Chosen Family, Second Edition (Paperback or Softback)

Chosen Family follows the maturing relationship of Deborah and Miriam, the lesbian couple who weathered rejection and isolation after falling in love in 1910. We watched them struggle as they learned to balance their relationship with each other and their families as they faced intense experiences of loss and jealousy.

They enter 1915, at ages 22 and 23, dealing with multiple challenges in their world. They create a family of choice by bringing those in their inner circle closer. As each person in their lives impacts Deborah and Miriam, they expand their ability to cope with and learn from new experiences, enriching them as individuals and as a couple.

Deborah's enthusiasm in this book centers around her developing skills as a businesswoman, a writer, a friend, and a lover. Her maturity is welcome, as she becomes more confident and less impulsive. Deborah learns balance and to express her desires clearly, with less demand. Will she be able to put aside her practical temperament to meet Miriam's desperate hopes?

Miriam's focus is on her family. Their chosen child Sylvia, her sister Hannah, and her best friend Marjorie are of upmost importance to her. Also paramount is her growing ability to express herself and stand firm for her needs, setting aside her natural compulsion to care for others. Her awareness of ways to live a life bigger than the protected one for which she was destined, brings her into conflict, an unfamiliar experience for this sweet young woman.

In this book, you will learn the importance of parenting for these two women, understanding their conflicted needs. You will watch their differing styles and desires, wondering whose demands will be respected and rise to the top. They face their demons separately yet come together when their equilibrium is challenged. Their relationship has stabilized, yet the demands on this young couple are enormous. You will root them on as they walk the unstable path towards adulthood.

Ellen M. Levy, B.S., M.A., C.A.G.S., lives in the Boston area with her wife, Pauli, and her two cats. She winters at a women's community in Florida, where 500 senior sisters celebrate the hard-won freedom to be themselves. Ellen began writing later in life with a memoir and then discovered her two heroines, Deborah and Miriam. Introduced in Romance at Stonegate, their relationship deepens in Struggles in a Boston Marriage. One of the most enjoyable aspects of this series is the exciting depth of historical research which infuses Ellen's process. Ellen is thrilled to share this next installment of Deborah and Miriam's lives. These 21- and 22-year-olds face situations which would challenge older, more settled adults. Their relationship is tested as they deal with discrimination, illnesses, a business, and parenting.