In all this Tiger Mother hype and hysteria, I remembered reading that National Public Radio’s Scott Simon recently wrote a memoir about adopting his two daughters from China. So I fired up the Kindle (I’m loving it!) last week and downloaded Baby, We Were Meant for Each Other (Random House, 2010).
(I must confess another reason for wanting to read Simon’s book. Many years ago I kind of knew his wife. She studied at the university where I worked right out of college. We had some mutual friends and ended up at some of the same parties. All the women wanted to be her and all the guys wished they were in the right league to date her.)
Anyway, back to (everyone else’s) reality. Simon and his glam wife Caroline opted for adoption when they found they couldn’t become pregnant. Since he and Caroline had both traveled extensively, it seemed only natural to adopt a baby from a foreign country.
Simon writes a little about traveling to China, seeing his daughter Elise for the first time (and then three years later, daughter Lina). But the bulk of the book consists of other people’s adoption stories, both from the point of view of the parents (both birth and adopted) and the children (both young and grown).
The subtitle, In Praise of Adoption, therefore rings quite true. I’d recommend this book for anyone who is considering adoption, has been adopted, or knows and loves a friend or family member who’s been adopted (which includes just about everyone).
Although Simon doesn’t go into as much personal detail as I’d hoped for, just knowing that he and his lovely family are thriving is enough for me.
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