I just finished reading: Secret Thoughts of an Adoptive Mother by Jana Wolff. A quick read, I was through it in a couple hours. And it was riveting. She speaks with the clear voice of someone who is living an experience and has much to say. She also speaks with all the honesty of a gut punch. Real and immediate and shocking and violent. She spoke so honestly I feared for her adoptive son, one day, when he would read this book.
But, she's right. And, at the end, when she talks about how naive she and her husband were, as white people, adopting a black boy, well, I had to applaud her honesty. She's not painting herself as any hero here. And I appreciate her efforts to educate herself and educate her reader to see the inherent racism in a world created by whites, for whites, where black people are often, to quote her on p. 143 as either, "...missing, misrepresented or included as if for extra credit."
My favorite quote is on p. 111, "Adoption is a bittersweet solution to a two-way problem. Sweet, because a baby in need of a home finds a home in need of a baby. But bitter, because it is nobody's first choice and the baby will grow up one day to understand that."
"Nobody's first choice" Wow, that's not a slogan to be found anywhere in the adoption-themed stuff on Pinterest or Etsy.
Honest and completely real and I wouldn't argue with one word she said, but, yeah, a gut-punch of a book.
But, she's right. And, at the end, when she talks about how naive she and her husband were, as white people, adopting a black boy, well, I had to applaud her honesty. She's not painting herself as any hero here. And I appreciate her efforts to educate herself and educate her reader to see the inherent racism in a world created by whites, for whites, where black people are often, to quote her on p. 143 as either, "...missing, misrepresented or included as if for extra credit."
My favorite quote is on p. 111, "Adoption is a bittersweet solution to a two-way problem. Sweet, because a baby in need of a home finds a home in need of a baby. But bitter, because it is nobody's first choice and the baby will grow up one day to understand that."
"Nobody's first choice" Wow, that's not a slogan to be found anywhere in the adoption-themed stuff on Pinterest or Etsy.
Honest and completely real and I wouldn't argue with one word she said, but, yeah, a gut-punch of a book.
Comments
Post a Comment