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Pushing up the Sky: A Mother's Story
In 1987, Terra and her husband adopted a ten-year-old daughter from
South Korea. Her new daughter experienced difficulty adjusting to becoming
the oldest child in a mixed blood American Indian family. Her
birth daughter, usurped from oldest to middle child, had a difficult
transition too. Then her son, also adopted from Korea, was diagnosed
with a brain tumor, an event that changed all of their lives forever.
This is the story of a remarkable family facing incredible challenges.
It is a story of compromises and insights, profound joy, deep suffering,
and terrific rewards. Parenting birth and adopted children—is one
theme of this book. Most of all, it is a story on the meaning of family,
and learning to let go of expectations and to forge a new identity.
In lyrical prose Pushing up the Sky illuminates losses and blessings
coming together that parents everywhere will recognize and identify with.
Hope is offered as a path for others to benefit from, with the resolve
to celebrate each new day and to cherish every second of it.
Author's Note
The title Pushing up the Sky is from a traditional American
Indian story of the Snohomish tribe, which testifies and speaks to
the great power of what can be accomplished when people work together
with a common goal. I wouldn't be here without the steadfast support
and love of many people.
Praise for Pushing up the Sky
"Written from the perspective of a woman who straddles a complex
ethnic and racial heritage, the story is suffused with issues of race,
culture, identity, loss, and gain. Trevor is Native American, and
she writes about her own exploration and incorporation of that heritage
into her sense of self, while simultaneously figuring out how to weave
her adopted children’s cultural heritage into their family. Pushing
up the Sky is about a real family facing real challenges,
and is a remarkable tribute to the power of family." - Jane Brown, Adoptive
Families Book Review
"This powerful journey through life is elegantly unfolded by author
Terra Trevor. Weaving her personal story through parenting, death, grief
and living, she gives readers a glimpse of her soul. At moments, Trevor's
story brought to life by her exceptional writing brought tears to my
eyes. I could share her heartache, and felt the tendrils of joy spring
to life as she began her healing journey." - Kim Phagan-Hansel,
editor of Adoption
Today magazine
"Terra has woven a moving story of love and heartache across time
and culture. She has integrated her own American Indian culture into
the dynamics of transracial adoption and described in detail life in
a transracial family that has not been done before to this extent. Her
courage to describe these events with great honesty, bears witness to
a family that provided warmth, encouragement and humor in the face of
adversity."
- Phillip Capper, Adoption Australia magazine
“Written with abundant love, the book is an honest account of
the challenges of integrating an older child into an established family.
It is also about building community with Korean-American culture. And
finally, the book becomes a journey to save a son from cancer. The author's
sensibilities toward the natural world and all that really matters in
the lives of her children put her on the level of a great teacher of
the capacities of the human heart. Sad but triumphant, this memoir deserves
a wide readership for its great storytelling and lyrical use of language.”
- Alice Evans, editor of Holt International
"Accurate and compelling. Terra shares what few understand. I loved
this book." - Gigi McMillan, Founder, We Can Pediatric
Brain Tumor Network, www.wecan.cc
"Brave, beautiful, deeply moving, and very necessary. This powerful
account of the author's confrontation with all life could challenge her
with, gives us inspiration to persevere with help from our friends as
we let the love in our hearts keep us grounded, and smiling. I thought
my twenty years as a neurologist had inured me from the pain of my patients.
Trevor's book reminded me that there are moments to embrace even through
life's most arduous travails." - Judy Willis, M.D.
"Terra Trevor's Pushing up the Sky is
a revelation of the struggles and triumphs packed into the hyphens between
Korean and Native American and American. From her, we learn that adoption
can best be mutual, that the adoptive parent needs acculturation in the
child's way. With unflinching honesty and unfailing love, Trevor details
the risks and heartaches of taking in, the bittersweetness of letting
go, and the everlasting bonds that grow between them all. With Pushing
up the Sky, the 'literature
of adoption' comes of age as literature, worthy of an honored place
in the human story." - Robert Bensen, editor of Children of the
Dragonfly: Native American Voices on Child Custody and Education
"This is a book to cherish and pull out again and again. Hope is
on every page." Maggie Dunham, Friends of Korea.
Pushing up the Sky: A Mother's Story
Hardcover, 230 pages
Published by Korean American Adoptee Adoptive Family
Network
Click here to buy from KAAN
Click here to buy from KoryoBooks
Click here to buy from Amazon.com
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"This
is a book to cherish and pull out again and again. Hope is on
every page."
-Maggie Dunham- |
"'Pushing
up the Sky' is about
a real family facing real challenges, and is a remarkable tribute
to the power of family."
-Jane Brown-
Adoptive
Families |
"Sad
but triumphant, this memoir deserves a wide readership for its
great storytelling and lyrical use of language.”
-Alice
Evans, editor of Holt
International- |
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