Book Review - Love You More

It's been a while since I've done a Booksneeze review. This one is worth your time if you're interested in adoption. I was excited when I found that Booksneeze was offering Love You More: the Divine Surprise of Adopting My Daughter by Jennifer Grant because it had been on my "to-read" list for a while. It didn't disappoint.

Written as a memoir about her journey to adopt her daughter from Guatemala, Love You More tells the story of how the family decided to adopt, what the wait was like, and how they learned to know their new daughter. It's funny, interesting, and dives deep into some of the weighty issues around adoption.

One especially interesting and helpful part of the book, to an adoptive mom, is Grant's description of the life book she made for her daughter Mia. She includes the text and describes how she put together the story for her daughter, to tell her her own story. It's a beautiful book and her example is more valuable to me than all the how-to articles I could read.

Grant pays attention to her life, and it is clearly shown through her words. Her humor, insight, and the way she weaves together her story (for example, including emails she wrote to family and friends at certain times) makes this an easy and highly enjoyable read.

Note: Booksneeze has provided me with a complementary copy of this book in exchange for my review. The opinions are my own.

Changing Plans...

Well, things have changed again around here. For a variety of reasons and after much prayer/talking/thinking, we've decided to stop our Uganda adoption. We are still adopting! This time around, Lord willing, we will be welcoming an African American newborn baby girl into our family from somewhere in the USA. That's right--with one foot planted firmly in the international adoption camp, we're stepping with the other into domestic adoption.

Although this decision has required some significant mindset-changing, we're very excited about it. Right now, I am once again buried under paperwork and learning the process and the lingo of domestic adoption. We are planning to apply to several agencies (a benefit of domestic adoption that is TOTALLY different from our experience in RW!), and have been told a few times to expect to be quickly matched (And since we've heard that before, we're not getting too hopeful--although it could happen!)

Please join us in joyfully anticipating the arrival of baby number four!