This one was a surprise. I expected it to be a memoir of author Mary Ostyn‘s adoption journey — she and her husband have adopted 6 children of different ages from Korea and Ethiopia. This book did not disappoint – it offers very candid accounts of each one of those decisions and how each child took a different path in settling into their family.  What surprised me was the amount of down-to-earth advice the author squeezes into these stories. Forever Mom is as a much a how-to book & mentoring manual as it is the story of this particular family.  As a reader with friends who are adopting, I found it really helpful. It sheds light on areas of the adoption and family-building process I had not considered before.  And the author does a great job of celebrating their family’s successes without sugar coating the difficult parts of their journey.

Disclosure: I received a copy of this book from the publisher in exchange for an honest review.