Julia DeSmit

Abandoned by her mother at age nine, Julia agonizes over her father's lingering death six years later. Now living alone with her saintly grandmother, Julia is crushed to learn that her longtime best friend and secret love has a college sweetheart. Hoping to redefine herself, Julia attends a nearby university on an engineering scholarship.

In the sequel to Nicole Baart's literary gem After the Leaves Fall, pregnant Julia DeSmit returns to her grandmother's home to begin a new life in small-town Iowa. But she's thrown off track when her long-lost mom shows up one frosty night - after 10 years. And yet as Julia herself faces what her mother experienced decades earlier, her comprehension of God's grace begins to trigger an unexpected change.

Christy Award nominee Nicole Baart delivers “this beautifully written, heartwarming” ( Library Journal) tale. Living in a cozy Iowa farmhouse with her kindly grandmother, 24-year-old Julia Desmit struggles to support her five-year-old son and 10-year-old half-brother. Though her boyfriend is away at medical school, Julia harbors hope for a better life. And then the man who abandoned her six years ago rocks her happy world with one question: “Do I have a son?”