No biking in the house without a helmet / Melissa Fay Greene.

Rated 5 out of 5 stars in Amazon customer reviews.

This is a very heartwarming and fun book. I am a mother and before I read this nonfiction book, I wondered how anyone who already has four children could possibly think about adopting more, especially those from overseas countries with different cultures and languages. Greene and her husband lived a comfortable life with their four growing children, and children were a large part of their zest for life: "Donny and I feel most alive, most thickly in the cumbersome richness of life, with children underfoot. The things we like to do, we would just as soon do with children." Now that their own children were getting older, she began to think about adoption and finally adopted, one at a time, five children from overseas. I loved this book for the genuine love and enthusiasm the Greene family had toward each other and then extended to the five newcomers. The orphaned children came from very sad circumstances and it was heartbreaking to read how very desperate they were for a mother and a home. Everyone had to make adjustments in their lives with the adoptions, including Greene herself who sometimes had strong doubts as to whether she was doing the right thing. Apart from Greene's own reasons for adding to her family, I think of her adoptions as a wonderful humanitarian gesture toward children who had their lives so dramatically changed for the better. It's lovely to read of their post-adoption lives. And throughout, Greene relates her experiences in a lively, often very funny, way.

American Library Association's Booklist review: Greene (Praying for Sheetrock, 1991) has written what has to be termed a truly heartfelt memoir about the foreign adoption of five children during the past decade. It was not a casual decision for Greene and her husband to add siblings to their four biological children, but the onset of empty nest syndrome and a long-ingrained delight in a full house prompted them to look outward. Her detailed descriptions of traveling to foreign countries, making awkward first adoption contact, and later discovering and embracing her children's still-living family members makes for one touching reunion after another. She resists the urge to be cloying, however, infusing each chapter with a strong dose of humor and not shying away from the difficulties presented by adopting older children. The struggle to break through sometimes stoic demeanors is tempered by the delight of her new Ethiopian children in dominating sports in a way their American siblings never could (many funny moments here). It's all one big, happy family but also a very real one. Call them the twenty-first-century Waltons, and revel in the joy they have found and brought home for keeps.