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Adoptive love was not natural; it was not manufactured within our DNA. No evidence of its existence showed up in our blood types or facial features or the quaint familial traits that ran through generations, the genetic tendencies toward duty or distraction or drink. In scientific terms, adoption meant people were unrelated. Period.

But I came to realize that science never fully explained the world's greatest mysteries. Science was a high calling. It was a noble and wonderfilled endeavor. But science had yet to provide all satisfactory answers for our most beautiful unknowns - all the things that transcended understanding, the miracles that pervaded individual lives and stretched back to a majesty spoken into existence, to a sacrifice that continued to resonate within our souls thousands of years later. A sacrifice based on adoption: he chose us, he loved us, then he died for the worst within us.

from The Rivers Run Dry by Sibella Giorello