Some of my Favorite Adoption Books For Children

I have been collecting adoption books for about 3 years now.
I used to go out and buy childrens books for years while we were trying to conceive as a way to cope and then I started buying adoption books while we were looking for our birth moms.
It was very comforting to sit in a bookstore and then at home reading them and imagining myself reading to my children. Isn't it fun when dreams come true?
Here's a very short list. I would love to know what yours are.



Tell Me Again About the Night I Was Born by Jamie Lee Curtis
One of my favorites by far. I still can't get through this one without crying. I think it gives an accurate look of how excited adoptive parents are when they find out they have been chosen and get to go get their baby. This book has great illustrations that are funny and heart warming without giving a negative impression of the birth parents (one of my biggest peeves about adoption books for children).

I Love You Like Crazy Cakes by Rose A. Lewis
This is a great book for anyone adopting from China as it is very specific to China. I like that it mentions the birth mom respectively and talks about the long journey it is to adopt.

A Mother For Choco by Keiko Kasza
I have mixed feelings about this book. I love that it shows that adoptive parents and their children do not have to look like one another to be in the same family. It approaches the subject in a way I think young children can understand by having the characters of the book as different animals. For obvious reasons, I hate the title and the first part of the story of the "child" played by a bird going around looking for a mother as if adopted children are simply abandoned. I believe even in countries where children are in orphanages or foster care no mother simply walks away from her child.

Little Miss Spider by David Kirk
This book is from a series of books about Miss Spider and I really appreciate that the author chose to focus one of the books on adoption. It's a great story about a little spider looking for the right home, I like this even though I don't believe it's very accurate. Most children or babies have many caring adults helping to make that decision. My only complaint about this book is the last page which says, "For finding your mother, there's one certain test. You must look for the creature who loves you the best." Cute rhythm but extremely offensive, especially to those of us involved with open adoption. I don't think anyone would or should attempt to measure who has the greatest love for a child, especially those children lucky enough to be part of an adoption. These children have many, many people in their lives that love them far beyond what someone could call the best. Children of adoption are often loved from afar by people they may never meet or see that often but none the less that love is deep and undying.

The Best For You by Kelsey Stewart
I don't actually have this book (hint, hint for anyone out there looking for Christmas gift for our family....Mom, Dad, Diane?) I have not even read this book but I have heard many rave about how wonderful it is, not to mention it is written from an LDS perspective. I had hoped to win it in the raffle at the Southwest Regional Families Supporting Adoption Conference a few weeks ago, but alas I did not. AGAIN, hint, hint.....but I know my mom won't even read this till February. Love you Mom!

National Adoption Month!

Zadok's adoption finalization last year


Guess what? It's officially the start of
National Adoption Month!
That's right, every
November is National Adoption Month
right here in the United States.


National Adoption Day this year is November 20. On National Adoption Day (which is always a Saturday), juvenile courts all over the country are open to finalize thousands of adoptions! Here in Phoenix, we are expecting to finalize 320 adoptions! It is truly a day to celebrate as families all over the country are being created! You can check out what we will be doing that day here
National Adoption Day in Phoenix, AZ.


So spread the word, it's National Adoption Month! Hooray!

15 Years!

At a "married" dance at Ricks College a few months after we were married

Yes, it's quite amazing to me, we have been married for 15 years today! We both think it feels more like six. Yet somehow it's been more than double that!

We really only have one tradition on our anniversary, we have done it since our very first anniversary and that is to look back on the last year and each come up with our top five favorite events. We used to do the five best and five worst events of the past year but that got ugly so now we just focus on the positive. :) I wish for anything that I would have recorded these over the years because I am sure they would bring back such great memories that would make us laugh now or maybe cry. Interestingly enough often our favorite events have been some of the hardest, like in '99 when we both listed Steve's plane crash or in '07 when we both cried and talked about finding out we would never have our own biological child. Somehow, those really hard events end up being the best because they always bring us closer together. Last year of course we both listed Zad as our top favorite event, this year I'm sure it will be Ike.

We laid in bed last night reminiscing about how we started out; a car with an oil leak and dead starter that we push started in our wedding clothes at the Buttes on our wedding night after we repeatedly turned down the valet service. The apartment we moved into in Rexburg, ID that was over a dentist office and dance club (only in Rexburg) that cost us $235/month, furnished. That meant a double bed that was broken so bad on one side that usually one of us had fallen out of it by the morning at least once and a loveseat with no legs and so low to the ground that Steve's knees were in his chest when he sat down. The bathtub/shower would leak down to the dentist office which meant that one morning we were told we could not use our bathroom after 9am anymore because it disturbed the patients below. On Friday and Saturday nights the floor would vibrate from the music of the dance club and we watched the OJ Simpson trial wrap up on our 15 inch TV. I remember coming home from class and seeing boxes outside our door filled with china and crystal people had sent as wedding gifts and thinking that somehow those things didn't belong in our 350 square foot ghetto apartment. Thank goodness we only lived there a month before we moved into the government housing of Rexburg. It actually was a huge step up.


In our 2nd apartment in Rexburg
Somehow, here we are 15 years later in a comfortable, quiet home with comfortable furniture, trucks that run well, two college degrees, two secure jobs, and two little boys that look anything but like us! :) We are so blessed and I am so blessed to have had Steve for this whole journey. There is no one I would have rather been with.

Steve is still all the wonderful things he was to me back then only better now. He still tells me he loves me multiple times a day, still pulls me in for big giant bear hugs and long kisses, he still notices any changes I've made to my hair or anything else and almost always loves it, he still whistles when I dress up nice and still loves me with no makeup and in work clothes. He still makes delicious meals every Sunday and helps out around the house with dishes or laundry or whatever he sees that needs to be done. Although what he sees and what I see are a little different..... :)
He still encourages me with anything I want to do and will research or help me find ways to be successful. He still prays with me night and morning, reads scriptures with me, dances with me in the kitchen, somehow gets me to laugh when I'm upset, and holds me when I cry. He still tells me I'm the best thing that has ever happened to him. I love him so much, but who wouldn't?


Just before the Valentine's Dance at Ricks College in '95, one of our first dates

I have a doctor that has taken care of me for about 13 years; we first met when I was really sick at 21 and Steve and I had only been married a couple years. Every time he sees me he asks how Steve is and every time I say, "He's the best." One time Dr. Shahon said, "You always say that, he really is the best in your eyes isn't he?" Yes, yes he is.

The first time I became really ill after we were married, we lived in Mesa in a third floor apartment and I was so weak that I couldn't barely make it to the bathroom. He would carry me up and down those stairs for days until I was strong enough again. It was incredibly humbling at age 21; only two weeks before I had run in my first 5K race.

What an amazing 15 years we have had! For all these reasons and a million more I love you Steve, thank you for the happiest years of my life!


In front of my apartment at Ricks College during Mother's Week, where my mom met Steve for the 1st time. Ummm, she wanted him gone!

Have YOU ever thought....?

Maybe you are married and young and just starting out....

Maybe you are married with a few children....

Maybe your children are already raised but still have more to give to a child....

Maybe you are unable to bear children of your own....

Maybe you feel bearing anymore children would not be good for your health....



Lately, I have been feeling the stirrings in my heart of more children meant for my family. I know, crazy right? We have not even had Ike for 2 months....yet I know there are others out there waiting for us to find one another. Although I don't feel ready to bring them home just now, my heart knows they are there just waiting for their time.

Orphans have been on my mind a lot in the months since the earthquake hit Haiti. So naturally I begin to wonder if I have a child there or somewhere out there living life as an orphan.

There are an estimated 145 million orphans in the world today, with just over 100,000 in the United States. In the U.S. we do not call these children orphans, we call them foster children.

Maybe there is one out there meant for your family...

My Life in a Little Over 3 Minutes

Well, we're a little over a month into having two kids; one on the arm and one under foot. I've started several posts about all the adventures of the last month....they're coming, but for now this pretty much says it all...

Ike Meets Z...and the Family

I was so happy to have my two boys on my lap, together again at last. From the beginning Hannah and I have talked about how Zadok knew the baby in her tummy. When I had them there together for the first time, I knew this was true.
Without Z, Ike would not be here.
Our little Zadok had a big hand in bringing his baby brother to us.

When I first met Hannah, Z and I were at a the Birth Parent Pamper Night*. I was there not looking to find our next potential birth mom but just so that Norma could have Zadok there and for him to meet/flirt with all the other birth moms there (scary how good he already is at this). ;)

Zadok was there putting the moves on all the girls; making eyes, smiling with all his teeth, and then there was Hannah. He went straight up to her and gave her the biggest grin he has. Amazing the skills he has to get noticed and cause a stir, he was not even 11 months old on this night.
She was a goner and that is how I met Hannah.

I learned that she was due in June and that she had already chosen a couple but they had recently become pregnant with twins and so she was looking again. She didn't waste any time and started asking me questions right away about Steve and Zadok. And the rest I guess, they say is history....and here we are!



Zad and Ike with my mom. She was here for a week and got to stay and play with Z while we were in the hospital; she was such a huge help.







Ike meeting his Mesa Dutton cousins. We are so glad to have them so close to us. Aunt Jenny has become one of Z's favorite people and every time he sees her he wants her to hold and cuddle him.
Elizabeth and Kayla are great babysitters and Blake and Zadok have recently been great wrestling buddies. Soon we will have 4 little wrestling boys between us! Four wrestling boys....hmmmm, somehow that seems very familiar. I love it.







We were so happy to have my dad and my brother Mac down for the weekend and the signing. This looks good on Mac, huh?
He is newly engaged and will be married to the beautiful Carissa in August (good month to be married, I must say). Let's see, if he gets married in August....



Aunt Laurie, what would we have done without her this last week? She played with Zadok, hung out with Steve while I was in the OR with Hannah, stayed and helped all through the signing. Of course loving on my two boys the whole weekend too.

Two boys! I love saying that!

Announcing Baby Ike!

Isaac James is finally here!

We couldn't be happier!

After our brave Hannah labored intensely for 14 hours she opted for a c-section.




And....I got to go with her!!!!!



My first look at my beautiful new baby. All I could think was, "You are finally here." It feels like we have been waiting another 13 years for this little sweet boy even though it's only been six months.



Yes, that is me cutting the cord!!!
How many moms can say they cut their baby's cord? I'm such a lucky and blessed girl!
It so paid to be a nurse this last week!




Check out those lashes ladies! I'm already jealous!



We made a quick stop on our way to the nursery to see Steve and Hannah's parents. He weighed 7 pounds, 6 ounces...which by now he has long passed! He's already at 7'10"!
He's a fantastic eater to say the least and calms so easily. He was 19 3/4 inches long. We just love him and feel like he has always been meant to be with us.

The hospital was very accommodating and even gave us our own room right next to Hannah! We were able to keep him in our room most of the time and really get to know him. What a sweet little spirit he has.
We really feel as though we have known him a long time and that he has been waiting to come be with his big brother Zadok.

We are so blessed. We love you Hannah! Thank you for your sacrifice, we will always thank Heavenly Father for you and your choice.