Memoirs of a Baby Stealer: Lessons I've Learned as a Foster Mother

Rating:
Summary: Great book - smart, honest, insightful
Review: Considering Callahan's choice to raise therapeutic-level foster children (children diagnosed with behavioral and emotional abilities) one is first impressed with the author's ambition.

But it is the honesty, the frank and sometimes humorous descriptions of the successes and failures that endeared this reader to the book itself.

Callahan is a smart and intuitive foster mother, trained as an emergency-room nurse, who is great with the kids and has a special ability to step outside of the complex and emotional circumstances in which she finds herself. One is struck by the conclusions she arrives at as she is able to consider the situations in a clinical objective fashion. At one point she diagnoses a child in her care to have a rare genetic disorder, an affliction missed by doctors and social workers who had been shuffling the child around in the "system" for years.

It is the sudden and clear insights offered by Callahan during the tale that are most impressive about this story. Combined with true caring and compassion, common-sense offered in a world gone down the rabbit hole, this is a well-written, an easy and enjoyable read.

I think that this book is more than just a must for anyone who has had contact with the foster care system - I think that non-foster parents with teenagers will also find it to be a moving and worthwhile read about the struggles of raising children.

Callahan has become well-known in Maine recently as an activist looking to improve the foster care system, and a bright and articulate spokesmen for the children and parents who encounter foster care. This is a writer with many dimensions, extensive personal experience, and growing respect and influence in the foster care community.

Rating:
Summary: Opening our eyes to the foster care system
Review: Mary Callahan's "Memoirs of a Baby Stealer" provides a frank first-hand account of the challenges of being a foster parent and dealing with the foster care system in Maine. If the experience of being such a care giver is not daunting enough, the lack of support and hostility faced, at times, from those administering the rules of the child welfare system would have been enough to dissuade even the most ardent of caretakers. It seeems as if one did not ask questions regarding the well being of children in their care or question their authority, things ran as always. Ms. Callahan vividly chronicles the challenges in the lives of five of her foster children. Hopefully, through her perseverance in presenting their stories, those who are in a position to do so will be motivated to improve the plight and lives of all of those in foster care.

Rating:
Summary: Incredible book
Review: This book is really amazing. I work for an operating foundation that works with children in foster care. This book is an amazing look at the "other side" of the fence. So often we hear from the child's perspective, or from the state's perspective...so good to hear from the foster parents, the ones who raise these kids. Great book.