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Miracles for Marlee/
Song From Seoul

Review by John Aeby

Miracles For Marlee By Shannon Turner; 1st Books; ISBN 1-4033-6631-4; 375 pages; $14.50 soft cover, $5.95 e-book; www.1stbooks.com

Song From Seoul By Sherry McTee; SMC Ventures; ISBN 0-9743550-9-7; 121 pages; $11.95; www.songfromseoul.com

I’ve long believed that there is no such thing as a routine adoption. Everyone who has ever adopted has their own unique story complete with mystical signs, impassable roadblocks, and miraculous solutions. And anyone who has ever entered the journey it takes just to get to the point of applying to adopt, understands the emotionally consuming (actually all-consuming) effort and investment of the process, and it does make good reading.
Miracles For Marlee and Song From Seoul certainly aren’t the first of the adoption process memoir genre, but like their predecessors, they are deeply personal stories, and because of that they are emotionally engrossing and ultimately satisfying (parents and child are united and bonded in the end). Of course, these books are all about the journey, and that is particularly helpful for anyone who is in the midst of the process. While faith plays an important role in both books, doctrine doesn’t.

Shannon Turner’s Miracles For Marlee spares almost no detail on the way to adopting a little girl from China in 2001. Turner’s account of all the help she and her husband received would prove the idea that it takes a whole village (or city) to adopt a child. The book is a marvelous recollection of the every-hour, nearly every-minute struggle in the marathon effort of adopting. And while the fortune cookie signs may be a bit much for some readers, the Turners’ adoption is ultimately solid reinforcement that, yes, you can survive the process and finally adopt a child.
In Song From Seoul Sherry McTee recounts adopting a girl from Korea in the 1970s. Though this experience comes from another era of intercountry adoption, McTee focuses less on the process and more on the emotional journey. Her daughter’s arrival in the United States takes place about midway through the book; therefore, much of the story is about bonding. McTee shares instructive insights and mistakes she made along way framed by her lyrical and picturesque memory of the experience.

Husbands often play a minor (though necessary) role in adoption memoirs, and while Song certainly is McTee’s story, the relationship between her adopted daughter and her husband is the final necessary piece of the bonding puzzle.

Both of these books are quick, easy reads. Unusually generous margins and line-spacing make these books considerably briefer than the number of pages might indicate; however, both Turner and McTee offer comforting, encouraging testimony to the amazing, highly personal experience of adopting a child.