Going on a Book Hunt

After my last posting, more than three months ago, I learned that my baby, our third pregnancy, already 20 weeks along, had a fatal chromosome disorder. I had written so happily in that last post about our favorite baby-themed books and my youngest daughter’s excitement about expecting a baby of our own. It’s difficult to remember that blissful period when everything was as it should be. As my mom put it, I had lived a very “charmed” life in my first 29 years, and the pain of so unexpectedly losing this baby was something I could never have imagined and is something I simply don’t have the strength to describe with insufficient words.

Although I’ve never achieved my idealized goal of posting a new review every week, it has been difficult to be away from this blog for so many months now. In the midst of my suffering, I began composing this next blog, in part because I’ve been eager to share this book with you but also to honor my sisters, who helped me through what I thought I could never survive.

I turned 30 this week, on the third of July. I suspect I wouldn’t normally have had trouble passing this milestone, but I found it difficult to do so while still recovering from what I can only hope is the worst tragedy of my life. Again, it was the presence and support of my sisters, and family, that buoyed me and reminded me that life still has promises of great happiness.

And so this book, “Big Red Lollipop,” a story about the bonds of sisters surviving through thick and very thin, has stuck with me. The process of reviewing it over these past few days has restored a very important part of my identity and happiness, giving me back the confidence and the stamina to share one of my greatest passions – beautiful, meaningful children’s books just like this.

My Sisters