Okayest Mom: When God’s Plan of Adoption Doubled My Family

Gwyn, writer for For Every Mom, chronicles raising six children—four of whom were adopted from Ethiopia—in this enjoyable memoir. Although Gwyn had a tidy life plan that she was slowly moving through, her life course was thrown in a new direction after she and her husband decided to use their resources to bring more love into the world and adopt children. Gwyn’s description of the chaos that comes with raising six children is funny and poignant. Consistent throughout is her belief that God is present in the midst of it all, directing and supporting her choices. She reports her exhaustion, uncertainty, anger, and frustration as she wrestles with societal expectations of mixed-race families and the nature of the relationship between adopted child and birth mother. Readers may question Gwyn’s wisdom in writing some sections in the voices of her children, but her ability to weave her accounts of her adopted children’s early experiences in with her descriptions of the challenges of making a new family drives the story. This fearless memoir will inspire readers. (July)