I almost Cried...!

​It takes a lot to get me to cry, unless it's over something stupid. Clothes, humans, food, weather, something as petty as a to-do list that keeps falling from its proper place, if I'm in the right frame of mind I'll just start crying. But snap my collarbone in half? Nothing. Best friend moves away? No tears. I'm one of the most stoic people I know. My dad cries during movies when I don't.
The closest I get to crying while reading/watching movies (with the exception of The Shack) is saying that “I wanted to cry.” And that takes a lot. One such novel is Like Dandelion Dust by Karen Kingsbury.
Like Dandelion Dust is the plight of adoptive parents Molly and Jack Campbell, who receive notice that their almost-five-year-old son Joey's adoption was incomplete. There's a good reason for that: Joey's biological father, Rip Porter, was imprisoned for domestic violence before his wife Wendy knew she was pregnant. When Joey was born, Wendy forged Rip's signature to keep her baby safe. But now, Rip wants him back.
Distraught, Jack and Molly try everything they can—even attend church, which Molly's sister has been begging them to do. But when Rip starts to return to his old violent ways and time starts running out before they lose custody permanently, the Campbells must do something drastic. There's nothing else they can do, so why don't they disappear—like dandelion dust?
As an adopted child, this book hits almost too close to home. There's a struggle for every adopted child—who are my real parents? Is there a certain spark between biological parents and children that we don't have? What if my birth parents try to take me back?
Fortunately for my sister and I, that's never going to happen. But all too often, adoptions fall through. I know a family to which this happened, and I've been told it was just as traumatic as having a child die. (This family's story has a happy ending, though; they later found and adopted another child.)
The book is wonderful. It accurately portrays adoption, and the love that parents feel for a child (adopted or otherwise). And it talks about what it really means to be a parent. It talks about what it means to ​really to love a child, even if that means giving them up so they can have a better life. And I especially loved the strong Christian themes throughout. If you watch the movie (which is available in its entirety on YouTube) you won't find these themes, so I highly recommend reading this book.
Do you know anyone (besides me) who's adopted? If you do, give them a hug and tell them it's from M.J. Piazza (and please, direct them to my website!) God bless you, dear reader, and have a wonderful day!