Beyond the Blue

Journal of Child and Adolescent Psychiatric Nursing, Feb 2006 by Pearson, Geraldine S

Beyond the Blue

by Leslie Gould

1-57856-822-6

WaterBrook Press

2005

Beyond the Blue details the story of international adoption from a variety of unique perspectives. It begins in 1975, describing the events leading up to the tragic plane crash in Vietnam that killed staff and the orphans being airlifted for adoption in the United States. Genevieve, a young girl at the time, loses her mother, Sally, a nurse who has volunteered to go to Vietnam to assist in the airlift and to bring home a young son, Nhat, for their family. Sally perishes in the plane crash and the novel moves into the poignant grief experienced by Gen and her father. Nhat is placed with another American family.

At the same time, the novel takes the reader to Vietnam and begins telling the story of Lan, a young Vietnamese girl whose family is torn apart during the war, who grows up in stark poverty, and eventually gives birth to three children. Lan is desperate to give her children a good life, to keep them well-fed and healthy. She is unable to do this with her living conditions and her need to care for her ill mother.

Gen's story then moves ahead in time for her marriage to Jeff and her subsequent infertility. Her quest for a family leads her to international adoption and the young couple decides to adopt a child from Vietnam. Lan decides that she must relinquish her two youngest children, Binh and Mai. Gen and Jeff are the parents chosen to do this by the adoption agency.

There is very little literature about the process of international adoption from the relinquishing parent's perspective. There is research about the experience of adoptive parents in adoption reunion relationships (Petta & Steed, 2005), open adoptions (Siegel, 2003), cultural competence for transracial adoptive parents (Vonk, 2001), and adoption-related losses (Leon, 2002). This novel gives a unique view of the pain and struggle experienced by a relinquishing parent, of another culture, who loved and cared for her children but simply did not have the resources to care for them. Although the story took place in Vietnam, it is not unique to that culture and has applicability to many other countries that are placing their children with American families.

From the adoptive parents' perspective, this book details the obstacles and challenges of international adoption. The author takes the reader through the agonizing process experienced by Gen and Jeff as they decide to go to Vietnam for a child. Gen's father and Jeff's family pose concerns about their plans and form the backdrop of a complicated story that, in the end, is as much about Gen's resolution of her mother's death as it is about adoption.

This book is a must-read for nurses dealing with children and families of international adoption. With sensitivity and beauty, it captures the triangle of birth mother, adoptive child, and adoptive parents. It is rare that a book looks at the international perspective of the relinquishing parent from such a realistic, culturally competent perspective.

References

Leon, I.G. (2002). Adoption losses: Naturally occurring or socially constructed? Child Development, 73, 652-663.

Petta, G.A, & Steed L.G. (2005). The experience of adoptive parents in adoption reunion relationships: A qualitative study. American Journal of Orthopsychiatry, 75, 230-241.

Siegel, D.H. (2003). Open adoption of infants: Adoptive parents' feeling 7 years later. Social Work, 48, 409-419.

Vonk, M.E. (2001). Cultural competence for transracial adoptive parents. Social Work, 46, 246-255.

Reviewed by Dr. Geraldine S. Pearson, PhD, APRNC, BC

Author contact: pearsong@psychiatry.uchc.edu, with a copy to the Editor: Poster@uta.edu