There’s a feel and a mood in a small bookstore that you just don’t get at a Barnes & Noble.

That’s why I love popping into the Best of Times store in Red Wing. I especially like the fact that the bestsellers of the day are interspersed with older, surprise picks by the store owner. The girls wander around petting the life-sized stuffed dogs or pop into the kids’ house in back and I get to browse unhurriedly.

That’s where I recently found “Wuhu Diary: On Taking My Adopted Daughter Back to Her Hometown in China” by Emily Prager.

Published in 2002, it’s the story of a New York novelist’s two-month sojourn with her four-year-old, LuLu, in the southern Chinese city where Lulu was adopted. Four? Isn’t that too young, you ask? Prager explains that she wanted Lulu to see the country and the people through a child’s eyes, in a more pure way, if you will, instead of reacting to poverty and shabbiness.

It’s a lovely idea and the book is filled with evocative details - from the people who work at their hotel, to LuLu’s Chinese school with its unexpected roller-skating sessions and the public parks and lakes they stumble on during hot, humid afternoon walks.

The trip - traveling to literally find one’s self - is Prager’s gift to her daughter, and the book is a love letter to remember it by. By now, I’m sure LuLu is old enough to read and understand what she couldn’t then, including Prager’s internal battles over when to let go and when to hold on.

I haven’t adopted babies myself, but Prager’s themes will resonate with any mom: (more…)

From Cribsheet’s inbox….

Hi Kay and May,

I love the blog - thanks for all the great postings! I’ve got kind of a heavy question for the Cribsheet Crowd…

My husband and I went through two years of infertility treatment and finally had a beautiful little boy, who is now 3 years old. We’ve been trying for 18 months to have a second child with no luck, and the emotional stress is really getting to us.

We really want more children, though, so we’ve been talking about adoption. I’ve seen some adoptions that turned out beautifully, but I’ve also seen some adoption “horror stories” from families who have had trouble adjusting. I feel deep compassion for the kids out there who need homes, but I really want to make sure it’s the right choice for my family.

Do any Cribsheeters have advice or adoption stories? I’m especially interested in how to best bond biological children with adopted children, and whether people chose domestic or international adoption and why. Any help would be greatly appreciated!

- Jen from St. Paul

If any of you were listening to MPR this morning, you would have heard the fascinating discussion with Deborah Spar, author of “The Baby Business.”

Spar is a Harvard business professor who thinks we should call the $4-billion industry of in vitro fertilization services and adoption what it is - a business. And then regulate it better.

Spar is speaking over lunch hour today at the University of Minnesota and Strib medical reporter Josephine Marcotty will be there. Josephine and I worked on our series  on infertility over the summer and Spar’s book was essential reading for us. 

She’ll post her thoughts on the talk when she gets back. So check back later today.

We’ve all heard of the high-flying executive who quits to “spend time with family.” But here’s a couple who are really going to unusual lengths.

Former Sun Country Airlines CEO Shaun Nugent and his wife Chris Denton have given up their jobs to spend most of their time in Guatemala where they’re trying to see through their adoption of a little girl before a Jan. 1 deadline. That’s when Guatemala stops allowing adoptions to the U.S.

Here’s the Strib story today.

A New Hope adoption agency, Reaching Arms International, is being investigated by the A-G after families said the agency took thousands of dollars but the babies didn’t always come through. Those that did finally adopt did so only after, as one parent put it, “much heartbreak, coercion and added cost,” according to this Strib story.

One tearful woman at Wednesday’s news conference held up a picture of a 14-month-old Guatemalan girl she and her husband had visited in February. “We don’t know when we will get her.”