Disclosure / Disclaimer: I received this ebook, free of charge, from She Writes Press Books, via #netgalley, for review purposes on this blog. No other compensation, monetary or in kind, has been received or implied for this post. Nor was I told how to post about it. All opinions are my own.
September is FASD Awareness Month, so this book is EVRY timely!
Synopsis
Preschool Clare enchanted with belly laughs and shining smiles. Also, thrashed and wailed in her room as Lynn crouched on her own bed—pillow clutched over her head—her past trauma triggered. A pre-teen trip to Haiti brought sunshine, ruby red hibiscus blooms, and the music of Haitian Creole. Back at home, Clare shattered mirrors into shards on the subway tiles of their bathroom. And just before her thirteenth birthday, as she and Lynn walked hand in hand through their neighborhood, Clare calmly detailed her plan to die.
Over the next years, Lynn and her family walked through psychiatric hospitals, along the Appalachian Trail, and in and out of residential placements, marriage, faith, and sanity barely surviving the journey. But then Lynn learned about fetal alcohol spectrum disorder (FASD)—a source of neurodivergence in one in twenty American children—and discovered the FASCETS Neurobehavioral Model, a strengths-based approach to celebrating and accommodating neurodiversity. It was a discovery that transformed them all.
At times joyous, at times harrowing, but always full of love, Tinderbox is a mother’s story of brokenness, unrelenting resilience, and hope.
Review:
Adoption is not always peace love and lollipops. Often (mostly from my experience), it comes with trauma, drama, heartache and a deep learning curve for neurodiversity- due to either fetal issues or environmental ones. What that generally means is adoptive parents finds themselves behind 'the punt', having to take their child to different types of doctors/psychologists, going through tests/medicines/therapies, and all in an attempt 'to see what works' for that ONE child. In this book, Alsup takes us through her family's story of the induced trauma, and it's consequences and how they coped.
Not much is really in the public eye about FASD, yet it is is as common as 6-9 children out of every 1000 school age in some areas. While that may seem small, remember ADD is now 9% of the same amount of children, and frequently FASD can be misdiagnosed as ADD, so that stats could actually be higher. While this book is a memoir, it is an important look at how FASD can manifest itself in adoptive children, and coping strategies for both the child and parent. I highly recommend this book if you have a child with possible FASD, or if they are adopted and have ADD/are neurodivergent, as you may see symptoms that could be crossing over.
About the Author:
Lynn Alsup is an author, social worker, and spiritual director. Her three extraordinary, neurodivergent daughters led her to FASCETS, where she now trains parents and professionals in the Neurobehavioral Model―a paradigm that fosters celebration and accommodation of neurodiversity. She lives with her family on the edge of the Chihuahuan desert in Midland, TX, building resilience and joy through writing, yoga, wide-open spaces, and snuggling her four-legged rescuer, Bryn the Bassador.
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