Written by adoptee and adoptive parent Allison Olson, this picture book gives readers a “special story” all about them. It’s the story of their open adoption, told by a friendly talking owl. This version of the story involves a two-dad couple of adoptive parents; the book is also available in versions showing a two-mom family and a mom-dad family.
“Before you were born,” the owl says, “your parents wanted a child.” They wished, meditated, and prayed, and worked with an adoption agency.
At the same time, “your birth mom became pregnant with you.” She also wished, meditated, prayed, and worked with an adoption agency. The owl explains that she loved the child, wanted to make the right choice for them, and “Your parents were the lucky ones that your birth mom picked.” This happily inverts the older view of adoption—that it is adopted children who are “lucky” to find a home.
The book then shows us the joyous adoptive parents and birth mom communicating about the child and about their extended families. When the child was born, we are told, it was “a special day for BOTH of your families.”
Now, the adoptive parents share photos and updates with the birth mom, and both parents love seeing the child grow—a child who has brought two families together. The owl flies off, assuring the child that they are “surrounded by love.”
There’s a clear pedagogical point here, but it’s handled with care and kept simple for young readers. Adults may just need to clarify what an “adoption agency” is, since that is never really explained. The second-person narration gives the story a personal touch, although it may not resonate as much with some readers if their family doesn’t look like the one in the book (one White, red-haired adoptive dad and one with light brown skin and dark hair, possibly Latino; a White, red-haired birth mom; and a White, red-haired, female-presenting child). Not every family will have included meditation or prayer in their adoption journey, or “have grandparents, aunts, uncles, and cousins in your birth family,” either. Still, the point of the story, that all of the parents love the child, who was neither rejected by the birth mother nor in debt to the adoptive parents for giving them a home, offers an important view of open adoption that many families should appreciate.
