The Year of the Child by Elizabeth McCulloch

Fifteen year-old Leanne Ellsworth leaves her infant daughter in a planter on a stranger's front porch and walks away, She has been convinced by her abusive boyfriend, Peter, that she has no choice: she can abandon her child or he will kill them both.

Without her baby girl, Leanne's fear turns to anger, then self-pity, and finally a determination to get her child back. She enlists the help of an over-worked legal aid attorney, her long-suffering mom, Vennie, and Mary Beth Coggins, on whose porch she left the baby.

As Leanne navigates the layers of bureaucracy now standing between her and her daughter, she finds a strength she never imagined she possessed while she was being bullied by Peter: a strength that allows her to take command of her own life, and to make decisions based on what is best for herself and her child.