This giveaway promotion expired on February 27, 2012.
RIFers, due a technical glitch, we had to send our Read It First eblast for The Sacred Thread twice. But not to worry, no need to enter twice! Happy reading, and good luck, everybody.
In 2008, I traveled nine thousand miles to northern India near the border of Pakistan, to have a child. I went to India under the direction of a fertility specialist to whom I had spoken only over the phone, to undergo IVF treatment with the help of an Indian surrogate I had never met.
After three pregnancies, three miscarriages, and dozens of tests and disappointing diagnoses (mis-shaped uterus and utirine fibroids the size of oranges!), I realized I needed an alternate route to my happily ever after. My doctor advised that I should consider adoption and/or surrogacy.
After my husband read an article in the New York Times about the Akanksha Clinic in Anand, India – where a Dr. Patel works to bring together two women from disparate cultures to help each other – I started to open my mind up to the world of foreign surrogacy.
Several months, hundreds of research hours, and thousands of dollars later, I board a plane for Mumbai. There, in the 107-degree heat of Indian summer, I meet Dr. Patel, undergoe IVF treatments, and form a deep bond with a 26-year-old named Vaina, a surrogate mother who would eventually give birth to my children.
I couldn’t stay away. I packed up and went to Anand for the balance of my surrogate’s pregnancy, immersing myself in the culture and traditions of India, and shaping a lasting friendship with my surrogate, Vaina.
I have a deep spiritual connection to India after healing from the death of my mother the first time I went and later having my girls in the country. The Sacred Thread offers my perspective and a look at the landscape and culture of India through the lens of an American couple searching for family, an Indian family searching for a future, and a doctor offering a chance for both to find what they seek.
I am now the proud mother of twin 3-year-old girls. I cannot imagine life without them. They absolutely fill me up with joy, love and laughter (oh, and exhaustion!).
The Sacred Thread by Adrienne Arieff – Excerpt
ADRIENNE ARIEFF, an expert in new media and communications, is the principal of the public relations firm Arieff Communications. She has freelanced for Daily Candy and C Magazine and writes her company’s blog, Weekly Pulse. She lives in San Francisco with her husband and their two children.
Visit Adrienne online at TheSacredThread.com.
This sounds like a really good book. THANKS for the giveaway.
Elizabeth
Silver’s Reviews
http://silversolara.blogspot.com
I love connecting the days of Salem with today.
Looks good, can’t wait to read
This looks like a great read!
Looking forward to the whole story! Appreciate a chance in the giveaway.
This looks good.
I believe this book will have a real connections to many readers even though it takes place outside US. I would be interested in how the connections develop.
This looks really, really good!
Thanks for the great giveaway!
This book looks interesting. Looks like something I will want share.
This looks like an awesome story! Thanks for the opportunity.
I really hope I get this one. I’ve entered countless giveaways and have yet to win a single one! Sounds like a really interesting book, and because I’m of South Asian heritage this one is of special interest to me. Thanks!
thewriteedge.wordpress.com
This book sounds awesome! Thanks for having this giveaway!
my grand daughter is from an unwed mother, and my cousin is an unwed mother. That is just to name a couple, so this book would make the rounds.
Being pregnant and around pregnant women and stories this one is going to be #1 on my list!!
This feedback is wonderful! I hope you enjoy reading the book. Thank you for your kind words. – Adrienne Arieff
Sounds interiging!
This book looks very interesting….would love to read it too.
another great read
This is a book I’ve never heard of – so I’ll be the first in MY group to have read it, I’ll bet.
looks like a great read. cant wait to read it. Being pregnant myself and having a miscarraige as well i can relate to to the content.
My Review of The Sacred Thread
A touching and endearing story of heartbreak and shattered dreams… of overflowing and bountiful love. Adrienne and Vaina embark on an adventure that traverses pure love and cultures. The two women courageously work to fulfill both of their dreams. For Adrienne it is her dream of being a mother and having a family with her husband, Alex. For Vaina it is to provide a better life for her family. Adrienne and Vaina face the many stigmas attached to surrogacy and overcome the stark cultural differences to become more than mother and surrogate. Read more here
http://wp.me/p1gjqt-lc
This very emotionally revealing story of two women from vastly different cultures meeting and bonding in their desires to help one another is one of the best books I have ever read. The author is very open about her experiences in India and with her surrogate Vaina. I think this book shows that women share their love of children across cultural boundaries and hopefully this novel helps dispel some of the bad rap international surrogacy has gotten.
My review of Adrienne Arieff’s book The Sacred Thread
Some words send fingers of chill, fear, and dread up the spine. One such word is barren. Women in the Old Testament were thought to be cursed and filled with if they were unable to bear children. However, that is not the case. There are many “medical” reasons for the inability to either become pregnant or carry the child to term. Thankfully there are also many choices that a couple may choose in the face of this diagnosis. Alex and Adrienne Arieff was one of those couples facing the devastation of the death of their pre-term baby and then subsequent miscarriages.
In The Sacred Thread A True Story of Becoming a Mother and Finding a Family – Half a World Away, Adrienne tells of their journey from their courtship and marriage through the birth of their twins bore by an Indian surrogate. She speaks candidly about the pain of the death of their daughter, Colette, at twenty weeks. The choice to then use a surrogate to realize their dream to become parents was met with both celebration and accusations of exploitation from their friends and family. However, the Arieff’s were able to realize that dream with the help of a clinic in Anand, India. Today the Arieff family includes twin daughters.
Read more of the review here: http://readingforinspiration.wordpress.com