Lily Was the Valley: Undone by Adoption

Difficulty unlooked for. Loss unforeseen. Hope forever.

They’d never heard about the darker sides of adoption. Never counted on illness. Or loss. As for Dann, his head had always ruled his heart. Now Lily was dying, and he was about to find out just how little he knew about love.

Dann Robert Johnson’s humor and acute honesty hurtle the reader through a memoir that reads like fiction but shines with hope for the times real life deals us its worst. It’s for adoptive families. It’s for those who have lived cross-culturally. But more than anything it may be a story for adoptees who wonder if someone could have loved them before they came home. It’s the story of a flawless Lily in the darkest valley.

This gut-wrenching struggle through the mysterious strains of deepest love arrested me. It’s no fairy-tale version of a princess in a castle.

Dr. Ken Castor, adoptive father, 2002, and contributing editor for the Jesus Centered Bible.