No Biking in the House without a Helmet by Melissa Fay Greene

This was a sweet memoir - easy to read & well-written.

Melissa and her husband had four biological children.  Just when they were beginning to go off to school, she and her husband decided to adopt a Roma boy from Eastern Europe.  Over the next few years they added four other children to the family, all from Ethiopia.  It reads like the plot for a feel-good movie but it is indeed a true story, which is what makes it so cool.

Greene is a journalist, and she does a good job of writing honestly about the decisions, the transitions, and all the aspects of the both difficult and joyful expansion of her family.  She was fortunate to have a supportive husband and welcoming children, but still suffered from post-adoption depression (akin to post-pardon depression), that she writes sadly of.  She writes of being overwhelmed the first few times she brings new children home - at the magnitude of the adjustment they will have to make, and the challenge of incorporating them into the family.  But she also writes of the big joy she felt when each child settles in and the daily joys of being a mother that she appreciates.

There are two parts of the book that stand out to me the most.  One is the repeated trips she makes to Ethiopia and how she meets each child, then has to wait (sometimes months or even a year) before she can bring them home during a follow-up trip.  She brings them toys and bonds with them and then has to leave them until the paperwork is done.  The other part of the book that stuck with me was when several of the older kids all leave for college, two of the younger children begin to fight - a lot.  She realizes that the older boys were playing a strong role in bringing order and fun into the family and their departure had a big toll in the family dynamic.

Kudos to Melissa Fay Greene, both for being a great mom to so many kids as well as for writing about it with such honesty.