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| Book Review — Special to ClubMemoir.org |
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"Many are the plans in a man’s heart,
but it is the Lord’s purpose that prevails" Proverbs (19:21).
The memoir of Harold Myra, Surprised By Children
, (Zondervan, 2002) is a treasure chest of joy and pain, of lessons learned
and of the power and necessity of faith. Though Christian-based, this book
crosses the lines of religion; and, moreover, celebrates the differences
and possibilities between Black and White. It pulls back the curtain of social
ignorance and allows the reader to see just how significant racial prejudice
is in the American foster care system. It shows a glimpse of how many African
American children are left behind because white families are afraid to adopt
them. It is either the fear of social excommunication or the fear of not
being able to adequately supplement the child’s culture.
It is a memoir of a man who, by the grace of his mother and through the union
of his devoted wife, came to be an extension of God himself by transforming
the lives of many children through foster care and adoption. The strength
and intelligence of the primary women throughout his life show in each and
every decision he makes as a man.
The book itself takes the reader through the life of a young boy during the
World War II era, living with his mother who would not conform to the general
racial climate of the day. She stood up for Jews, African Americans…all people.
She was a foster care mother to Black children at a time when Black and White
were separated in stores, in medical offices…everywhere. She planted the
idea in his soul that all people deserve respect on a human level. His mother
taught him to love, not hate.
As he grew to be a man, he entered into a covenant with God to serve Him
fully throughout his life. He met a woman, Jeanette, who would share that
covenant with him. Together they fostered many children, even saving some
of them from death. They would comment throughout the book on how ‘skin hungry’
their foster children were because they lacked physical affection. They would
put up with threats of physical harm from parents who had already proven
that they were capable of such acts. The Myra’s shed many tears together.
There were times of questioning whether or not they could succeed, like when
they both thought they were too old to raise any more children. There were
times when they wanted a heavenly sign, like when they based the ‘rightness’
of adopting another child by whatever sign they might receive by God. There
were moments of frustration when they lost children to the system, like when
they had to return Kwame, an infant in a coma they had nursed back to health
and had nurtured for years, to his original father. There were heart wrenching
losses and overwhelming accomplishments in the light of pure exhaustion and
fear, like when the Myra’s were rendered powerless in the eyes of the law
pertaining to crimes committed against their former foster children. Or taking
a company from nothing and making it into a billion dollar force while taking
care of all the children respectively. All in all, he felt that this was
his and Jeanette’s calling and whatever God saw fit, he would fulfill. Harold
Myra is a man who seeps faith.
So, one might say this is a major life… an accomplished man at one with his
God. Yet, even though he and his wife had three birth children and three
adopted children, numerous foster children and confronted prejudice head
on by representing many small human beings in the face of despair and inequity,
he still had enough ambition to take on a failing Christianity Today, Inc.,
and turn it into a diversified, multi-megabucks corporation.
I would recommend Surprised By Children to anyone who was interested
in opening up his or her mind to a social plague in order to cleanse it with
hope and inspiration. As someone who is adopted, I definitely was surprised.
— Shari Count
ClubMemoir.org special correspondent
Copyright 2002,
Shari Count
This book review is the property
of its author and ClubMemoir.org.
It may not be reproduced without the prior consent of ClubMemoir.org
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Surprised By Children