cover image Keeping Kyrie

Keeping Kyrie

Emily Christensen, with Nathan Christensen. HWC Press, $34.99 (312p) ISBN 978-0-9977588-0-1

Christensen’s memoir is a heart-wrenching testimonial for foster care, adoption, and the Mormon faith. She relates the story of finding her church and then a perfect husband, Nathan, but as the new couple attempt to have children, they endure a number of miscarriages. They fill the empty space of childlessness with foster care and, in an extraordinary real-life tale of patience and endurance, they foster over 70 troubled children. Personal challenges continue to test Emily’s determination to build a family, but she and Nathan eventually adopt five children. They then learn of a baby, Kyrie, who has been born with a daunting medical condition. Emily cares for Kyrie through many traumatizing surgeries and tries to adopt the child, but bureaucratic obstacles block the way. Christensen writes with a gripping style and grim honesty as she tells her very difficult story; the narration is sometimes oddly dispassionate and yet is also intriguingly blended with deep emotion (“The brothers described being given alcohol, seeing people doing drugs, and ‘lots of screaming and hitting and throwing things’ ”). Filled with descriptions of life’s struggles, love of family, the details of medical procedures, and prayer, this book is likely to be inspirational to those of the LDS faith. [em](BookLife) [/em]