Book Review of, “My Sister Abby,” by Allison Barberi

Lately, I’ve been catching up on my reading. I’ve ordered a few hundred dollars worth of books from Amazon this year already. Some, I’m giving as gifts, but some are to diversify our family’s library. I bought this book, “My Sister Abby,” by Allison Barberi because of the picture on the front (I’m just being honest here!). The two little girls on the cover reminded me of my youngest two girls, Baby Girl and Middle Girl. Like the sisters in the book they share a room, giggle, laugh, and play together and enjoy dancing. It was a perfect add to our library!

This sweet easily read story is written from the point of view of the sister, Emma. Emma talks about when she was three years old her parents adopted her sister, Abby from Africa. She describes the changes that Abby went through coming into a new family and about how she and her sister became best friends. The type of adoption discussed in this book is international multicultural adoption, but the adoption story has similar traits that many can relate to in all adoptions. The book discusses it taking time for a new family member to become comfortable after adoption. I also love how it shows that some of our best friends in life will be our family! I am very excited to read this book to my youngest two before bed tonight! They too are best friends and if God and the courts see fit, maybe one day they too will be sisters forever!

Disclaimer: I am in no way affiliated with or employed by anyone or any company responsible for publishing this book. I am simply a boring stay-at-home mama sharing my personal opinion of a book that I’ve recently added to our family’s library.

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Sharing a room

I just walked down the hall to get the laundry from baskets (who am I kidding, it was on the floor) and overheard the sweetest conversation between Middle Girl and Baby Girl.  Middle Girl is 7 years old now and is the best big sister!  She loves Baby Girl so much and is so excited to see her every morning and every day after school!  The girls play well together and slowly, but surely Middle Girl is teaching Baby Girl about all things “girlie.”  Baby Girl is 17 months old and still has not slept through the night completely, so she still sleeps in a crib in my room.  Middle Girl; however is so anxious for the two of them to share a room.

Conversation Overheard:

Middle Girl- “When you are a big girl, like maybe three of four you’re going to come move in with me in my room.”

Baby Girl- “da, ba…boo… ba, da.”

Middle Girl- “We’ll put our beds next to each other and both of us will sleep in here together.”

Baby Gril- “ooo, ba, da, ba.”

My heart swelled with pride at Middle Girl’s willingness to share and then dread filled my heart… should I correct her?  Should I tell her that there is a very real possibility that Baby Girl will not live here long enough to share a room with her?  We’ve always told the big kids that this situation could be for just today or it could be for forever… I’ve made it clear many times, but kids just don’t think like that.  They are sisters.  They always will be, so for now I will let her tell Baby Girl all of her dreams about the future and about sharing a room.

Sisters and stopping to smell the flowers

Sometimes life gets so complicated and busy.  When that happens, my youngest (bio) daughter is perfect at breaking me out of the craziness of life and getting me to stop and “smell the roses.”  She has such a special bond with Baby Girl and today the two of them stopped to smell (and pick) some flowers together after church.  The moment was so precious!  I ran into the house to grab my camera, so that I could catch it on film!

 

I am so happy that Baby Girl has the opportunity to have such a caring and loving big sister and in turn I am overjoyed that my youngest gets the opportunity to care for and love her little sister!  They both bring so much joy to this family every single day!