New Adoption Books for the Kiddos

I try to pick up a couple of new children's adoption books each year during national adoption month, and last month was no exception.

The first book was I Don't Have Your Eyes by Carrie Kitze.  I think the children liked this one and particularly enjoyed the illustrations.  Each page highlights another body part and discusses the ways mother and child are different and alike.  I really liked this one because I am always noticing the physical characteristics my children get from their birthfamilies, and the perspectives and habits they get from us. Both nature and nurture are at work in their lives and this book shows both.  I also think it will be a different take for Aryana as she gets a little older and we are learning the names of body parts.

As I'm slowly reading Black Baby, White Hands, a memoir by an adult transracial adoptee, I'm being reminded how important it is that we not pretend to be "colorblind" and not discuss the differences between us and our children.  The author of the memoir struggled as he watched his parents and their biological children highlight their similarities to one another (red hair, freckles, interest in science, etc.) but yet in their efforts to show him they loved him "just the same", they ignored their differences, which made him insecure.  I think reading books like this one will naturally provide opportunity to talk about ways we are alike and ways we are different and most of all, how we are a family who loves one another.


I also bought Motherbridge of Love illustrated by Josee Masse.  I didn't realize this book is basically just an illustrated version of a well-known poem about birthmothers and adoptive mothers until after it arrived.

Once there were two women Who hardly knew each other
One you do not remember, The other you call mother
Two different lives shaped to make yours one
One becoming your guiding star The other became your sun.
The first gave you life And the second taught you to live in it.
The first gave you a need for love And the second was there to give it.
One gave you a nationality The other gave you a name.
One gave you the seed of talent, The other gave you an aim.
One gave you emotions, The other calmed your fears.
One saw your first sweet smile, The other dried your tears.
The age old questions through the years; heredity or environment-which are you the product of?
Both my darling-both.
And two different kinds of love!

It's not as relevant to us as some books are since its focus is on Asian adoptees and it implies older adoption, but the children still very much enjoyed it.  There are few words and lots of vivid, colorful illustrations.  They enjoy observing all the details of this artwork, and look at it even when we aren't reading it to them.