FROM MAYBE TO FOREVER

A child awaits her baby sister’s adoption.

Gold’s author’s note says she asked her then-5-year-old granddaughter, credited co-author Fong, “If one of your friends said to you, ‘I know your baby brother is adopted, but what does that mean?’ what would you tell them?” This fictionalized account of Fong’s response is about a little girl (who presents as a child of color in a mixed-race family) who draws pictures of the baby her family is adopting. As they await the baby’s arrival, the unnamed child explains to her pet dog, Buddy, “what adopting means.” The explanation presents a private-adoption scenario in which “there are mothers who love their babies but know it’s better for the baby to live with another family.” Such a tidy statement skirts trauma, systemic inequities, and losses inherent in the birthparents–adoptive parents–child triad. Also troubling is the spread reading, “Even after we get a baby, it is still only our maybe baby until a judge says that the baby can stay with our family forever.” An accompanying quasi-courtroom scene shows adults caring for babies before a judge who marks an A+ on a chalkboard, which renders adoption-finalization waiting periods as a test for adoptive parents, not time for birthparent reflection or consideration of the child’s best interests.

Maybe not.