Secret Thoughts of an Adoptive Mother Jana Wolff

Secret Thoughts of an Adoptive Mother

Author: Jana Wolff

Publisher: Andrews McMeel Publishing

Publication Date: 01 February, 1997

ISBN: 9780836221862

Pages: 160

Subjects: Family and relationships

Available as: , Trade Cloth, 978-0-8362-2186-2 Trade Paper, 978-0-9672143-1-3 E-Book - EPUB, 978-0-9672143-2-0

Description:

While books about adoption proliferate, none of them addresses the subject of open and interracial adoption like Jana Wolff's personal and frank account does in [i]Secret Thoughts of an Adoptive Mother[/i]. Often irreverent, always insightful, surprisingly funny and stunningly honest, [i]Secret Thoughts[/i] tells it like it is: How it feels for a woman to look nothing like her child and to know the woman who does. This fiercely honest and funny book answers questions no one dares to ask: What if I don't like the child I get? Will she want the baby back? If this is the happiest day of my life, why am I so sad? Am I too white for a kid this black? Chapter titles include: "The Myth of Bliss," Friendly Racism," "Meeting Your Child's Mother," and "Adopted Poop Doesn't Smell Any Different."

PW Publishers Weekly

Review Source: Publishers Weekly

Review Date: 1996-12-09

About three years ago, the author and her husband, both Jewish, adopted a male baby at birth. Their child, whom they named Ari, was the birth son of two 18-year-olds, a Mexican-American mother and an African American father. In this candid memoir, Wolff relates her mixed feelings about bringing up a child from a different cultural background. Although she deeply loves her son, she is concerned that a biracial adoption may have made his future life harder. She also discusses her fears‘groundless, it turns out‘that Martie, the birth mother, would return to claim her child. Although the author's frankness is disarming and she has bravely made the decision to maintain contact with Martie and to allow her to visit Ari, she makes sometimes harsh or patronizing judgments about Martie's life choices. Wolff's commitment to her son comes across here as absolute, but she makes clear she harbors many ambivalent emotions about the adoption that will be of interest to other adoptive parents of biracial children. (Jan.) (c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved