Wonderful books

I love getting books for the kids. Every book fair that comes to school the kids love to browse and pick out their favorites. I really don't mind spending the money, especially when I watch them read or ask me to read to them. Recently I ordered several books on adoption. I have a small collection which I want to increase as much as possible. It is hard to find books on Chinese adoption for boys (that I just realized) so I'm now getting some general books for Matthew.
Anyway, I'd recommend the above books for anyone with adopted children. In the book, Three Names of Me, the young adopted chinese girl talks about her three names; the first name that was whispered to her by her first mother, the name given to her by the orphanage and the american name given to her by her adoptive parents. It is a wonderful story that discusses love, family and a name that lives in a child's heart. My Grace just loved it. We talked about her 3 names and what it all means.
The next book, The Red Thread An Adoption Fairy Tale, discusses the ancient Chinese belief that a red thread connects those destined to meet. It is written as a fairy tale, complete with a king and queen who have a pain in their hearts that turns out to be a red thread that is being tugged on. They decide to follow the red thread to find out who is on the other end. Truly a wonderful, heartwarming story! Analiese liked this one more than the first one.
The last story is by Todd Parr. He writes the Otto books and has very distinctive illustrations. It is a general book about adoption. Great illustrations and short verses. Grace had fun reading it to me.
I try to keep a dialogue with the kids about their adoption. I think it important that they understand why they are different from the rest of their family, that they have "birth" parents and that they had a life before they came to us. The girls told Matthew that he had a chinese mother and he told me the wanted to see her. I told him that we couldn't because we didn't know where she was. He of course said she was in "Xiamen". The conversation continued and Grace told him that his chinese mom gave him to the orphanage. Matthew wanted to know why. I explained that I really didn't know but it was possible that she didn't have the money to help him get teeth. Matthew got very excited and yelled, "I have money!" I had to tell him that even though he did we still did not know who his chinese mom was because she didn't leave her name.
We didn't go to far into the conversation but the dialogue has been started and has given Matthew something to think about. I've gotten questions from him about where the rest of the children came from. He goes through each name. When we got to Sarah I told him that she grew in my belly, then when I tried to explain that William, Thomas and James had a different mom he really was confused.
I don't shy away from the discussions with the kids. I believe the more we talk about it, the more comfortable they will be asking questions later. We include the girls (and this year Matthew's) chinese mom in our Mother's Day celebration. We light a candle for each of them and say a prayer thanking them for growing the girls in their tummies for me. I shed some tears that I keep from the girls because I don't want them to associate sadness with their birth mothers. That will come in time.
If you get a chance, check out the above books and think about adding them to your child's collection. You will be glad you did!