| Beyond Good Intentions is a book of essays about the joys and risks of raising children adopted internationally. Cheri Register examines 10 pitfalls that well-meaning parents like herself can easily fall into: Wiping Away Our Children’s Past, Hovering Over Our “Troubled” Children, Holding The Lid on Sorrow and Anger, Parenting on the Defensive, Believing Race Doesn’t Matter, Keeping Our Children Exotic, Raising Our Children in Isolation, Judging Our Country Superior, Believing Adoption Saves Souls and Appropriating Our Children’s Heritage. Each essay opens with an exaggerated version, a caricature, of something an adoptive parent might say. The caricature is used to prompt a fresh, intense look at practices so familiar they are seldom questioned, even though they may not serve the children’s and the family’s best interests. Register urges readers to bring their own experiences to bear in a candid conversation about internationally adopted family life.
Beyond Good Intentions is a coffee table book of a different sort, a diary-sized volume to keep handy and read as you sip your coffee. You will catch yourself nodding and frowning as you would at a candid friend who urges you to reconsider ideas you have taken for granted, listen without defensiveness to what your children and other adoptees want to tell you and think more deeply about what international adoption requires of the “lucky” parents who benefit from it.
Never condescending, Register offers the insight usually associated with life experiences along with the working tools of a good communicator. Thanks to Register, I am becoming a sighted adoptive parent. “Beyond Good Intentions” is an excellent resource and learning tool for all adoptive parents and those considering international adoption. This text would also serve as a study guide for group discussions and book clubs. For more information, visit www.yeongandyeong.com.
AUTHOR:
Cheri Register |
