One of the first books I read before I actively started my search was The Other Mother by Carol Schaefer. For those of you who aren’t familiar with this excellent read, it is an awesome book and truly helped me to cross the threshold of thinking about searching to actively searching.

When I completed this book, there was a listing of 5 support groups in the back of the book and I immediately called the closest one to me (PA) which was in FL. I believe the group was called People Searching News and they referred me to two local search and support groups in the area.

Once I had this information in hand, I contacted them and after a few conversations with the one groups facilitator I decided to attend my first adoption search and support group meeting. I can still remember the feeling of awe that I felt from being in the same room with other adoptees and natural mothers who truly understood how I felt because they had similar experiences as myself.

The Other Mother is Carol Schaefer’s personal story and her adoption journey to find and reunite with her oldest son that she relinquished to adoption 18 years earlier. The book was then made into a prime time NBC movie and still airs from time to time on the Lifetime Channel.

I had the pleasure of meeting Carol Schaefer, oh several years back. It has probably been a good 10 years now and still can remember our conversations. Carol helped me through some of the most difficult times with finding a grave as well as the unexpected results of a DNA test between myself and a gal that I believed was the daughter of my birth fathers. Long story which I will blog about at another time. At any rate, many folks have been trying to purchase a copy of The Other Mother and have had difficulties locating it.

I received the email below from Carol Schaefer earlier today and thought that I would share it with you.

Snip...Many of you have been asking why it has been so difficult to order The Other Mother. I spoke with my editor at SoHo Press, and she says that the book is out of print. She is considering a small printing of 500 copies, but if (and that's a big "if') she does go ahead and print again those copies won't be available until sometime in February. So the only way that you can get The Other Mother for now is through used book "stores," like Amazon and others and then it may be gone for good.

I am hoping so much that SoHo will reprint. The Other Mother is so often the first book that someone reads when they begin searching, and it has helped so many people. I guess everyone is lending the book out and not buying it, so that is why sales are so off as to cause the publisher, who is very proud of the book, to not reprint.

Many of you may not know that it is listed in 500 Great books by Women, a Penguin Reader's Guide that goes back to the 11th Century....snip

With that said, if you are interested in obtaining a new copy of The Other Mother, I am going to suggest that you contact SoHo Press by contacting them via email at soho@sohopress.com and encouraging them to reprint The Other Mother.