My novel has a new cover! Hugo Ayala‘s beautiful painting, Nahualá , is now fully visible. Thank you to Bryn Kristi of Mindbuck Media for collaborating with Apprentice House to find the perfect design.
I’ve got to tell you, having this story out of my brain and onto the page is a huge relief. I won’t say it’s been “haunting” me, but definitely has occupied mind space. Publication date is October 1.
Which suddenly feels very soon. ~
My phone reminded me where we were last July: in Guatemala, visiting Olivia’s family, traveling to Lake Atitlan, studying Spanish. Remembering those happy days.
This arrived. The Advance Reading Copy of my first novel, Mother Mother. The cover is a detail from Hugo Ayala’s painting “Nahuala,” bought in Antigua, Guatemala and hanging in my living room. I’m grateful to my many mentors, teachers, fellow writers, and beta readers whose insights made the book better. Mother Mother is available now for preorder on Amazon, Indie Bound, and Barnes & Noble. Publication date is October 1.
I hope you like it! xoxo
My book is becoming real. Read More »
“A Woman Without a Country: Adopted at Birth and Deportable at 30” is a must-read. The New York Times story is beyond belief except that cases such as these are true, and too common. From the article:
It was on the eve of getting married in 2012 that [Ms. Trimble] realized there was something amiss in her all-American upbringing. Adopted as an infant from Mexico, she discovered that what she thought was a minor mix-up in her paperwork was something else entirely. Eventually, she realized that not only was she not American, she did not, in the government’s view, belong in the United States at all.
This year, a letter from U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services arrived in the remote corner of western Alaska where Ms. Trimble cooks for homeless people and where her husband, John, is the only dentist in town.
“You are not authorized to remain in the United States,” it said, ordering her to depart the country within 33 days or face deportation.”
July 7, 2020 New York Times, by Miriam Jordan
Rebecca Trimble’s adoptive parents may not have understood the rules when they crossed the Mexican border with their three-day-old baby 30 years ago, but we do.
We adoptive parents are responsible to make sure our kids are legal US citizens. Check your files. Ensure you have a Certificate of Citizenship with your child’s correct name on it. A COC is the only irrefutable, non-expiring proof of US citizenship.
According to the Adoptee Rights Campaign, “at least 35,000 people in the United States lack American citizenship because their adoptive parents failed to secure it for them.”
This story is tragic.
Another adoptee in danger of deportation Read More »
When our kids were little, we attended Heritage Camp for Adoptive Families every summer. Heritage Camp is a long weekend of presentations, workshops, and fun in Colorado’s Rocky Mountains, specifically geared toward different adoptive family groups–Latin American, Chinese, Russian/Eastern European, Korean, African/Caribbean.
And every year on the last morning of camp, as we gathered to say our final goodbyes, somebody sat center stage with a guitar and sang John McCutcheon’s anthem “Happy Adoption Day.” I couldn’t see through my own tears, but I’m guessing there wasn’t a parent in that room who wasn’t crying.
Adoption is complicated. No one understands that better than the people involved in it. Adoption begins with loss. But in this song, we celebrate the joys of adoption. The wonder of our beautiful and cherished children, the miracle of our coming together.
Heritage Camp for Adoptive Families was cancelled this summer. But thanks to the talented counselors and family of Korean Heritage Camp 2020, we can still hear our anthem and listen to these words:
“For out of a world so tattered and torn,
You came to our house on that wonderful morn.
And all of sudden, this family was born.
Oh, Happy Adoption Day.”
xoxo
