Book Comment: Addition By Adoption, Kids, Causes and 140 Characters

Back in my CCM Magazine days, Kevin Hendricks was one of my favorite book reviewers, and the only one from my adopted home state of Minnesota.

And not only did Kevin always turn in stellar copy on a tight deadline, which always makes an editor's life 1,495 times better, but you can't help liking someone with a communications company called Monkey Outta Nowhere.

Yeah, their tagline is "trained to write, edit & roller-skate.

And now, Kevin has a new book to add to his many accolades titled Addition By Adoption, Kids, Causes and 140 Characters. Putting his time spent on Twitter to valuable (and comical) use, he waxes poetic on everything from temper tantrums to throw up and everything in between.

And now a few words from the husband/father/writer/editor himself:

Has adoption always been something close to your heart? How was that love cultivated? Adoption is something my wife and I have always talked about, but it became something we couldn’t ignore after we had our first child and were thinking about number two. It just became time to stop talking about it and do it. I couldn’t point to any one thing that prompted that decision, but it just made a lot of sense. Practically speaking it’s a no-brainer (kids need families, we need a kid) and from a faith perspective it echoes the gospel story. And it helps that my wife hated being pregnant.

When did you and your wife decide to adopt? Once you made the decision, walk us through the process. How long did the process take?I don’t remember a specific moment when we said, ‘yes, we’re adopting,’ but it came together in the summer of 2007. We officially started the process in August. We finished up the initial meetings, paperwork, home study and dossier by the end of 2007. Then we waited. Eleven months later in December of 2008 we got a picture of our little boy. In March of 2009 we traveled to Ethiopia to meet Milo. So the total process took 19 months.

You had some very unique fundraising efforts to raise support. Tell us a little about that. We tried a few different things, including a massive garage sale where we collected items from at least 30 different families. We didn’t price anything and just asked people to make a donation. The first day of the sale it snowed and we had to set up in our living room, but it was a huge success. We also sent out letters to friends and family and I offered to shave my head if we raised $2,000. We received about twice that and I became bald for the first time.  I’ve since offered to shave my head twice more and raised about $2,700 for charity: water on two different occasions (the most recent included a mohawk ). I think my head is about tapped out as a funding source.

How did your book, Addition by Adoption, Kids, Causes & 140 Characters come together? It started pretty simply. I was already posting all the funny things my kids did and said on Twitter and I wanted to share that with my grandparents. Of course they’re not on Twitter, so I needed a new medium. That’s when I came up with the idea of a book and I realized it might appeal to more than my grandma. As I put the book together it became more than just a ‘Kids Say the Darndest Things’ book. It told the story of my son’s adoption.

Given your love of social media, was this something that naturally came out of that? Why did you decide to approach your book this way?I had already created the content on Twitter and the book just became a new way to share that content. Essentially it’s just curating and repackaging my Twitter feed in a more digestible format—cutting out a lot of the junk and links and unnecessary stuff and focusing on the story that’s buried beneath all those daily updates. In the end it felt like a very natural way to share my family’s adoption story. You get a real sense for how much time the process takes and how life goes on even as the maddening wait gets longer and longer. I’m not sure you’d get the same effect in straight prose.

Where can people pick up a copy? Also, tell us a little bit about the charities it benefits.The book is actually raising money for charity: water, an organization that provides clean water to people who don’t have it. It’s not directly benefiting adoption, but it is addressing poverty—a root cause of the orphan crisis throughout the world. The idea is that if families have clean water they don’t get sick and die, they don’t have to spend all their time gathering water so they can earn more money, stay healthier and fewer children will find themselves needing new families. Amazon is the easiest place to pick up a copy. The book is $9.99 and $2 will be donated to charity: water. You can also order a special ‘Awesome Edition’ directly from me for $20. It’s autographed, shipping is included and (the awesome part) we donate $12 to charity: water.

What's the average day like in the Hendricks' household now that it's grown by two children? How do you keep your sanity while working on your writing?

Yeah, this summer we adopted 11-year-old Yeshumnesh and now the children outnumber us. I’m not sure we have an average day. Our house is a disaster, Milo screams a lot and Lexi runs around in her underwear. That’s kind of the norm. And I don’t think I have much sanity left for writing. I’m usually left with small windows of time, like whenever the kids are sleeping or otherwise occupied. Sesame Street is a lifesaver. I also work in the evenings after my wife gets home, but it’s definitely not easy. We rely on a lot of friends and grace and hope and somehow we make it through. At least we have so far.

What was your daughter's reaction to her adoptive brother and sister? Was she equally excited about the prospect?I think Lexi has had a very different experience with both of our adoptions. Milo was 5 months old when he came home and Yeshumnesh was almost 11. Lexi could hold and comfort Milo, but she had to learn to knock on Yeshumnesh’s door (pre-teen privacy and all). I think she fell in love with both of them, but both cases were big transitions for her. That’s true any time you bring a new child into your family, whether by birth or adoption.I realized the other day that none of my children are related to each other by blood. They’re bound together by something more. I think that gives all our kids a new understanding of family. For the longest time Lexi thought babies came from Ethiopia, not the hospital.

Where can people find your work online?

I’m always blogging at KevinDHendricks.com and posting continual updates at Twitter.com/KevinHendricks. Probably not as frequently since we have three kids in the house, but often enough. You can also see my work as the editor of the church communications blog ChurchMarketingSucks.com.

Comments

[Kevin D. Hendricks]

Thanks for the kind words, Christa!