cover image It’s Okay About It: Lessons from a Remarkable Five-Year-Old About Living Life Wide Open

It’s Okay About It: Lessons from a Remarkable Five-Year-Old About Living Life Wide Open

Lauren Casper. Thomas Nelson, $16.99 trade paper (240p) ISBN 978-0-7180-8542-1

Casper, popular blogger and contributor to the Today Parenting Team, shares her family’s story of adopting two babies with special needs. Casper wanted to give birth to children, but after trying unsuccessfully for years to become pregnant, she and her husband turned their sights on adoption. Casper likens her first parenting experience with Mareto, who was adopted from Ethiopia and later diagnosed with autism, as trying to force a large rectangular block to balance on her tiny square block, a precarious situation that never felt solid. Casper explains how she had to reorient her expectations to meet her son’s uniqueness. Much of the text includes the winsomeness (and witty sayings) of Mareto and Casper’s daughter, Arsema. The 21 chapters are chock-full of wondrous everyday happenings that glimmer with the divine as Casper interprets and retells the ways her children see the world. Readers will glean lots of small life lessons that will inspire and encourage. (May)