Revell, Grand Rapids

2002,

RRP $37.95

Reviewed by Averil Cook.

THE short chapters in this book have been written by many different people – birth mothers, adoptive mothers, fathers, and grandparents, as well as from people who have been adopted either as a baby or a child.

In some cases the stories were related to one of the authors, who recorded them.

As the title suggests, these are positive stories that give thanks and appreciation not only to the adoptive families but also to the birth mothers who made the most difficult of decisions to relinquish their baby so that the baby would have the chance a happy family life that would not have otherwise have been possible.

Much prayer went into the mothers' decisions, and much praying was also done by the prospective adoptive parents.

Many of the stories bring tears to your eyes – of both happiness and sadness – and for the overwhelming love that they convey.

Children adopted after the toddler stage, we learn, suffer in many ways and even more so when siblings were separated.

Not everything is easy all the time in these stories, but despite the difficulties many families have faced they are not dwelt on, but by God's grace, worked through.

Although this is an American book whose stories about adoption all took place in the US, the open and closed adoptions and foreign and special needs adoptions that it describes do also take place in this country.