A Watershed Year by Susan Schoenberger

Lucy has been drifting through life and somehow she finds herself thirty-eight without a definite plan.  She is a professor in religion, her specialty the lives of the saints, but she doesn't yet have tenure.  She has not married or had children although she always saw herself as part of a big, happy family like the one she grew up in.  She loves her friend Harlan, but has never told him.

Then everything changes.  Harlan gets sick and dies.  In the midst of her grief, Lucy starts getting emails from Harlan; he had arranged for them to be delivered monthly after his death.  In them he tells Lucy he had loved her too and encourages her to move ahead with her life and go after the things she loves.

Lucy decides to adopt and she quickly discovers a four-year old Russian boy who needs her.  She concentrates on doing all the myriad tasks that an overseas adoption entails, avoiding work and family commitments to focus on this one task.  She is successful and Mat comes home with her.  It is a major adjustment to acclimate him to his new home, and just as she is beginning to believe it will all work out, Mat's father shows up and wants him back.  Will this be another inconclusive chapter in Lucy's life?

A Watershed Year is a thought-provoking novel that makes the reader think about what they really want from their life, and whether there is any reason not to go for broke to get it.  Lucy is an appealing character and evokes sympathy as well as an internal urging for her to be successful in her quest to carve out an independent, happy life for herself.  This book is recommended for all readers.