Synopses & Reviews
It was no mystery why California had 98,000 children stuck in foster care. There were not 98,003 because I was stubborn.
When David Marin fell in love with three children desperately in need of a home, there was only one thing he could do. Give up the life of a single guy and learn about parenting — from how to carve a Halloween pumpkin to what makes up a Happy Meal. In the process, he found the future he had always wanted, but he also learned some hard lessons about single-parent adoption, the Kafkaesque side of Social Services, and America's anti-immigrant sentiment: "All facts aside, I wanted to help my children see through the darkness, past their past. I'd give them a chance to rebound, like me. After all, it's never too late to have a happy childhood."
His journey, and the deeply moving story behind the children's lives, illustrates that even if society isn't colorblind, love can be. It also proves that fathers love their children as much as mothers do and that families like his — happy, secure, and multi-ethnic — represent our single greatest hope.
Review
"Single dad David Marin's quest to adopt two boys and a girl from the California foster care system brings new meaning to the phrase 'against all odds.' As he and and his beautiful children — and their happy and healthy lives — demonstrate, there are many ways to create a family. The essential ingredient is love." Jessica O'Dwyer, author of Mamalita: An Adoption Memoir
Review
"[Marin] can make the craziness of a bureaucracy funny; he can turn a trip to McDonald's into an absorbing read; and mostly he can stir your heart by describing the life of his new All-American family...The love is palpable; the prose throbs with life; the insights sparkle." Julia Alvarez, author of How the García Girls Lost Their Accents
Review
"Inspiration is a word used too freely and too frequently. Yet, David Marin's honesty and humanity in telling the story of how he became a father against the odds is just that, an inspiration in the truest sense. His story fills the world with the breath of hope." Jacquelyn Mitchard, author of The Deep End of the Ocean
Review
"David Marin opens our eyes to the profound significance men make in the lives of children. If every man could understand the heart-warming and life-changing truths David so personally reveals in This is US, America would be a stronger country." Meg Meeker, M.D., author of Strong Fathers, Strong Daughters: Ten Secrets Every Father Should Know
Review
"This book should be required reading for all adoption social workers and all prospective adoptive parents." Jeff Katz, Founder, Listening to Parents
Synopsis
The heartbreaking, hilarious, and inspiring story of one man's quest to create a better life for three abandoned children — and himself.
About the Author
David Marin, (pronounced "marine") is half Puerto Rican, half Irish, and all American. Raised in the Midwest, he went to prep school on the East Coast, college in Colorado, and law school in California, where he has spent the past twenty years. A media company executive by profession, and an adventurer by nature, he has traveled to eleven countries and visited thirty-six of our fifty states. He has skydived in Arizona, water skied on the Caribbean, and rescued olive ridley sea turtles in Costa Rica. By far the greatest adventure of David's life is fatherhood.