Customer Reviews

A Love Like No Other: Stories from Adoptive Parents

5 star:		(12)
4 star:		(3)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

I saw this book advertised in Adoptive Families magazine and immediately ordered it. So many of the essays spoke to me even though each detailed experience was different. Stories about domestic adoptions, post adoption depression, international adoption, open adoption, special needs adoption, response of family to the adoption and more are shared in an honest and touching manner. As a mom of 3 boys (2 adopted from China) I could relate to many of the experiences which were written about. Not only did the essays cause me to reflect on experiences our family has already gone through, but provided me with insight on experiences we will very likely face in the future (racism at school, discussions about birth parents, whether to or when to take our children back to the country of birth, teenage identity issues, etc) This book is a must read not only for parents who have or will adopt a child but for their families and friends as well.

I bought this excellent book for friends who are in the process of adopting a child and found myself unable to put it down. Besides being beautifully written the essays are insightful and personal -- ranging from funny and surprising to heartbreaking stories about love and what it means to be a parent. A must read.

What drew me to this book was my interest in understanding different life experiences. What I did not expect was to get such an honest, poignant and intense look into the diverse journeys some people have made in the process of adoption. Of all these incredibly engrossing stories, I think I was most affected, and surprised, by Melissa Fay Greene's painful struggle (painful for her and painful to read) with "post-adoption panic" ( I never heard of such a syndrome). She exposes her VERY personal and very troubling self-doubt about her newly-adopted Bulgarian (?) son and if she can truly love him. Wondering if she's the only person who ever felt this way, instantly made her troubles so "real' and, in turn, so universal to me. What a difficult topic to discuss publicly. I cannot imagine that most books on the subject have been willing to explore and reveal such a candid account of an adoption.
I am not married, and do not intend to have children of my own, so this book really took me somewhere that, until now, was quite alien to me. I'm very glad I chose this particular book on adoption, because I imagine it's a uniquely honest and diverse presentation of the subject. Now, I can move on to the next life experience.

So much of the writing about adoption winds up with the supposed happy ending: We got a child and loved it instantly and created a family, lucky us. But of course that's only the beginning, for any family.
The essays in this collection go beyond that Kodak moment to tell us what happened next. What happens if you've promised two birth mothers the stable home they can't provide -- and then your husband tells you he wants a divorce? Can you honor your daughter's ethnic heritage without arranging for her to study Chinese? How do you respond when your 13-year-old announces, "I don't hate you because I'm an adolescent who's trying to adjust to the fact that he was adopted. I hate you personally."
These accounts, by 20 skilled writers who are also adoptive parents, are sometimes heartbreaking and sometimes comic, but they're always stunningly honest.

This book is really special. I bought it for my wife (as we're thinking of adopting), and thought I'd just page through it...I ended up reading the whole thing. For anyone who's thinking about adopting or has an adopted child, it's a must read. It's really terrific.

As aunt to an adopted niece and grandmother to an adopted grandson, I read these essays with keen interest. The range of issues is fascinating, the breadth of family constellations is impressive and the individual stories are alternately moving, thought-provoking and humorous. I was also impressed by how beautifully each writer told his or her story. I'd recommend this book to any person--adoptive parent, adoptive relative, friend of adoptive family--whose life has been touched by adoption (which I guess these days is pretty much everyone!).

As grandmother to four adopted children, I wanted to preview this collection of essays before gifting it to any of our three adoptive families. Without hesitation, I will send it to all of them, including my lesbian daughter who has adopted the beautiful daughter born to her and her life partner. The authors are as diverse as their children, not afraid to reveal problems, doubts, and even "failures" as they celebrate solutions, certainties, and "successes." Furthermore, the mostly professional writers are highly readable. Good book!

This book consists of a series of essays by adoptive parents, each of which expresses some distilled, highly personal, and pretty intense kernels of truth about their own individual adoptive parenting experiences. The authors are all professional writers, and this really comes across in the power of their words. The essays reflect both joyful and painful experiences and as a result richly characterizes the complexities of being an adoptive parent. I was completely hooked--couldn't put it down.

This was a very moving collection of adoptive stories from professional writers. I emphasize the "professional" part only because the result is a much better book (editing, flow, content) then other compilations I've read written by non-writers. (Those, unfortunately, caused me to sometimes focus on lack of editing, poor grammer, etc rather than the content).

The experiences written about include domestic (open & closed), foster care, and international adoption. I enjoyed the variety of stories included in this compilation. I also appreciated the inclusion of stories addressing various stages and experiences that are common to most adoptive parents, regardless of the origin of your child.

This is an amazing collection of very well-written adoption experiences. I especially liked that these are actual writers who are also adoptive parents. Each essay is powerful and thought provoking. Joe Treen's story was my favorite as he described feeding his new daughter in the middle of the night in a hotel in China. I could picture exactly what he was describing. His voice comes through in a wonderful and very funny way.