The Flamingo Family book series

We tried for a child for eight years. It was an immensely challenging and emotional time. We started to research adoption and decided this was something we wanted to pursue. We waited three years to adopt our son. It was a long and draining process and at times we felt like giving up. Thankfully an amazing social worker came to our rescue and within a few months we were told we might be matched to a baby who had not yet been born. While on holiday we got an email telling us our potential son had been born and was doing well. We were toldhis name and how much he weighed. It was surreal.

Over the years we didn’t feel there were many books available to helpour son understand his adoption journey. In more recent years, he hasasked a lot of questions such as, ‘How did you find me?’ and ‘Was I lost?’During the first lockdown I decided to write my first children’s book. It was a life changing experience. My goal was to write a colourful and engaging story that would help all children understand adoption better. Eddy Finds a Family is unique in that it explains both the parent and child’s journey through adoption.

My first book was a tribute to our son, which was incredibly motivating. Itmeant so much to give him this gift as his mummy. He is my chief editor, asking questions about the characters and commenting on the illustrations. It has been wonderful for him to have such involvement and having a child’s perspective helped fine-tune the story, so I hadconfidence it wouldappeal to many children and they would get great joy from the characters.

As the topic of adoption is extremely sensitive, I had to ensure the content was precise, accurate and up to date. I worked closely over several months with our social worker to proofread and edit everyfiner detail. 

I’m grateful to Adoption UK, who wrote such positive reviews and also agreed to endorse my second book, Eddy Feels at Home. This latest story focuses on Eddy settling in with his new family and highlights the ups and downs in the early stages of adoption. I am keen to keep building The Flamingo Family book series and am planning the next book Eddy Goes to School. I believe it is key for adoption to be discussed in primary education. I have engaged many school contacts and am working on introducing an Eddy school pack. Adoptive families are incredibly diverse, and I’m also looking for ways to adapt my original book idea to cover single parents and same sex couples. 

I have been delighted by the response to my books, and have had a lot of lovely messages from families. I also see a difference in my own son, who now identifies with Eddy and recognises that the stories relate to his life story. 

Please take a look at my website.www.theflamingofamily.co.uk