Baby, We Were Meant for Each Other: In Praise of Adoption [Hardcover]

Scott Simon (Author)

Book Description

Release date: August 24, 2010

In this warm, funny, and wise new book, NPR’s award-winning and beloved Scott Simon tells the story of how he and his wife found true love with two tiny strangers from the other side of the world. It’s a book of unforgettable moments: when Scott and Caroline get their first thumb-size pictures of their daughters, when the small girls are placed in their arms, and all the laughs and tumbles along the road as they become a real family.

Woven into the tale of Scott, Caroline, and the two little girls who changed their lives are the stories of other adoptive families. Some are famous and some are not, but each family’s saga captures facets of the miracle of adoption.

Baby, We Were Meant for Each Other is a love story that doesn’t gloss over the rough spots. There are anxieties and tears along with hugs and smiles and the unparalleled joy of this blessed and special way of making a family. Here is a book that families who have adopted—or are considering adoption—will want to read for inspiration. But everyone can enjoy this story because, as Scott Simon writes, adoption can also help us understand what really makes families, and how and why we fall in love.
 

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

Simon, host of NPR's Weekend Edition and author (Pretty Birds), shares an entertaining and affecting narrative about his experience adopting two daughters from China and his take on what it means to be a father. While he doesn't go into personal whys and wherefores, he animatedly relates the journey that he and his wife, Caroline Richard, took to parenthood: falling in love with the thumbnail photo of the infant who became their daughter, Elise; meeting her in Nanchang; bringing her home to join a French-Irish-Catholic-Jewish extended family in Chicago; and returning to China to adopt Paulina, their second daughter. Almost a prerequisite in any book about adoption is the question of attachment after abandonment, and Simon nimbly acknowledges and dispels Nancy Verrier's concept (from The Primal Wound: Understanding the Adopted Child) while guiding adoptive parents toward compassionate awareness. Simon's answer to "Can I love someone's else's child as much as my own?" is a resounding "Yes! Yes! At least as much and more!" - which echoes the tone of his lively, openhearted book. This adoptive parenting memoir is a standout among books on the subject, with Simon on the page much the same as Simon on the radio - informative, enlightening, and enjoyable.
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From Booklist

NPR’s Weekend Edition host Scott Simon and his wife decided to end their already lengthy fertility treatments, coming to the conclusion that “wizardry does not always deliver” a pregnancy. His engaging memoir begins with their visit, along with four other couples, to an orphanage in Nanchang, China, where they have come to pick up their daughter Elise, the first of two daughters they adopt from China. Simon’s memoir touches on the many threads that make up the whole adoption process—from the initial choice to go through an international agency, the endless forms to be filled out, and the exhaustive background checks—to their worries about the birth mother, and the doubts over whether or not they are doing the right thing for themselves or for the baby. Simon weaves into his and his wife’s experience the adoption stories of friends, including sports commentator and novelist Frank Deford and his wife, who adopt a Filipino baby after their daughter dies of cystic fibrosis. An illuminating, heartwarming account of the many facets of adoption, written with Simon’s signature style and wit. --Deborah Donovan

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Product Details

• Hardcover: 192 pages
• Publisher: Random House; 1 edition (August 24, 2010)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1400068495
• ISBN-13: 978-1400068494
• Product Dimensions: 5.8 x 0.8 x 8.5 inches
• Shipping Weight: 12.8 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.2 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (37 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #398,723 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Most Helpful Customer Reviews

39 of 41 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars The Ties That Bind August 24, 2010

By prisrob TOP 500 REVIEWERVINE™ VOICE

Format:Hardcover

Scott Simon has written a beautiful version of the adoption of his two daughters. He and his wife, Caroline, tell us their story of adoption of Chinese baby girls, and the process most people go through to adopt their children.

Scott and his wife married later in life, found that they were unable to have a baby the traditional way. They tried all of the various methods of conception and nothing seemed to work. They looked at each other one day and said "there are so many babies looking for parents, let's go find ours." This led them to friends who had adopted and finally to China. Scott Simon tells the adoption stories of some of his friends, and they are poignant.

In an effort to curb population growth, China introduced a one-child rule in the late 70's. Because Chinese culture values boys over girls, there has been a boon of baby girls abandoned by their mothers, ending up in orphanages. Scott Simon reflects on the agony a mother must feel in leaving her baby in a busy, public place. Hiding across the street waiting and hoping for someone to find her baby. Hoping too that the baby will be safe, and that a good family would adopt the baby.
What torture that must be. We can only imagine. The Simons name their baby Elise, and as they unwrap her multiple layers of clothing, they fall in love. She looked at them as someone new taking care of her. Life in an adoption agency is not easy. Babies are usually fed well, but on the agencies schedule, and when a baby cries not picked up and soothed or loved right away. There is too much to do. So these babies learn at a very early age that they must take care of themselves. They lose a little of their babyhood- how very sad, when we think about this.

Scott Simon discusses his personal life. How very lucky he and his wife are, and how very lucky his two girls are. He talks of them as the most important things in his life, and, of course, they are. When he and his wife and their first daughter, Elise go to China to pick up their second daughter, she didn't look like the picture they had. But Elise went up to her, picked up her hand, and said 'It doesn't matter'. Scott Simon says that moment was one of the most important in his life, filled with love for his daughter and and for the moment. Scott goes on to say
"Adoptive parents work harder because they don't assume their children's reflexive love. Maybe it forces us to say what we are too scared and shy to state when it is easy, in more conventional families." He and his daughters talk about adoption, and they have a free conversation whenever the subject comes up. The two girls study Chinese at times, and the Simons want to make sure they know their culture. So, they will be ready when the time comes to learn more.

This is a book about adoption, yes, but it is also about lessons learned. We all yearn for love and sometimes we have to search for it. For Scott and Caroline Simon, their search ended with Elise and Lina. What lucky parents and what lucky children. Perpare for this book with a box of kleenex near-by, and with words that will fill your heart.

Highly Recommended. prisrob 08-24-10

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16 of 17 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars An excellent find August 24, 2010

By Alex Veeneman

Format:Hardcover

"Baby, We Were Meant for Each Other" is a great read. It is a page turner, I couldn't put it down! Scott Simon's story, in addition with the other stories he included, is inspiring and heart-warming. Additionally, there is insight in the process (with humor also) and it is also thought-provoking.

Simon has succeeded with this book and is a great read for anyone, adopted, those who are considering adoption, or just love a good book.

13 of 15 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars A Great Story August 24, 2010

By Beckett Gray

Format:Hardcover

I am particularly grateful to Mr. Simon's accomplishment in this pages of this book. As an adoptive parent from China and also the author of two books on trans-ethnic adoptive parenting, I agree with his perspective. It's compassionate, yet realistic, and spot on.

Beckett Franklin Gray

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