Customer Reviews

Shadow Mothers:Stories of Adoption and Reunion

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

 

 

I'm happy to be the first to review this book, because I found the author online when researching the adoption theme at the time she conceived the idea for Shadow Mothers - and followed her trials and tribulations throughout the process via email.

I bought the book for my birthmom - but read every chapter before relinquishing the tattered cover. I cried my self to sleep each night after reading the stories written by the Shadow Mothers - and found myself lingering for days over their joys and sorrows. And it made me think about my own birthparents, and our separate reunions and relationships, in a fuller light. Buy this book and give it to everyone you know who's been affected by relinquishment and adoption, and especially those who could benefit from reading about successful reunions of Shadow Mothers and their children.

As a participant in this book, I have been very excited about it since its beginning. Since I first thought of searching, I have been aware of a serious gap in the literature. No one answered the question, "What if I find her/him or I am found. Then what?" This book fills that gap admirably. Just as important, it makes one aware of how many people were and are involved in this issue, and how varied their stories are, yet how similar are their pain and joy. I recommend it for anyone in or out of an adoption triangle.

In our era of open adoption and praise for single mothers who give up their babies to secure better lives for them, it is easy to forget a not-so-long-ago era when birth mothers were bridled with shame and expected to forever stifle the anguish of their losses. In Shadow Mothers: Stories of Adoption and Reunions (1998, North Star Press), Linda Back McKay tells her life story and those of nine other birth mothers who survived the pain, uncertainty, and secrecy of relinquishment to reunite with their children years after giving them up. Shadow Mothers is a poignant, masterful chronicle of tragedy, relief, joy, and acceptance and a probing look into the realities of adoption.

Reading Shadow Mothers is a potent experience. Each story is one that all mothers will be deeply touched by, whether or not they were able to keep their babies. No matter the circumstances of our children's conception and birth, our life situation at the time, or who nurtured those babies, we mothers each have a collection of treasured memories and "things we wish we could change" about bearing a child. Shadow Mothers captured and delivered to me a key to unlocking potent memories from those days. I enjoyed savoring some of mine, and anguished again over others. A powerful book in many ways . . . Thank you, Linda B. McKay!!

Linda Back McKay tells the stories of women who surrendered children for adoption, because the cultural milieu of the time permitted no other option. Her work is delivered with sensitivity and authenticity for the emotional trauma these mothers experienced. This book is extremely well written and McKay is to be commended for her courage!

Shadow Mothers:Stories of Adoption and Reunion

Very good. It gives the thoughts and hesitations that ran through both the Mother and child's minds.

I couldn't put the book down. I shed a few tears. After reading all the stories I have concluded that the odds are, that a birthmom and birthson usually just have a friend relationship. Which I think is better than nothing. sign mary

Good book. but many case examples with no research to back them up.