ABOUT THE BOOK
Title: Why Did You Choose Me?
Author: Katie Cruice Smith
Illustrator: Sarah Strickling Jones
Publisher: Ambassador International
Release Date: November 12, 2017
Genre: Children’s Picture Book, Adoption
Most adoptive and foster children struggle at some point in their life with knowing who they are and where they belong. They want to ask questions, and parents need to be prepared with an answer that helps their child feel loved and secure.
After searching for adoption storybooks to read to her own adopted children, Katie Cruice Smith decided that there was a need for more books that parents could read at bedtime to connect with their adopted and fostered children.
In Why Did You Choose Me?, Katie Cruice Smith answers that question in a way that young children can understand. Drawing from her own experience as an adoptive mom to three children, Katie uses the questions her own children have asked to help them see there never really was a choice she knew right away that they were hers.
With beautiful illustrations by artist Sarah Strickling Jones, Why Did You Choose Me? lovingly demonstrates the uniqueness that each child brings to a family.
PURCHASE LINKS: Goodreads | Amazon | B&N | Ambassador International
Three of my Loves
(Not counting the hubs, though I do love him!) These three. The frustration, the tears, the temper tantrums, and the joy; ALL THE JOY. We’ve been praying, waiting, not for our immediate family, but for one of my besties. We’re Uncle Jeremy and Aunt Kat, big believers in family of choice, not just of blood. But, it has been a long road. This bestie we met when we first started down the foster care route as we started at similar times. Our roads were different, but we have walked with her through 20 children. She’s the definition of super mom.
Here’s the thing though, we pray for every child to go home. Why do we do that when we also want to be parents? Because that means that one more family has been healed. We pray that God uses us as a tool to help that family heal and the privilege of trusting us with their children while they heal. But sometimes the breach is too great, or the fit not right, or the bureaucracy overwhelming and the children have to leave for some other reason. So you pray for them, for their protection, for God’s hand to rest on them and that healing to come, and then you let them go.
It’s inevitable that these children whose worlds have been upended to wonder why me? And to wonder, why is this family taking me in? Adoptive and foster children frequently struggle with feelings of abandonment and rejection, and even once they’re in a forever home they wonder, why me and not some other kid? Sometimes they try to be perfect, worried if they mess up, they’ll be sent away.
That’s why I really like this book. It’s very honest and deals with a deep emotional issue that these kids struggle with, but it does it in language they understand, phrased so it could have come out of their own heads.
…and my three loves…
I received a copy of the book from the author for this tour. I wan’t required to give a positive review.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
ABOUT THE ILLUSTRATOR
Sarah Strickling Jones enjoys working with oils, acrylics, ceramics, and printmaking. She creates her artwork and teaches students of all ages from her country home. She lives in Greer, South Carolina, with her husband Darren and four children: Trevor, Peyton, Blake, and Renea. Why Did You Choose Me? is Sarah Strickling Jones’ first illustrated children’s book in watercolor.
CONNECT WITH SARAH: Facebook
TOUR GIVEAWAY
(1) winner will receive
- a print copy of Why Did You Choose Me?
- “For This Child I Prayed” ornament (more info HERE)
a Rafflecopter giveaway https://widget-prime.rafflecopter.com/launch.js
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