A Children's Book About Adoption
From a Birthmother's Perspective
Growing Grace is a story about adoption from the perspective of a girl who discovers she is going to have a baby.
The reader is taken on a journey with the young mother as she struggles to do what she believes is best for the baby who is growing inside her.
Inviting the birth mother’s perspective into the conversation allows a unique opportunity for parents to have a dialogue with their children to help them navigate and understand, in their own way, how their own life may have began.
Written in simple and appropriate language with beautiful illustrations, Growing Grace is an ideal read-to book, for children as young as preschool-age.
This is a tribute, not only to the child who has been adopted, but also expresses appreciation, honor, and recognition of adoptive parents and biological parents alike. It is intended to spark questions, facilitate communication, and foster an exploration of what each family’s adoption means for them.
What Readers Say
“As I read the words and soaked up the illustrations, I began to think about how many young girls and/or women have gone through this similar experience and their various circumstances. This beautifully stated and illustrated book is needed. It is needed to give this story and stories like this a voice. It is needed for healing and it is needed to show that human connection is real.”
Crystal Robison Gould
Mother of two children adopted from China
“As I read the words and soaked up the illustrations, I began to think about how many young girls and/or women have gone through this similar experience and their various circumstances. This beautifully stated and illustrated book is needed. It is needed to give this story and stories like this a voice. It is needed for healing and it is needed to show that human connection is real.”
Michelle Cauley
LCSW
“I was prepared to be greatly disappointed. I wasn’t. And my daughter wasn’t. I adored it… Visually stunning, honest, and emotional… vulnerable enough to stir questions… heartfelt and tender.”
Ashely Mitchell
President Lifetime Healing LLC
“Growing Grace is a pure pull to the heartstring in the sweetest of ways. As an adoptee, it is so warming and validating to see oneself in story; a lovely reminder that our narrative is not one of rejection, but one of love and light. We need more books like this to reflect how different families look and feel. ”
Erica Bonham
MA, LPC
“This is the only book I have found that speaks to the unconditional love of a birth mom, communicated in simple, straight-forward words that a young child will understand. The illustrations are as gorgeous as the story itself! As an adoptive mom, I consider Growing Grace one of my go-tos for opening up conversation and re-iterating the timeless love of our birth mom for our child.”
Alison England
Author of Tandem
“It’s been 40 years since my own adoption and my light still glows strongly within my heart… a beacon that for many, goes unanswered. Mason’s vulnerability brings a closeness in her writing that all readers will be able to respect and connect with. Her journey will give hope and strength to girls (almost grown-up or not), and to those of us whose beacons shine brightly – knowing a mother’s light shines somewhere for them too.”
Jason Duguay
School Teacher
“As an adoptive mother, I’m so glad that I now have a book to help explain the love of my child’s birth mother, and that placing her for adoption was truly an act of enduring love. As an adoption professional, I will highly recommend Mason’s book to my adoptive families, and I’m hopeful it will become a staple in the children’s library of any family touched by adoption!”
Katie Zimmerman
Founder of Purl Adoption Advisory
“I am a Birth Mother, and chose to place my daughter with a family in a loving open adoption. (In) the impossible decision to place our children, we have held on to the faith that one day our children might know our true sacrifice and love for them. Thank you Erin and Layal for Growing Grace, and for allowing my daughter the gift of my story and so many Birth Mother’s stories.”
Alexis Brunstedt
Birth Mother
