When young Morgan asks, "Did my first mother love me?" her adoptive mother reads her a letter written by Morgan?s birth mother. This birth mother?s love, concern, and caring for her child come through loud and clear as she explains the kind of life she wants for her child. Sadly, she explains, she cannot provide that life for her child, so she has given her a different set of parents. ?My dearest child, to your parents I have given the precious gift of you,? she writes. A reassuring story, this book can be adapted to the reader?s family situation.
Written by an actual birthmother who gave up her child, the book tells adopted children that their birthparents loved them but could not care for them. The book speaks of the sacrifice and love involved in placing a child in another home, in terms that even small children "get."
For parents, the book also includes an article by Jeanne Warren Lindsay, "Talking with your Child about Adoption." It explains key points that parents should make when talking with their adopted children--they were born like everyone else, being adopted is normal and natural and it's forever. And of course, their birthparents did not "abandon" them, but loved them in the best way they could. Alyssa A. Lappen
