Bedtime Stories for Girls of Destiny | Raeleigh Wilkinson

1. [Chieko Nishimura Okazaki] "Do you see women of different ages, races, or different backgrounds in the Church? Of different educational, marital and professional experiences? Women with children? Women without children? Women of vigorous health and those who are limited by chronic illness or handicaps? Rejoice in the diversity of our sisterhood! It is the diversity of colors in a spectrum that makes a rainbow." (11)

2. [Sahar Qumsiyeh] "My country has never experienced peace, but now I feel my heart has enough peace to cover the entire country of Palestine." (79)

3. [Emily Bates] "Sometimes, people ask Emily about the conflicts between religion and science, and she says simply that they are complementary approaches to finding the truth.  When science and religion seem to conflict, Emily prays and studies.  Through the Spirit, she discerns what is true or how the two concepts can work together.  She believes everything good is from God and that all truth leads to Him." (21)

4. [Julia Mavimbela] "I give thanks to God that he has made me a woman.  I give thanks to my Creator that he has made me black, that he has fashioned me as I am with my hands, heart, head to serve my people.  It can, it should be a glorious thing to be a woman." (39)

5. [Noelle Pikus-Pace] "Rise above it all, whatever holds you back, and become who you want to become." (67)

***

5/5. This book is a beautiful compilation of inspired women and their stories.  This is geared toward a younger audience in the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter day Saints, and it's such a fun book to have on hand as I teach my own daughters. The stories are diverse and beautiful, and the artwork is equally stunning!

The Three Mothers | Anna Malaika Tubbs

LOUISE:

   1. “It is time for the honor many quietly pay Black mothers to become as loud as Alberta’s choir, as consistent as Berdis’s love, as strong as Louise’s fight.” (219)

   2.  “Louise was especially strict with Malcolm because he was so much like her. She knew firsthand how dangerous things could become for someone so strong willed, so she did her best to steer his energy and intelligence in the right direction. Malcolm learned more from what he saw in Louise than what she said directly to him. He too demanded what he knew he deserved, and he stood up for himself. She had strict rules for her children because she wanted to protect them, but like her son, she was a rebel who did not let rules restrict her.” (131)

   3. “For Louise, surviving meant never allowing fear to keep you from speaking the full truth, never being afraid of what you might lose in the fight for what was right.” (199)

   4.  “Louise, with her almost century on this earth, would leave an indelible print on the lives of millions, most of whom are still unaware of her name.” (188)

  5. “The mother is the first teacher of the child. The message she gives that child, that child gives to the world. -Malcolm X” (178)

BERDIS: 

  1. “David’s funeral took place a few days later… Berdis was not there. She was attending to her newborn and perhaps already focusing on her new life, free from him. Years later, Berdis’s grandson would describe Paula’s birth as completing Berdis’s solar system, with Berdis in the middle and her nine children surrounding her. He would also describe David’s death as the moment that allowed Berdis’s light to fully shine like the sun. She’s lost both of her parents, she was isolated in the North, away from family, and she was now a single mother of nine at the age of forty-one. She would have to do whatever she could to provide for her children, but she would, as she always had, find a way.” (115)

  2.  “For Berdis, living life to the fullest centered around being able to find love and joy for yourself no matter how hard others tried to take it away from you.” (199)

  3.  “We are all walking in terrible darkness here, and this is one man’s attempt to bear witness to the reality and the power of light. -James Baldwin” (152)

  4.  “I saw my mother’s face again, and felt, for the first time, how the stones of the road she had walked on must have bruised her feet. James Baldwin” (178)

 5. “…we must do a better job of recording our stories and sharing our truths, not only with our immediate networks but with as many people as possible. It is only a disservice when we hide ourselves, when our children do not know what we have gone through and how we survived it, when we allow others to define who we are.” (218) 

ALBERTA:

  1. “Alberta Christine Williams King is best known for being the mother of the revered Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr…. Alberta’s work did not stop when she got married, it did not stop when she became a mother, it did not stop when her heart was weighed down by anxiety over the danger her children faced, it didn’t even stop when she buried her sons. Alberta used her family teachings, her own training, her love for her family, her deepest pain, and her desire to educate to touch the lives of others and, by doing so, to live a full life. Loved ones said, ‘Her teachings of unshakable faith and her love for mankind were instrumental in shaping the nonviolent movement which has changed the course of history.’” (183-184)

   2. “Christine would fondly recall such moments, saying, “Every now and then, I have to chuckle as I realize there are people who actually believe ML [as Martin was sometimes called by his loved ones] just appeared. They think he simply happened, that he appeared fully formed, without context, ready to change the world. Take it from his big sister, that’s simply not the case. We are the products of a long line of activists and ministers. We come from a family of incredible men and women who served as leaders in their time and place, long before ML was ever thought of.” (133)

  3. “For Alberta, fulfillment for herself and her children rested completely in their Christian faith and was paired with their pursuit of education in order to better their own situation as well as that of their larger community.” (199)

  4. “It is something like the mother giving birth to a child. While she is temporarily consoled by the fact that her pain is not just bare meaningless pain, she nevertheless experiences the pain. In spite of the fact that she realizes beneath her pain is the emergence of life in a radiant infant, she experiences the agony right on. Martin Luther King, Jr.” (178)

 5. “Rather than standing in awe of Black mothers and simply commenting with deference on their incredible strength, others should stand with them and lighten their burden.” (219)

***

3/5  Fascinating, sobering, inspirational. 

The Baby Thief | Barbara Bisantz Raymond

[1] "Georgia's legacy has endured into the twenty-first century, and the vast majority of America's 6 million adoptees are still legally denied knowledge of their roots, even after they become adults.  Many cant find their birth parents or learn potentially life-saving information about their family health histories." (xiv)

[2] [When speaking of why she wrote this book, and in regards to the stories of resilience of the surviving victims] 

". . . I was often made inarticulate by such evidence of human resilience and common sense.  To have transformed a personal tragedy into a vehicle for helping or informing others seemed noble: the recounting of such feats seemed sufficient reason for any book." (144) 

[3] "In placing children with adoptive parents generally willing to treat them as children, not hired help, Georgia was a pioneer.  Today's adoptive parents continue to treat adopted children as part of their families.  It is one of Georgia's few positive legacies." (109-110)

[4] [A mother, on how she found the strength to go on after losing her son to Georgia Tann] 

"Back home in Mississipi, Ann regretted her decision, becoming guant and depressed before finally discovering a way of coping with her loss.  She pretended she hadn't lost Gordon.  She kept him with her in her mind, watched him grow from infant to toddler to boy.

    'By 1944 you were six and starting first grade, the very grade I was teaching,' she told Gordon, he wrote in an article for Reader's Digest. 'I couldn't wait for school to start.  I saw you in every child's face.  When I administered IQ tests, I hoped the boy with the highest score was you.  When I comforted a crying, defeated child, I feared he might be you.

    'You grew quickly that year,' she said.  'You were aggressive and vulnerable, cocky, and easily wounded.  I learned you needed an atmosphere of tolerance and love.  I tried to give it to you by giving it to all those children. 

    'It was an illusion, of course, but I have believed it, and when I said goodbye to that class in the spring, I felt sick with guilt.  It was as if I was abandoning you for the second time.

    'Then, following winter, I learned the third grade teacher was retiring.  I immediately petitioned the school board for a transfer, and I got it.  I would be your teacher again, this time, when you were eight. 

    'That year, as I watched you mature, I was proud you were becoming your own person, and I felt selfish for trying to hold on to you.  At the end of the year, I stopped imagining you were with me.  But I always wanted you back.  I prayed I that one day I would meet you as a man...'

    'I just sat there, immobilised by my own emotions,' Gordon told me. 'Slowly, she held out her arms and, for the first time in thirty-seven years, we touched.'" (141)

[5] "If knowledge of the long-buried story of Georgia Tann teaches us anything, it is the importance of ridding adoption of lies and secrets.  Until we do, she and her imitators will continue to corrupt adoption." (246)

4.5/5 Barbara Bisantz Raymond is a masterful historian who has uncovered truth regarding Georgia Tann. The subject matter is a tough, sickening pill to swallow, and she is honest about how difficult this was to write, and how depressing it was to research. She lays the facts out, has stories and pictures from survivors, and describes modern adoption policies.  It seemed to abruptly end, I do think it would have been good to tie back into the stories of the victims themselves at that point. But I couldn't put this book down, and applaud Ms. Raymond for tackling such a difficult subject.