A book giveaway! Find out why I loved and hated this book. To enter the giveaway, leave a comment (below) on this blog post.

Of all the books I’ve read the year — many, many dozens — none has stirred me like Until We All Come Home by Kim de Blecourt (with Ginger Kolbaba). You can see the cover and read the first pages here.

Why I Loved It

Kim’s true story reads like a suspense novel. When I finished, I thought: This would make a fantastic movie. Intrigue, a child’s future, the Ukraine mafia, a foreign land, a mother’s unfair arrest, a family’s escape to freedom, and finally a homecoming.

It all began with a dream, a hope. Adoption.

As an adoptive mom myself, I have felt this hope coursing in my veins too. I bled hope.

The de Blecourt’s expected challenges when they began the process of adopting a little boy from Ukraine. Every adoption, domestic or international, has crazy twists and turns, and umpteen hoops to jump through.

What they absolutely could not foresee was delay after delay. It took Kim and her son almost a year to come home. Highly unusually, underlined a hundred times. Nor could she expect physical assault by an old lady in public nor bold-faced lies nor arrest nor the need to escape to safety.

The ordeal messed with Kim’s emotions while in Ukraine and on American soil as her mind and body healed from stress.

Through the book she credits God for giving her strength and comfort in Ukraine in the darkest times, for orchestrating their escape, and for bringing home her son, Jake.

Why I Hated It

Some couples considering international adoption may read this book and decide against it. This would be a travesty. There are 160 million orphans worldwide. Each needs a home.

While every adoption has bumps, as does pregnancy, the de Blecourt’s experience is exceedingly rare.

Yes, corruption exists.

My husband and I ran into this in Russia where we traveled to adopt our youngest. The Russian police stopped our driver as we approached the airport — in broken English and hand signals he told us what would happen in advance — and he gave the police cash in order to proceed.

Yes, screw-ups happen.

When we traveled to Russia to adopt our middle child, our driver/translator Igor showed up two hours late. We also faced a tricky situation in our first adoption — a domestic adoption — when the attorney had to do legal stuff upon discovering that the birth father’s signature on a certain document was improperly notarized.

Such is adoption. Messy, beautiful, and well worth it.

“Religion that God our Father accepts as pure and faultless is this: to look after orphans and widows in their distress” (James 1:27a).

“In love (God) predestined us for adoption to sonship through Jesus Christ, in accordance with his pleasure and will” (Ephesians 1:5).

Love an Orphan

God esteems orphans. He values adoption, for he has adopted us who trust in Jesus to be his children.

Kim de Blecourt has become an orphan advocate and fights for orphans and children who need families that will love and care for them. She strongly supports Food for Orphans, contributing her profits from the sale of her book to this organization.

If you are considering adoption — domestic or international — and want someone to talk to, feel free to contact me and we can chat (my gift to you, by the way). I feel very strongly about adoption, from the birth parents, to the adopted person, to the adoptive parents, and I’ve learned how to avoid the most common mistake.

P.S. To enter the giveaway of this book, leave a comment. The winner will be selected on Friday, November 23. 

 

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