Jul 19, 2014

Hello, I Love You: Adventures in Adoptive Fatherhood by Ted Kluck

Hello, I Love You
Published May 13, 2010; Moody Publishers
Genre: memoir

Publisher description:
There's nothing like adoption to make a grown man cry. Repeatedly. 

In this humorous and honest memoir, Ted Kluck-father, writer, and sports fan-details his adoption of his two sons from Ukraine. While not always self-flattering, his complaints and struggles will provoke laughter, some fear, and self-examination. In the first part of his memoir, Ted reveals the chaos the Kluck's first international adoption, the adoption of his son Tristan.
An Excerpt from the Book's Introduction:
            This book began as a journal-some spiral-bound notebooks that came with me to Ukraine the first time, and which contained letters that I wrote to Tristan during the experience. In the first half of the book, it reads like I'm addressing Tristan directly, while the second half is a more straightforward narrative of Dima's adoption. They're both love letters to my boys, and the whole thing is a love letter to Kristin, my wife.            You'll also notice lots of frank, often sarcastic prose about cultural differences-usually with the author as the punch line, as it was my inability to deal with these differences that provided a lot of humor (in retrospect) and anger (at the time).            There's also some tough content regarding infertility. If this is something you've struggled with in your marriage, I hope this chapter encourages you, and I hope you feel less alone in your struggle. If you've been blessed with biological children, please don't feel guilty for having them, or in any way judged or made fun of by the observations in that chapter (see also: It not being you, but me).            Finally, the book contains lots of stories of God's faithfulness-stories that we thought were too meaningful not to be told.  (from g0odreads)
I met Ted Kluck and his family for the first time today, when he visited as the guest speaker at our writing group meeting. This book is his story of the adoption of his two sons from the Ukraine.

4 comments:

  1. This sounds good. I deeply appreciate parents who present themselves in a way that is not always self-flattering. It's tempting to only share versions of your story that make it look like you always have a handle on the parenting thing. As a very flawed mom, I appreciate people who keep it real.

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  2. I like the fact that as you describe it, Ted Klurk is not always self flattering. I think that is important in a memoir.

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  3. Actually Brian, those are Klurk's own words describing his book on goodreads. A different approach to a memoir.

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  4. This sounds like a good memoir.
    Neat that you met the author.

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