After a Slip, Parents Find Renewed Focus

Coleman is sent to Chrysalis House, a program in an airy, rambling house in rural Crownsville, where she joins other recovering women, sharing cooking and housekeeping duties and learning how to care for children. Cromwell is at Recovery Network in a big old house in Baltimore he shares with about 16 other men.

When Coleman gets permission to visit Cromwell, they take a walk along the Inner Harbor. Cromwell asks her to marry him and gives her a heart-shaped ring. They return to treatment and focus on sobriety, and on Keyona.

A day comes in April when Cromwell rides two buses across town, and his daughter is waiting.

The 9-month-old girl is in the drab lobby of the social services building, buckled into a car seat and swaddled in a teddy bear blanket that says "Hug Me."

Cromwell falls to his knees.

"Hey, honey," he coos. "Did you miss me?"

She fastens her gaze on her father with her large, steady eyes.

Cromwell unbuckles her from the car seat, and she settles into the crook of his arm.

He offers her a bottle of formula, sent by the foster mother. Then he changes her diaper with the skill of a man who helped raise several younger siblings in Baltimore public housing. He plays and cuddles with Keyona, and suddenly, the hour is up.

Reluctantly, Cromwell wraps the baby back into her blanket and buckles her back into her car seat.

"I love you," he tells her. "See you next time."

Two weeks pass. Coleman arrives at the courthouse. She is marking 60 days of sobriety, and she is dressed in a flowing, silky frock. In her arms is Keyona, wearing a green and white dress. They settle into the bench next to Cromwell, looking like a family.