Notes from Nobody: A Loving, Caring, Helping Gift for One Mother's Adopted Out Lives

Rating:
Summary: Midwest Book Review - touching and honest
Review: The subtitle of this book does, indeed, provide a telling introduction to the author's story: "A loving, helping, caring gift for one mother's adopted out lives." The two children she adopted out were both conceived in love. They never left her heart.

Ms. VanLydegraf most assuredly had a lot of love to give if only life had turned in her favor. But both "princes" she loved and dreamed about as husbands turned out not to be so charming. It was the early 1960's when her youth and naievete got in the way of better judgement. The era of flower power and free love, in her case, was anything but free. She found herself young, pregnant, abandoned, and short on options in those days. What support her parents might have offered was limited by debilitating disease.

In this true story, the author bluntly and honestly details the tragedy of unmarried pregnancy and the adoption process, what leads up to it as well as what haunts all parties afterwards for decades. The reunion with both adopted out sons is joyous, but remains bittersweet around the edges. Her heart and spirit were changed by life experience. She will never be the same, despite establishing relationships with both the sons she gave up in her teens. That is the poignant message delivered in Notes From Nobody. Mother Love cannot always conquer all, but it keeps trying no matter what.

Rating:
Summary: A Book that had to be Written
Review: This is a timely, no-holds barred story of what happens when a mother, because of the circumstances of her life, must give up her children to adoption and of her lifelong need to find them. The author speaks from experience, which gives her book an authentic ring. It was one she had to write in order to come to terms with her life experience. Her readers are happy she did, especially all those who have undergone a similar experience.