It's Okay About It

March 13, 2017
Casper, popular blogger and contributor to the Today Parenting Team, shares her family’s story of adopting two babies with special needs. Casper wanted to give birth to children, but after trying unsuccessfully for years to become pregnant, she and her husband turned their sights on adoption. Casper likens her first parenting experience with Mareto, who was adopted from Ethiopia and later diagnosed with autism, as trying to force a large rectangular block to balance on her tiny square block, a precarious situation that never felt solid. Casper explains how she had to reorient her expectations to meet her son’s uniqueness. Much of the text includes the winsomeness (and witty sayings) of Mareto and Casper’s daughter, Arsema. The 21 chapters are chock-full of wondrous everyday happenings that glimmer with the divine as Casper interprets and retells the ways her children see the world. Readers will glean lots of small life lessons that will inspire and encourage.

April 1, 2017

Blogger Casper (LaurenCasper.com) has taken some of her homespun insights on family and parenting and presents them here, organized around the simple wisdom of her special-needs son, Mareto. After suffering from infertility, Casper and her husband eventually adopted two Ethiopian children: one with recognizable issues, and one with unknown issues that over time led to a diagnosis of autism. The overarching theme--life doesn't always go the way you thought it would--resolves into a generalized sense of "Let go and let God." The author's unaffected voice is reflective of a realized, everyday spirituality. Many of her ideas find common cause with new parents walking the path of discovery as their children mature into their unique selves, if only parents take the time to stop and notice. That idealized parental expectations often have to conform to each child results is a subtle and simple joy. VERDICT A personal account of Christian parenting for those who are harried yet hopeful.--SC

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