About book Global Mom: Eight Countries, Sixteen Addresses, Five Languages, One Family (2013)
One mother's story of how she managed her own expectations, moved her family through multiple countries and languages - never living as an "ex-pat", but really digging into their new countries with language skills, church service, and total immersion. Then in her words "there is one terrain that's defined me more than any other: that is the land of loss. The very soil that no soul wants to visit." The writing is descriptive, funny, heart-wrenching. 4 stars, or maybe 3.5. Really didn't love it at first, but once I got accustomed to her longer prose writing style I started to enjoy it! Spoilers fyi. She tells about her family moving all over the world, living for a few years in Paris, Munich, Singapore, new jersey, and more. She has 4 children over the course of her life loses the eldest, parker, at age 18, when he dives into a whirlpool to try to help another boy, who escapes, and he gets stuck and drowns. This is the part of the story that helps me connect to the author the most. Obviously i have never lost a child, but I have experienced such strong feelings of grief and loss, and life just goes on, and no one really cares. She talked about that, about moving on, while literally moving on to new countries where no one knew her son, or her story. I feel like the next time someone tells me they lost someone, I can just cry with them, no matter how little I know them, because that is always what I want to do when I hear someone's story of grief or loss or trial. Since I hope to one day live abroad as well, specifically in paris, it was lovely to hear about the experiences of a fellow mormon in a place I want to live as well. It gave me hope, that despite the difficulties of parisian and french bureaucracy, there can be much happiness and light found as well.
Do You like book Global Mom: Eight Countries, Sixteen Addresses, Five Languages, One Family (2013)?
Very touching. I would really like to visit Paris and Singapore now!
—Soph
A beautifully written book. Laughed out loud and got teary-eyed.
—dante
