Book #2

This is a great email that I received. So great that I wanted to share it.

When I found your book in my mail box after arriving home from work last week, I thought: "ohhhh, but I don't have time to read another book right now." I decided I'd just peek at it while I was unloading the groceries. Well, beginning with your Acknowledgements page and Preface, I was drawn into your story. As a reader of your blog, I had never before pieced together your history as a couple, your plan to have a missional marriage, and the order in which each Fletcher joined the family. I had realized how much chutzpah you have, but I never realized how much you DID with it. I literally decided at 7:00 pm that dinner was going to come out of the freezer, and I was going to keep reading until I was done. Which was 4:00 am. And that included re-reading several chapters.

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The reason that I was so excited to read this is that the writer of the email is the exact kind of person Bart and I had in mind when we wrote the book. She and her husband are planning to adopt waiting children. Discovering that she liked the book that much was very motivating to me.

She also asked me about my next book, and so this is a sneak preview of what I think one of the next books is going to be. I am going to write "Twelve Parenting Strategies Learned from Parenting Twelve Children." But the writer of the email above gave me another idea. She asked me if the book was going to include practical things and asked some of her own burning questions:

I hope the strategies will also cover some practical ones. I was really wondering how you managed with one bathroom in your first house. How did you split up bath times? How did you teach kids to respect others' time in the bathroom? Same question on meal times.

Another area I would like to hear more about is how to ask for and receive help from friends and neighbors. I think a lot of parents (like my sister for example) feel a little guilty asking others to take their children for a visit or overnight. Especially if they have some issues, as my nephew does (Aspergers). But I know that this is necessary to maintain the marriage relationship, work, and personal sanity

So because of her inspiration, Bart and I have talked about how we would like to have a Q&A section at the back of the book where we address questions from our "readers." So if you have a question for either one of us, you can leave a comment. If you want it answered by one of us specifically, let us know which one. ANd please let us know how anonymous you want to be -- if you want your name mentioned at all as the asker of the question.

I'll probably ask this a few times in the next several weeks as we begin to work on book #2.....