Are you my mother?

Family | One little girl, two mothers, three multi-state litigations, and four years add up to a custody battle that only the Supreme Court may be able to resolve | Barbara Curtis

It's not that the Jenkins-Miller case is that unusual: Parents split, one leaves the state with the child, things escalate and the left-behind parent sues for custody. Variations on the theme play out daily across the country, leaving family courts and judges to sort out "he-said, she-said" conflicts beneath which the future of innocent children is buried.

But what happens when the conflict takes a new twist? As in "she-said, she-said"? Or "Vermont says, Virginia says"? Can parentage be drawn at the state line? That's one question driving the litigation between Lisa Miller and Janet Jenkins.

At the center of the storm is Isabella, a bright-eyed, enthusiastic 5-year-old who loves birthday parties and play dates and is given to warbling "Trust and Obey" as she manages a pastel abundance of toys. Unaware of the adult controversy swirling around her, she lives with her biological mother Miller in a modest bungalow at the end of a cul-de-sac in Winchester, Va. While Miller's single-mom status might be deduced from the overgrown yard, inside the front door there is no doubt as to her devotion. Scores of photos of Isabella clutter every horizontal and vertical surface.