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The Pumpkin Patch: A Single Woman's International Adoption Journey
The Pumpkin Patch chronicles the personal struggles of a single woman going through the international adoption process. It details how Schwartz travels half-way around the world and navigates the bureaucracy of Ukraine in order to find the boys who would become her two sons.
- GenresAdoption
334 pages, Paperback
First published June 30, 2005
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Displaying 1 - 4 of 4 reviews
August 8, 2010
With my recent attraction to international adoption, I bought this book last fall to read up on the subject. Schwartz adopted two children from the Ukraine a few years ago, and The Pumpkin Patch is her journal detailing her trials and adventures in bringing Rupert and Nicki back from Eastern Europe.
The book starts roughly a year before Schwartz goes to the Ukraine, and the bureaucracy she must go through for the process sounds about par for the course. Schwartz's adventures in Ukraine resound familiar to someone who spent roughly three years in Eastern Europe, and I must give her credit for not complaining too much in her journal for the comforts she gave up while overseas. The lying she encounters and the bribes she has to pay also sound familiar, but the stakes were also much higher than what I'm used to. (That experience just sounds scary, actually, knowing that the biggest decision of your life depends on some petty Eastern European bureaucrat's idea of whether or not the price is right. Or any petty bureaucrat, for that matter.)
Schwartz also brings to light some concerns that go with adopting, like Fetal Alcohol Syndrome, which I had never even thought about. In a poverty-stricken and booze-oriented culture, where the potato realizes its true potential, FAS is definitely something to think about. Schwartz even turns down a little girl, though she originally went to adopt two girls, because she has FAS, and instead adopts two boys.
The last third of the book centers around Schwartz settling in with her two new children. Her adventures as a new mother don't sound too different from the settling in with small children that most new parents go through, except for her perpetual worries that the boys' mental and physical health has been permanently damaged by their time at the orphanage.
All in all, a good read that has given me more things to think about when I get closer to that point in my life.
The book starts roughly a year before Schwartz goes to the Ukraine, and the bureaucracy she must go through for the process sounds about par for the course. Schwartz's adventures in Ukraine resound familiar to someone who spent roughly three years in Eastern Europe, and I must give her credit for not complaining too much in her journal for the comforts she gave up while overseas. The lying she encounters and the bribes she has to pay also sound familiar, but the stakes were also much higher than what I'm used to. (That experience just sounds scary, actually, knowing that the biggest decision of your life depends on some petty Eastern European bureaucrat's idea of whether or not the price is right. Or any petty bureaucrat, for that matter.)
Schwartz also brings to light some concerns that go with adopting, like Fetal Alcohol Syndrome, which I had never even thought about. In a poverty-stricken and booze-oriented culture, where the potato realizes its true potential, FAS is definitely something to think about. Schwartz even turns down a little girl, though she originally went to adopt two girls, because she has FAS, and instead adopts two boys.
The last third of the book centers around Schwartz settling in with her two new children. Her adventures as a new mother don't sound too different from the settling in with small children that most new parents go through, except for her perpetual worries that the boys' mental and physical health has been permanently damaged by their time at the orphanage.
All in all, a good read that has given me more things to think about when I get closer to that point in my life.
February 9, 2014
I always force myself to get to the end of a book, but this was so boring.
here's the whole story: Wealthy, white, single woman decides her clock is ticking and she wants to adopt two children. She specifically wants white, non infant, but not yet too old kids that she can pick and choose herself. She travels to a country strife with corruption and manages to choose two relatively healthy and young children. Thankfully she has a ton of wealthy family members and friends who fix up her new home while she's gone and a sister with an endless amount of spare time to stay with her in the Ukraine.
She gets home, has a tough time adjusting to being a parent but manages to feel like a family with her two boys by the end of the book.
I found the part where she says she cant afford to pay her nanny $15 an hour to watch her two young children, after she has just spent $50,000 to bring them home, pretty telling.
here's the whole story: Wealthy, white, single woman decides her clock is ticking and she wants to adopt two children. She specifically wants white, non infant, but not yet too old kids that she can pick and choose herself. She travels to a country strife with corruption and manages to choose two relatively healthy and young children. Thankfully she has a ton of wealthy family members and friends who fix up her new home while she's gone and a sister with an endless amount of spare time to stay with her in the Ukraine.
She gets home, has a tough time adjusting to being a parent but manages to feel like a family with her two boys by the end of the book.
I found the part where she says she cant afford to pay her nanny $15 an hour to watch her two young children, after she has just spent $50,000 to bring them home, pretty telling.
October 1, 2010
I checked this book out to learn about a single woman's journey to adopt. On Amazon, it had all good reviews. But some parts of the book disturbed me, so I returned it to the library.
The woman is a racist and an elitist snob. I was offended when she said that she did not want to adopt any black or African children, as they would not "look" like her. Excuse me, is skin color/hair your only physical characteristic?
In another part of the book, she complained about having to wait at Immigration for documents to adopt her children. What bothered me about this chapter was her tone of feeling as if it were "beneath her," to be in the same room as immigrants.
After reading these two "complaints," I found it hard to empathize with her, and didn't continue any further.
I understand she was expressing her feelings and opinions, but she wasn't likable to me.
The woman is a racist and an elitist snob. I was offended when she said that she did not want to adopt any black or African children, as they would not "look" like her. Excuse me, is skin color/hair your only physical characteristic?
In another part of the book, she complained about having to wait at Immigration for documents to adopt her children. What bothered me about this chapter was her tone of feeling as if it were "beneath her," to be in the same room as immigrants.
After reading these two "complaints," I found it hard to empathize with her, and didn't continue any further.
I understand she was expressing her feelings and opinions, but she wasn't likable to me.
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June 17, 2011I think that she has the right to complain about the bad treatment that she received in her adoption process. People are not going to buy a kid, it is a humanitarian issue, it is about a human been who need help, love and place to live and no one have the right to earn money or become rich approving or denying adoptions.
Displaying 1 - 4 of 4 reviews