a single mother. A series of crises tested her resolve - her father’s sudden death, the subsequent deterioration of her mother’s health, and the loss of her job.