Stars: 4
Review by: Mandy Apgar
I would rate
this about a 1 at times but that is not "the fault" per se of the
author, just what happened really ticked me off. She had a friend, Alex,
who was a trained nurse and apparently wanted nothing
more than to adopt a daughter from China. The reason I said "apparently"
as Alex - who is a whiny, self centered jerk with the ethics of a
mushroom, promptly decides that she does not want the child upon seeing
it. In between throwing temper tantrums about
how she doesn't want to go to Gymboree with the kid (seriously) and
complaining endlessly about how she is too small for a 13 month old,
thusly meaning that officials lied to her, Alex just shines forth as one
of those entitled people you can't but help to
want to smack really hard upside the head. She is extremely irritating,
nonetheless for her habit of going back and forth as to whether she
wants the baby or not. The author and her husband agree to take her
instead and after consulting with umpteen lawyers
(during which time Alex changes her mind like 3 times) they realize that
the baby, Lily, must be surrendered to the foster system upon arrival
in the US so the Russells can foster her and then do a domestic
adoption. Elsewise Alex would go to prison for fraud
in China, which the idiot deserved, but it is much better the child go
with a family who is somewhat sane. During the process Alex vents about
her life and reveals that she coerced her husband into signing the
papers by threatening to leave him and take their
son. What a classy lady. After changing her mind a few more times, and
even showing up unannounced asking if she could borrow Lily for a day or
two "to help make up my mind" she is finally out of everyone's life for
good. Eventually the Russells adopt another
daughter, Jaden, also from China. Book would've been a lot better if not
for Alex, which is not its fault so I will discount that, but for the
author's endless mentioning of dreams she has supposedly coming out of
nowhere convincing her to take the child. Having
dreams about being mother to a Chinese baby is to me something perfectly
natural granted the circumstances but she interprets it as a divine
sign. Good for her, but all the same she doesn't shut up about the
things and they take up a lot of space in the book
and drag things down.
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