instant mom - a book review

Loved this book by writer and actor Nia Vardalos (of My Big Fat Greek Wedding fame)! It is witty, informative, and a great and entertaining chronicling of Nia Vardalos's journey to motherhood through adoption (of a 3 year old daughter through the U.S. foster care system). 

I heard her speak at a conference last month and immediately ordered the Nook book. There are parts that made me laugh out loud and parts that made me cry. I rarely write notes in books, but found myself tapping the note icon to say things like, "I was cool until this point, but now I am crying," and "oh.my.god," and "exactly!"

Even though we traveled a different path to adoption, some elements of this story clearly echoed experiences that I had on my own journey. I think anyone would enjoy this book and get a lot out of it and learn much more about adoption than is commonly known.

Perhaps most of all, Nia articulated what I felt . . . that even though adoption is a hard road, and it often is not the first choice for either birth parent or adoptive parent . . . not first choice does NOT mean second best. She says what I experienced on seeing my child for the first time -- for her, a little girl at age three and for me, a baby still unborn, at the 8 month ultrasound . . ."Everything goes quiet. I hear nothing at all. All I think is, 'Oh, I found you.' Because now I know who I have been waiting for. I know exactly why the other processes didn't work. I know that I was supposed to wait for [this child]."   I believe my exact words in my own head were "Oh, there you are." It is one of the clearest memories of my life.

Somewhere near the end, Nia concludes, "And here's what I just figured out now: no one is ever prepared. In a way, we're all instant moms. I look around at all the parents, [of children going off to Kindergarten] all the moms, all the dads -- the emotions crossing their faces are the same ones Ian and I are feeling. Nothing prepared us for the daunting responsibility and love we feel for our children. All of us are instant parents trying to rise to the challenge of raising our children well."

(*I used to do a review of every book I read, and now I rarely do. I think the ability to give a book up to 5 stars on Goodreads and write a three sentence review there has taken over my will to write longer blog post reviews. If you really want to share reading recommendations, meet me over at Goodreads.)