Before Rob Scheer met his wonderful husband, he endured abuse and abandonment as a child and teenager which segued into an abusive relationship as an adult. It’s amazing that he turned out to be not only a functioning adult but a loving parent with a generous spirit.

I chose this book because my family is also transracial and my daughter was adopted through the foster care system. I like reading stories of the journeys that other foster parents and transracial families have taken. This book is that and more. It alternates between flashbacks of Rob’s heartbreaking past to his relationship with his husband Reece – the most patient man in the world – and how they came to be foster and later adoptive parents. While I wish Rob discussed more about the challenges of raising children of a different race, I enjoyed reading this book.

I think one of the reasons that Rob wrote A Forever Family was to draw awareness to Comfort Cases, the charity he founded. They provide foster children with a duffel bag or backpack filled with essentials that a child needs their first night with a foster family – toiletries, pajamas a book and more. What a great idea! Our daughter came to us with her things in garbage bags which is not uncommon and can make a child feel like garbage, like they are being thrown away. A couple of the children we fostered before our daughter came with nothing at all. At the end of the book, there is information on how to donate items to or volunteer for Comfort Cases.

This is a deeply moving memoir. It is heartbreaking and inspiring at the same time. I highly recommend it.

I would like to thank Netgalley and the publisher for providing me with a copy of this book free of charge. This is my honest and unbiased opinion of it.

Rob Scheer grew up moving from one terrible situation to the next, from his abusive father to living in his car after a foster family kicked him out of their home. As an adult, he felt moved to help children in similar circumstances and he and his husband became foster parents. Scheer doesn't paint a rosy picture; instead, he writes about the difficulties of two white gay men trying to adopt black children and the moments when the ghosts from his own past show up in his parenting. Some of the hardest moments to read about are the small ones--the difficulty of using someone else's soap in a strange new house or Rob and his husband Reece's realization that their foster daughter is hoarding food because she doesn't feel secure yet.

Scheer's story is heartbreaking and I am glad he found the courage to share it. For me, I'm not sure it warranted an entire book; it would have been an excellent article showing how his painful childhood led to his becoming a foster dad, adopting his children, and starting Comfort Cases, an organization that gives backpacks with a book, blanket, and hygiene items to foster kids. But if Scheer's story can make anyone understand the need for foster parents and support for children in need, then it is an important one.

A Forever Family
Fostering Change One Child at a Time
By Rob Scheer with Jon Sternfeld
Gallery/Jeter Publishing November 2018
320 pages
Read via Netgalley

Gallery/Jeter Publishing and NetGalley provided me with an electronic copy of A Forever Family: Fostering Change One Child at a Time. I was under no obligation to review this book and my opinion is freely given.

My first introduction to author Rob Scheer and his husband Reece came through my local media, with the story about their labor of love, Comfort Cases. Rob Scheer came through the foster case system with nothing but a plastic bag holding his meager possessions. As an adult with a desire to help children like himself, the idea of Comfort Cases was born. Providing foster children with a backpack full of new items, essentials like pajamas, toiletries, a comfortable blanket, a book, and a stuffed animal, Rob has nationally affected change in a very positive way.

A Forever Family is the story of Rob, Reece, and the four children that they first fostered then adopted. This honest and stark portrayal of life in the foster system is heart rending, but does provide a small bit of hope that change can happen for the better. This book will inspire readers to do whatever they can to help, whether it be for Comfort Cases, for local food pantries, or to get involved in volunteering their time for those in need. I strongly recommend A Forever Family to other readers and I applaud author Rob Scheer for his bravery in telling his very difficult life story.

A Forever Family: Fostering Change One Child at a Time by Rob Scheer tells his story. Rob grew up in an abusive home, was placed into the foster care system and, to his credit, somehow beat the odds by overcoming the scars the system placed on both his body and soul to become a happy, loving, contributing adult. It definitely was not an easy journey. This book is raw, unflinching in its honesty, and inspirational in turn as Rob tells of his youth, his adult relationships, and his desire for a family of his own.

He shares an insider's view of the current foster-care system both as a foster-child and the impact that has had on his life, and as an adult wanting to foster children. Both views are eye-opening and heart-wrenching.

Rob (and his husband Reece) fostered 2 sets of young African-American siblings prior to adopting all four of them. Their hopes, dreams, struggles and joys are openly shared, and their abiding love for their children is obvious. Not content to let things rest once Rob had the family he always wanted, he went on to become an advocate for change within the foster-care system and started a charity called Comfort Cases.

"Family is not something that you fall into or that is thrust upon you. It is something you choose. You choose to be in someone's life or you choose not to be. You make the effort or you don't. It's not about blood or proximity or race or anything like that. It's about what's in your heart."

It was a privilege to read this man's/couple's story. Many thanks to NetGalley and Jeter Publishing for allowing me to read a review copy of this book in exchange for an unbiased review.

A Forever Family takes you inside the life of Rob Scheer, his partner, and their children. Rob defined all odds and wants to share with others. With a big heart, he and his partner adopts four African American children and just love on them. This book speaks volumes about love, race, and any other social justice concern you can think of. With the world we are living in now, this book helps you to understand that we all truly need one another. Open your heart and mind and pick up this book. It was such a good read. The children are the future. We are losing too many children due to lack of resources, love, and support. Now is the time to change that, one child at a time.

I really enjoyed this book. What an interesting perspective from one parent who had been horribly abused as a child. I haven't read a adoption memoir like this before. It gives new meaning to what it means to adopt and be a forever family.

This was heartbreaking and inspirational all in one book. It has made me look at things differently and asking myself what can I do to make a difference. Really good book that has purpose