Today I’m reviewing, discussing, and giving away a copy of Addition by Adoption by Kevin Hendricks. Keep reading to learn how you can win a free copy.
In Addition by Adoption: Kids, Causes & 140 Characters, Kevin Hendricks shares the story of the adoption of his son, Milo, from Ethiopia. The story is interwoven with 140 character Twitter posts (aka “tweets”) that give a glimpse into Kevin’s life as a work-at-home dad preparing for and then adjusting to the addition of Milo to the Hendricks household.
If you’re one who is still wondering, “What’s the point of Twitter?” or you have people asking you that question, Addition by Adoption goes a long way… not to explaining the answer but to exemplifying an answer.
Most of the content of the book is made up of Kevin’s tweets over a 2 year period. It’s filled with funny little one-line stories anyone whose every parented a 3 year old can relate to. It’s got emotional tweets about adoption & the conditions in Ethiopia. Some of the tweets also tell the stories of how Kevin raised money to help the homeless and for clean water using Twitter.
Sampling of Tweets
Here’s a sampling of some of tweets included in Addition by Adoption…
Up to #14 on unofficial adoption waiting list. Excited, but trying not to get too excited. Phone rang today and made me wonder, is this it? No.
October 9, 2008Me: “OK, Lexi, five more minutes and it’s going to be naptime.” Lexi: “No! Two more minutes!” Me: “Er… OK.”
January 22, 2009Potty training continues in the Hendricks household. Today’s lesson: The boy who cried wolf retold as the girl who cried poop.
February 4, 2009We met our wide-eyed little boy today. He’s very tiny and loves to watch everything going on. Quiet and cute. Made up for bewildering arrival.
March 20, 2009I want to celebrate my 30th birthday with clean water for 30 people. If we do it I’ll shave my head: Bald Birthday Benefit.
May 15, 2009We hit $600 so on June 13 I’m bald, but who says we can’t hit $5,000? Insane? Yes. So what? Now we’re up to $640.
May 22, 2009Lexi, pushing Milo on the riding toy: “You want to go for a ride, Milo? Hold on, I have to get all the crap out of the way.”
October 9, 2009
In addition to being funny & interesting, I recommend Addition by Adoption for three reasons.
- It puts a spotlight on the importance of adoption.
- It demonstrates the power of social media. The book is derived from tweets & is being promoted exclusively through blogs and social media.
- Kevin is giving a portion of the proceeds from every book purchased to charity:water, a wonderful non-profit that brings clean drinking water to people in developing nations. Kevin’s goal is to raise $5,000.
Discussion
Which of these 3 aspects of the story resonates most with you? The importance of adoption? The power of social media to help others? Or bringing clean drinking water to developing nations? Why?
Get a Free Book
If you’d like a free copy of Addition by Adoption, all you have to do is
- Retweet this post or share it on Facebook, and
- Post a meaningful comment to this post that contributes to the conversation (include your Facebook or Twitter usename in your comment so I can connect your comment to your share/tweet).
One person will be randomly selected the afternoon of Tuesday 4/20 to receive a free copy.
Pre-Order Now
Right now you can pre-order Addition by Adoption. If you do…
- you’ll save a buck
- twice as much money will go to charity:water
- you’ll get the book a couple of weeks early
- Kevin & his daughter, Lexi, will sign your copy.
But you must pre-order by Tuesday April 20.
Sounds like a great book. Have always thought my wife and I would adopt and would have to to have kids. Now we have baby #3 on the way in less than 4 years after 12 years of trying! So now we have to re-think adopting.. But feel someday we will.. Thanks for sharing.
I never really thought about adopting until recently. I take that back… I thought about adoption, but always thought it was for couples who couldn’t have children of their own.
The idea that couples would choose to adopt rather than have more biological children is new to me, but a pretty cool idea imo. Imagine what would happen if just 10% of couples chose to have one less biological child so they could adopt a child?
My wife has dreamed of adopting a baby girl from China since she smuggled bibles there as a pre-teen. The idea of adoption didn’t really appeal to me when we first got married, but the funny thing is, the more children we have had (our 4th is now four), the more God has birthed the same desire in my heart as well. We have actually been having conversations about this lately and are praying about how to proceed. I would love to read this book (and so would my wife)!
Kit, that’s really cool that even with 4 children of your own, the desire to adopt continues to grow stronger.
This sounds like an amazing book! I love seeing people promote adoption and love that the author does it in what sounds like a funny and relatable way. Also, as we learned through our experience in China, for every child brought to the US, there are hundreds more left behind in horrifying rip-your-heart-out conditions. We can never be complacent about the world’s most vulnerable not having basic needs met. I’ll definitely watch for the opportunity to read this book.
Hi Laura, thanks for stopping by to comment!
I am addicted to twitter 🙂 and made adoption a prerequisite to my hubby marrying me, so I hope I win a copy of this book in order to marry two loves. 🙂 I can’t wait to start the adoption process for my family. I have so many questions and looking forward to learning so much more!
Paula, I’m sure your tweets will be exciting to read as you go through the adoption process.
I think what’s interesting about social media is that it brings people into the mundane things of one person’s life in 140 characters and basically sums up what could take entire chapters to write in a sound bite. Hmmmm…that says a lot about our culture doesn’t it?
This sounds like a lovely book and the importance of adoption cannot be downplayed or the need for clean drinking water. I’m curious, in light of what happened recently with the young boy from Russia, does this book say anything about support for parents bringing children into their homes by adoption?
Thanks for the comments everybody. I hope you will check out the book, and maybe consider buying a copy if you don’t win.
Kristine, I don’t think I directly address post-placement services in the book. If anything I might give a passing mention to appreciating the support our agency provides. It’s not something that has come up for us, so it wasn’t a natural topic in the book (there are a lot of adoption-related topics that don’t come up in the book, not because they aren’t important, but just because I didn’t have a reason to tweet about them).
I did blog about the recent story from Russia last week. In summary, parents (not just adoptive parents) should be getting help in a situation like that. For whatever reason, that didn’t happen. The result is a sad, messed up situation.
Kevin, thanks for stopping by to comment.
Even though I already have an electronic copy of Addition by Adoption, I just pre-ordered a copy to support Kevin’s effort to raise $5k for charity:water through sales of this book.
Today is the last day you can pre-order. I hope you’ll do it. 🙂
I most resonate with part 1 because we’re an adoptive family and it’s changed our lives forever. What an incredible, life-changing experience! Our daughter is fantastic and a perfect addition to our family. Meeting her was as precious as when my biological son was born. My heart’s desire is that we could adopt again someday. We used a blog to raise 2/3 the cost of our adoption and it was a wonderful experience including people in our journey.
Wow! That’s really awesome, Dana!
We adpoted our son 7yrs ago and it was such a wonderful experience. I wish I had twitter then so I could have shared the experiences with my friends and family. I’ve pre-ordered the book, and can’t wait to read it. If I win, I’d love to share it with some friends of mine who just legalized thier first adoption. If I don’t win then they are just going to have to wait until I’m done reading it. 🙂
It sounds like amazing that someone has chosen using Twitter to do/share something so great and meaningful. Hope this book could inspire more and more people to adopt children.
@cristinaicf
Can’t imagine a better way of showing love to people in need than by adopting children. Hopefully this book addresses not just families adopting but churches getting involved in adopting by providing support and awareness and prayer! Looking forward to reading the book!
@nathancreitz
Congrats Kit Palmer aka @KitPalmer. You are winner of the free copy of Addition by Adoption. Please DM me the address you’d like the book sent too.
Thanks to everyone who commented, shared and retweeted this post. I hope if you didn’t win the book that you will buy it. Remember today is the last day you can pre-order. So, get to it.
Thanks Kevin for writing the book & for providing the free copy to give away.