Losing Jessica

Yesterday I read "Losing Jessica" and I cried. It is so heartbreaking that a little girl (and her parents, Robby and Jan Deboer) was taken away from her loving family. She had a big, loving family and was so close to especially her mother. I have at little boy, who is 2½ years old, and I can't imagine how he would feel, if he had to move to another home just like that. I have been so sad since I read the book, and I think a lot about how Jessica feels today. Does she remember her parents and her early years? Is she happy? etc.I can really recommend this book and will never forget it. I keep thinking about it all the time.If anyone knows how Jessica is today, and also how Robby and Jan Deboer are doing, I would very much like to know: [email protected] it possible to write to Robby and Jan Deboer?Maria L. Fenge, Denmark

Very happy story in the beginning and then very sad ending. It was a very well written book. I was irked that Cara Clausen Schmidt kept referring to the adoption as "legal kidnapping." It wasn't, but the reversal, the giving her back to Cara & Dan Schmidt was in fact LEGAL KIDNAPPING!!!

This account of Jessi's first years with her parents is absolutely precious. The three of them bond together and share life, laughter and family. Oh, what family! Jessi's Aunt Joan, Grandma Jo, Oma and Opa are described in loving detail. Surrounded by love and security, Jessi blossoms into a vivacious toddler. It is heartwrenching when she is torn from her family. It's unthinkable that, in this nation especially, a child was taken away from her mother and father and given to strangers. Robby suffered unspeakable loss, yet she manages to guide the reader through this troubling time to the very end.

I just couldn't believe how Jessica's best interest was overlooked! The book clearly shows the contradicting the testimonies of both Dan and Cara. I hope Jessica forgives Dan and Cara for the pain that they caused her! I'm sure she loves both Dan and Cara for caring for her, but it's obvious from reading the book that her best interest would have been to stay with her parents that she had known Jan and Robby DeBoer. They truely loved her and Cara didn't file a petition to get Jessica back UNTIL AFTER THE PROBATION PERIOD! ..., it was not the fault of the DeBoers but it was the fault of Dan and Cara for putting their own selfish interests before Jessica's! Jan and Robby had grown to love Jessica and to have her ripped away from them was painful for all three of them, especially Jessica since she thought she was still too young to understand why she was taken away from her mommy and daddy! The DeBoers were not the cause of it. Someday Jessica will meet up again with her adoptive and thank them for taking care of her when she was a baby. She will thank them for loving her and giving her the best home while she was in the years of vulnerability! I'm sure hope that Jessica is living a wonderful life with the Schmidts, I hope that Jessica (now Anna) adjusted well.

It broke my heart when a small child was ripped out of the arms of the only parents she knew. If the Schmidts had any real love for Jessica, they wouldn't have been so selfish. They'd have let her be. Anyone who would do this to a child they claimed to love is sadistic. And, now, they are divorced and Jessica and Chloe (her younger sister)live with their father. This was all Cara's bright idea and now she's left them?