Book Review

Here is a book that I just finished reading:

 Love in the Driest Season: a Family Memoir by Neely Tucker

    I actually found it in the library, and discovered that is was a really good book.  The author is a writer/reporter for the Washington Post newspaper, who spent many years in Africa covering stories in various countries there.  He was based in Zimbabwe, and he and his wife come across a baby in a local orphanage that changes their lives.  He writes about their pursuit of adopting this young girl at a time when it was generally understood that Americans don't adopt Zimbabwean children. 

    There are several reasons why I liked the book.  One was the fact that they were trying to adopt when there wasn't any precedent for adopting in place.  They had to "pave the way," be the first to push through the bureaucratic system to be able to adopt the child they grew to love.  The amount of work and hurdles they had amazed me, from people "accidentally" losing all their paperwork to having to get fingerprinted and background checked multiple times.

    I am in a similar situation.  We will be one of the first families to adopt from Burundi, at least under the Hague treaty.  There is no precedent.  There is no Burundi Adoption Support Group.  There is no message boards or chat forums for "parents of children adopted from Burundi."  There is no true guideline on how the adoption will go through in the country or how long it will take.  So, though I don't expect to face the same hurdles as the Tuckers did, I feel like: if they can push though it, with all their difficulties, and still make it out with a complete family... than we can too! 

    The other reason that I like the book is the eye-opening descriptions of what was going on in Africa.  Mr. Tucker was there to cover many stories including civil war in the Congo, genocide in Rwanda, the bombing of the US embassy in Kenya, and the horrific state of orphans and the AIDS crisis.  He described things that I hope never to see in my lifetime, yet I am shocked that they do exist.  It was a clear picture of what we need to be aware of in this world, but what so many people are not seeing or understanding.

    So, if you happen to run across this book in your library I would recommend it. (There are a few unwholesome words in it, though.  I try to just skip over them.)