A month before I turned 21, I boarded a flight bound for Cape Town. My plan was to stay for six months. Two years later, I was still there, speaking vows that wed me to a South African man. Within three years of our wedding day, we had two kids. Just after our second child’s birth, my mom was re-diagnosed with cancer. The breast cancer she endured four years prior had returned with a vengeance, and metastasized throughout her bones, lungs and liver. Eighteen months later, we adopted my husband’s cousin, who was orphaned at the age of six. He spoke no English and had an undiagnosed hearing...