In a recent blog, And Now for Something Completely Frivolous, I named some Danielle Steel novels that had adoption-related themes. Steel also has an entire novel devoted to infertility and adoption.
Mixed Blessings begins with three weddings on the same day, and follows these couples through the early years of their marriages.
I don’t want to give too much of the plot away, but here are some characters you will meet.
— A woman in her forties who has adult stepchildren and never thought she wanted babies of her own, suddenly finds herself rethinking that decision. Her new husband, a widower, is about to become a grandfather.
–A man who was raised in various foster homes longs for a spouse and children of his own.
–A couple deals with one spouse who is reluctant to have a child and one who yearns for one ardently.
Topics the novel deals with include: couple relationships when one partner is infertile (the man in one couple, the woman in another); infertility treatments; jealousy of adult children and stepchildren; relationships with siblings and friends who constantly ask when you’re having children; miscarriage and newborn loss; divorce; foster care adoption; adopting a stepchild; and domestic infant adoption—including meeting an expectant couple, being nervous when a birthmother wants to visit before signing final papers, and having children by both birth and adoption.
Although my experience was of international adoption so I did not personally experience the situations in this book, Steel brought her characters to life. Steel’s novel is definitely not a scientific or legal guide to adoption, but she seems to have done at least preliminary research. I like that she tells parallel, almost-but-not-quite intersecting stories (one wedding was being held at the hotel where another pair of newlyweds went after the wedding) about couples we can feel for.
Steel gives some insight into the love parents feel for adopted children and the fears they have before the adoption is finalized.
The birthparents in the newborn adoption are portrayed positively and I hope that will help people avoid some stereotypes about birthparents. (That they are university students, not teenagers, also fits with the majority of U.S. birthmothers according to current statistics.)
The story also reminds us of the pain of infertility and of insensitive comments by others, such as challenging them for seemingly putting career over having children when it may be that they have no choice.
Other novels we’ve reviewed here in the adoption blog are Digging to America and Beyond the Blue.