When you start married life at 17, problems are everywhere you look. First baby, second baby, husband out late, children getting sick. Problems, problems, and more problems. But there are bright moments, too-the first daughter-in-law, the first grandbaby. Tears of pain and tears of joy were shed during the first 25 years of this marriage. Learn what being a mother meant to this woman, and how she handled it.

Painful Tears of Joy is written by Debra Viteri, who has been inspired by the Holy Spirit to give detailed accounts of her personal life and the many trials she has experienced. As you read these pages, it will bring you into a deep knowledge and understanding of her spiritual journey of being a care giver to her husband who suffered from a terminal illness, and how she engaged in spiritual warfare which has always been a large portion of her lessons through lifes unexpected trials. Although there have been many tears, she wants to express how the Lord can turn those painful tears to Tears of Joy. Throughout her book, she will use the greatest Book, the Bible, and a devotional Day by Day that has truly inspired her to walk a victorious life. Debra knows how to choose life, especially when she was used by God to give life to her husband through living liver donation. Are you having difficulty focusing on your challenge ahead of you? Debras desire is for you to learn to walk by faith and not by sight; and for you to know you are a winner despite any negative circumstances. She goes into great detail how she stood by faith when all odds were against her and her family. You will learn about Gods divine plan, for you to live healthy; body, mind and spirit, by using modern medicine, good nutrition and the power of scripture and prayer.

This thoughtful, poetic book uses metaphors and beautiful imagery to explore the reasons for our tears. In a soft voice, Mario asks, “Mother, why do we cry?” And his mother begins to tell him about the many reasons for our tears. We cry because our sadness is so huge it must escape from our bodies. We cry because we don’t understand the world, and our tears go in search of an answer. Most important, she tells him, we cry because we feel like crying. And, as she shows him then, sometimes we feel like crying for joy. This warm, reassuring hug of a book makes clear that everyone is allowed to cry, and that everyone does.

This book explores a deeply personal aspect of globalization: the adoption of Asian children by white Americans. It is based on dozens of interviews with adoptive mothers and adoption social workers, nearly two hundred letters and essays written by Korean birth mothers who put their children up for adoption, and field work at an adoption agency in South Korea. It also includes analyses and explanations of U.S. and South Korean governments’ social characteristics and policies regarding adoptions and how relations between nations have affected international adoption. The book focuses on whether the commonly held notion that adoptions are to serve children’s welfare and their best interests has tended to render gendered aspects of international adoptions invisible. Factors such as gender inequality, social control of women’s reproductive power, patriarchic family structure, and social beliefs concerning womanhood and motherhood that affect international adoptions are revealed in this book. The multiple ways in which adoptive, birth, and foster mothers experience gender oppression from their different social positions of class, race, and nationality are explored and the interdependencies and inequalities of the motherhoods of these three groups of women are brought to light.

Selected as One of the Best Books of the Year by: National Public Radio, Esquire, Bustle, Refinery29, Thrillist, Electric Literature, Powell's, Autostraddle, BookRiot, Women.com "Smart, funny, and true in all the best ways, this book made me ache with recognition." -- Cheryl Strayed A raw, funny, and fiercely honest account of becoming a mother before feeling like a grown up. When Meaghan O'Connell got accidentally pregnant in her twenties and decided to keep the baby, she realized that the book she needed -- a brutally honest, agenda-free reckoning with the emotional and existential impact of motherhood -- didn't exist. So she decided to write it herself. And Now We Have Everything is O'Connell's exploration of the cataclysmic, impossible-to-prepare-for experience of becoming a mother. With her dark humor and hair-trigger B.S. detector, O'Connell addresses the pervasive imposter syndrome that comes with unplanned pregnancy, the fantasies of a "natural" birth experience that erode maternal self-esteem, post-partum body and sex issues, and the fascinating strangeness of stepping into a new, not-yet-comfortable identity. Channeling fears and anxieties that are still taboo and often unspoken, And Now We Have Everything is an unflinchingly frank, funny, and visceral motherhood story for our times, about having a baby and staying, for better or worse, exactly yourself.

Did you ever Google “pregnancy after 35” or “getting pregnant at 40” for helpful advice and inspiration on your way to motherhood? Did your excitement and hope turn into disbelief and shock when your search turned up millions of gut wrenching stories on the risks and dangers of later pregnancies and the staggering rise of age related infertility in women? The Joy of Later Motherhood is the much-needed antidote to all the negative hype surrounding motherhood at advanced maternal age (which is 35+). Written by seasoned journalist Bettina Gordon-Wayne—herself a first-time mom at 44 and the third generation of women in her family who did not get the memo that conceiving a baby after 40 is dangerous, if not outright impossible—The Joy of Later Motherhood is: Positive, honest, deeply human, and an inspiring guide to mature motherhood that will undoubtedly boost your fertility and your chances of getting pregnant; Full of real-life stories and helpful insights of more than 40 women over 40 (and top natural fertility experts) who all had natural pregnancies and healthy babies. With love and candor these women tell of heartbreak—like infertility diagnosis and miscarriage—and triumph—from healing diseases to finding their faith. They share their stories in order to empower other women to approach the topic of later motherhood from a position of strength and courage and to show them what’s possible and, in fact, natural. If you are looking for a medical book focused on only the physical aspect of pregnancy, this may not be the right one for you. The Joy of Later Motherhood is written by experts of a different kind. It’s written from the perspective of the women who actually achieved what millions of women are striving for: naturally conceiving a healthy baby after 35 and, especially, after 40. You’ll learn how to prepare for pregnancy, even if you choose in vitro fertilization or were diagnosed with unexplained infertility or were trying to get pregnant for years. You’ll get advice on how to get pregnant naturally and what natural family planning methods worked for other women. But maybe most importantly, you’ll learn that trying to get pregnant is not just a physical matter, but also a matter of the mind and maybe even your spiritual beliefs as these women attest to. The Joy of Later Motherhood is for you if the following rings true: You hear your biological clock ticking, but you don’t want to be in a panic about it like everyone else. You are afraid that your body may fail you. Or that your contradictory thoughts—“I would love to have a baby, but I don’t think I can give up my freedom!”—may influence your fertility. You feel alone and isolated because you’ve already experienced more than your fair share of heartache. You need different perspectives to help you go on. You wonder if it is fair to a child to have older parents and whether he’ll have to shoulder the burden of an ailing mother or father long before his peers. Maybe you are worried or are upset. Maybe you doubt that motherhood will ever happen for you. We get it. We’ve been there. With our stories, we want to lovingly see you through this journey as much as we can. We’ve got you.

The Joy Luck Club explores the lives of the women in four Chinese-American families and the daughters who struggle to fulfill or reject the cultural and familial expectations placed on them. Residing in San Francisco's Chinatown, the characters reveal themselves through their stories to be incredibly strong women. This guide to The Joy Luck Club includes helpful critical excerpts for those studying the book, an annotated bibliography, an index for quick reference, and an introduction by critic Harold Bloom.