Rating: 
Summary: Self-indulgent twaddle
Review: This book was a major disappointment - an extremely self-indulgent, "woe-is-me because I can't have a baby" saga. I completely agree with the reviewers who found Jill and Joe to be a loathsome couple. They seem completely dysfunctional (not that this prevents other couples from creating biological children) and extremely selfish, with an overwhelming sense of entitlement.Having recently adopted a precious baby girl from China, I am surprised that the social worker handling their case approved them, given Joe's GREAT reluctance to be a father. (The other issues cited in some reviews - age, previous divorces, even previous mental health issues - would not necessarily cause them to be rejected. In my experience prospective adoptive parents are not evaluated too harshly - after all, nobody is required to get prior approval to conceive a child!) Waiting for our darling daughter was a wonderful time from me and my husband (OK - a little nerve-wracking at times, but we knew it was just a matter of time.) We were excited and happy to anticipate sharing our lives with her. For Jill and Joe it seemed like a time fraught with arguments over careers, money (fighting over who would pay the adoptions fees is just downright insulting to the child!), whether or not they would even stay together and whether he even WANTS the little girl! If this book is indeed an accurate representation of their lives, they did not deserve to have her. I am extremely relieved that our adoption experience was nothing like this one, and I hope that other prospective adoptive parents are not put off by this book - it was wonderful experience for us, and not anywhere NEAR as complicated as portrayed here. That being said, Becky is here and Jill and Joe are the only parents she will ever know. I sincerely hope everything worked out as well as the book would have you belive. So I can't help but wish the family all the happiness in the world - BECKY deserves it!
Rating:
Summary: Self-indulgent twaddle
Review: This book was a major disappointment - an extremely self-indulgent, "woe-is-me because I can't have a baby" saga. I completely agree with the reviewers who found Jill and Joe to be a loathsome couple. They seem completely dysfunctional (not that this prevents other couples from creating biological children) and extremely selfish, with an overwhelming sense of entitlement. Having recently adopted a precious baby girl from China, I am surprised that the social worker handling their case approved them, given Joe's GREAT reluctance to be a father. (The other issues cited in some reviews - age, previous divorces, even previous mental health issues - would not necessarily cause them to be rejected. In my experience prospective adoptive parents are not evaluated too harshly - after all, nobody is required to get prior approval to conceive a child!) Waiting for our darling daughter was a wonderful time from me and my husband (OK - a little nerve-wracking at times, but we knew it was just a matter of time.) We were excited and happy to anticipate sharing our lives with her. For Jill and Joe it seemed like a time fraught with arguments over careers, money (fighting over who would pay the adoptions fees is just downright insulting to the child!), whether or not they would even stay together and whether he even WANTS the little girl! If this book is indeed an accurate representation of their lives, they did not deserve to have her. I am extremely relieved that our adoption experience was nothing like this one, and I hope that other prospective adoptive parents are not put off by this book - it was wonderful experience for us, and not anywhere NEAR as complicated as portrayed here. That being said, Becky is here and Jill and Joe are the only parents she will ever know. I sincerely hope everything worked out as well as the book would have you belive. So I can't help but wish the family all the happiness in the world - BECKY deserves it!
Rating:
Summary: Disappointing and disquieting
Review: This book was recommended to me by someone else going through the international adoption journey. As I am pursuing international adoption myself, I thought the book would be informative and interesting. Instead, it was disquieting to think that this shallow, dysfunctional couple passed the rigours of the homestudy to adopt from China. The happy ending seemed too pat and too easy. If the author had been able to lift her head and look past her own life at any point in the book, it might have been more interesting. Instead, the writer is completely focused on the agonizing on-again, off-again minutiae of her dysfunctional relationship with her husband. The larger issues of fertility, intercultural adoption, and women who have children only to satisfy some need to "have it all" are not explored. This book might be of interest to the author's immediate family. But I doubt it. They've lived the story, and I'm sure they have no wish to repeat it. I certainly have no desire to read the story again.
Rating: 
Summary: A Link to a Tragic Dilemma
Review: This is a tender, poignant exploration of Jill and Joe's long and often harrowing journey to parenthood. Because our children are faced with a similar predicament, it is even more touching to me. This couple's story opened doors of understanding at a feeling level that I otherwise could only have known intellectually.
Rating: 
Summary: Muy recomendable
Review: Yo también leí la versión en español "El deseo de tener un hijo". Jill Smolowe sin esconder nada de lo difícil del camino , nos da nuevas esperanzas a quienes nos encontramos en esta difícil situación.
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