I’m a bit of a bookworm. I’ve always been delighted with any excuse at all to buy books!
As a result as I’ve gone through the many months of my adoption journey I’ve slowly accumulated quite a few piles of books all around the place: books on attachment, personal histories, adopter biographies, parenting guides – you name it, I’ve been adding it to my library!
Most of these are of course not particularly amenable to easy sharing with friends and family. But one of my favourites, written by one if the many lovely people I’m proud to have “met” via Twitter, is a very easy read, and I’d recommend it to anyone.
Yes, it looks a quick, easy read. Let’s be honest it looks like a children’s book! And it’s written like a children’s book too – each page shares a simple thought, written in very easy and direct language, and articulated from a child’s point of view.
The clue is in the title: it’s a book you can give to friends and family before the child you are matched with arrives in your existing / their new home.
“Before I Arrive” merits reading and re-reading. It is full of insight, and in a very, friendly, direct way may well manage to challenge quite a few expectations your family and friends may not even have realised they had!
So it’s interesting, effective, will in my experience make everyone smile … And perhaps best of all it achieves its purpose so succinctly it takes no more than 5 minutes to flick through the whole book, so you can pass it around while you make coffee or disappear to change a nappy!
They say the best things sometimes come in small packages. Well this is a small package and as I’ve already said I’d recommend it to any prospective adopter for reading themselves and for passing on to everyone around them!
(Details: Before I Arrive, by Helen Townsend, published by Adoption UK)
