Okay, okay. I know this is a book about adoption from China. So why, you ask, are you including it in your Russian adoption blog?

Simple. It's the first book I read to Big J about adoption when we were first thinking about it. We'd already decided to adopt from Russia but at that time there were no books on Russian adoption available for children. It's also the book that inspired my book, When I Met You: A Story of Russian Adoption. I wanted to write something personal, just like I Love You Like Crazy Cakes, and sweet. I also wanted to write something accessible. I wanted to write something for our Russian-born children that's as special as Crazy Cakes is for children from China. When I Met You isn't a copy of Crazy Cakes or anything like that, but I definitely got a lot of inspiration from it.

I also think the story of this book is easily accessible to all adopted children. It goes like this: I wanted a child, and that child happened to be in China. So I went to get you and when I got you I was deliriously happy. The end. Insert "Russia," "Guatamala," "Michigan," "the hospital," or "Timbuktu" in place of "China" and the meaning remains the same.

The only downside is that when I read it to Big J he fell in love with the idea of adopting... a little girl from China. "I don't want a brother from Russia," he said, "I want a sister from China."

It was too late at that point - our dossier was already in the works and we'd signed with an agency - but I loved that my little boy was starting to show interest in his new sibling-to-be. Up until we read this book I think it was too theoretical for his 4-year-old mind. But Crazy Cakes helped change that for him. I am very thankful!