Meant to Be

Product Information

Having experienced infertility before going on to have my own children, I felt a strong bond with Lisa and hope that others will be able to take comfort from her story. When that began to look too complicated legally and also too expensive, I launched us into adoption, not taking a breath. This book is good for anyone who has been through this, or, equally, for those who haven’t, to gain an understanding of this difficult journey. I would recommend this book to anyone who is experiencing infertility as it will remind you that you are not alone in your feelings, even on those darker days. This was really just a meeting to see how we were all doing now that the care plan had been carried out and Billie was starting to settle in with us.

We gave Billie lunch and dinner and bathed her with her new bath toys and wrapped her in a new pink snuggly towel. The weeks before had been so intense, and we were – and would continue to be – under such watchful eyes.I found myself drawn to it all given that I can relate to the very early stages of Lisa’s desire to want a baby. While the assessments were being carried out by the courts, as well as giving Billie her everyday care, we would be taking her for regular contact visits with her birth mother and monthly ‘looked-after child reviews’ with social services, not to mention being on the receiving end of home visits from social workers and district nurses. As someone who has gone through 5 rounds of IVF and had two miscarriages, this book resonated deeply with me. We recently went to see the film Instant Family, which is about adoption, with a friend who has two adopted children, too. We were not allowed to introduce her to friends or family yet, as she had to get used to us and her new surroundings first.

Billie ran around and happily entertained the whole room, used to being on display from such an early age. She was always chatting, using a language that she had made up, mixed with a few real words and sounds, always pointing to things and asking what they were. Excellent book for anyone thinking about adoption and asking themselves whether they are right for it. That first day we took her to the park and played on the swings, we fed the ducks and then came home and played with her toys. After Lisa had an ectopic pregnancy, she tried many things after to conceive again but sadly she failed to get pregnant.

Meant to Be: My Journey to Motherhood by Lisa Faulkner is out now in hardback and in paperback on 5th March. But, in the months and years that followed, she discovered that there was more than one way to build a family – and that there is a lot of joy to be found in life’s unexpected detours. Our names were to be used at all times – we were Lisa and Chris, not ‘Mummy’ and ‘Daddy’ and we knew and respected this. An easy listen and a rough guide/story to how some women might go through the process of making the decision to adopt.