About the Book
Book: Finding My Son
Author: Eric Odell-Hein
Genre: Christian Memoir, Adoption
Release Date: February 21, 2018
Eric was perfectly happy being one half of a dual income, no kids family.
Having the freedom to travel the world with his wife Christine, while
indulging his hobbies and furthering his education and career, was a
pretty sweet life.
Christine wanted to be a mom.
Though
he was scared he didn’t have what it took to be a good dad, Eric wanted
to fulfill his wife’s dream. After years of trying to conceive,
however, the couple received a devastating diagnosis: infertility.
For Christine, adoption was the obvious answer. Eric wasn’t so sure.
In Finding My Son: A Father’s Adoption Journey,
author Eric Odell-Hein offers an unfiltered view into the heart and
mind of a man who has experienced the sometimes messy and often awkward
process of becoming a father through adoption. Encouraging men to
acknowledge the fears they don’t want to admit while advocating a
thoughtful, deliberate transparency as the best approach to even the
most unnatural, uncomfortable aspects of the adoption process. Eric
shares his misgivings and mistakes with an honesty that does not deny
his insecurities.
A
valuable resource for any man considering growing his family through
adoption—or anyone seeking to understand the process—this engaging
memoir is a testament to the beautiful gift of adoption and a touching
account of a father’s love.
Click
here to get your copy!
Guest Review from Gail Hollingsworth
This is a true story of one man’s journey to fatherhood. From the moment they married his wife wanted to be a mother. Eric was happy being a dual income family with the freedom to travel and pursue education with no encumbrances. After several years of marriage and no pregnancy they were both tested and found they both had issues. To please his wife they checked into possible adoption, although he wasn’t totally gung-ho on the idea.
I loved how his feelings began to slowly change as his story continued. He also got some valuable advice from a friend who had already traveled this road three times. The road to adoption is a very complicated and expensive pursuit. He tells of the application process, some of the questions asked on all the forms and why they chose the agency they did despite it being more costly than some of the others. Interestingly I learned that Foster Parents go through a more rigorous process than adoptive parents. That’s something I did not know. I would easily recommend this book for any couple or individual thinking of fostering or adopting.
I received a complimentary copy of this book from the publisher through Celebrate Lit but was not required to write a review positive or otherwise. All opinions are my own.
About the Author
Eric Odell-Hein (PhD, MDiv, MRS, ThB)
is the president of Columbia Evangelical Seminary. The teaching pastor
at Summit Evangelical Free Church, he is also the author of Recovering Lost Treasure: Finding Christ in Ancient Myth, Symbol, and Ritual and Systems of Evil: A Study in Comparative Theodicy.
Eric lives in the beautiful Pacific Northwest with his wife Christine
and their son Ephraim. All three are passionate travelers.
More from Eric
Adoption
was a scary prospect for me. My mother and all her siblings are
adopted, and the family dynamic for them was challenging. So when my
wife decided we should adopt, I initially responded with a flat-out
“no.” But my heart changed, and I am strongly convinced that our son,
who joined us via adoption back in 2008 when he was just two days old,
is the greatest child in the entire world. If you knew where I was
emotionally prior to adoption compared with where I am now, you would
marvel at the change. My adoption book is for people like me,
particularly men, who struggle with the enormity of the choice to adopt
and the constant challenges of the process.
On a lighter and more personal side, when people learn about all the
various aspects of my life, they often have to stop and process the
seemingly incongruous pieces. Some people know me as a guy who has spent
more than two decades in software and entertainment, primarily in
various aspects of behind-the-scenes video game technology and
management. My entire family plays games, and more often than not, when I
get back home in the evening, I find my wife and son online with other
members of the extended family playing Minecraft. Sometimes we’ll all
get in an online session together, each one of us at our own TV on our
own Xbox, and take on bad guys together in one game or another.
Other people know my intellectual side, where I have earned several
degrees in areas of theology and religion, including a Ph.D., as well as
serving as president of
Columbia Evangelical Seminary.
I previously published two books on academic topics (evil among world
religions, religious symbology) and have more in various stages of
development, the next one being a focus on the ancient Near Eastern
(ANE) cosmogonic/chaos-order symbolism in baptism. As a teaching pastor,
I have a reputation for sermons with an intense ANE contextual emphasis
that are part sermon and part seminary course. Check out my most recent
four-part series on the Odell-Hein Books Facebook page
here.
I was born in Germany to an American family, and while my
German-language skills have deteriorated, I love German music. I’m very
excited that my favorite group, Juli, has a new album coming out later
this year. It’s mild stuff compared to most of the rock or industrial
music I listen to, but they’re good. Check out the first single from
their upcoming album
here.
I’ll be one of the small handful of Americans who purchase the album on
the day it first releases in the US.
When not working or playing games with the family, I read primarily
academic ANE books. When we’re in the car, I love to subject the family
to my go-to podcast, the
Naked Bible Podcast.
No, it’s not what it sounds like. If you want to hear a serious scholar
tackle the ANE context for the Bible, start with Dr. Michael Heiser’s
Exodus series (it begins with episode 255).
Blog Stops
Giveaway
To
celebrate his tour, Eric is giving away the grand prize package of a
$50 Amazon certificate and a signed copy of each of his three books!!
Be sure to comment on the blog stops for nine extra entries into the giveaway! Click the link below to enter.
Book: Assessing Your Prophetic Self
Paula A. Price is quickly becoming the international voice on the subject of apostolic and prophetic ministry. She has founded and established three churches, an apostolic and prophetic Bible institute, a publication company, a consulting firm, and a global collaborative network linking apostles and prophets together for the purpose of kingdom vision and ventures. Although she has written over twenty-five books, manuals, and other course material on the apostolic and prophetic, she is most recognized for her unique 1,600-term The Prophet’s Dictionary, a concise prophetic training manual entitled Church Prophets, and her follow-up, The Prophet’s Handbook, a tool for establishing prophetic ministry in the church. Paula is host of her own program, Let’s Just Talk: Where God Makes Sense. She has a D.Min. and a Ph.D. in Religious Education from Word of Truth Seminary in Alabama. She is also a wife, mother of three daughters, and the grandmother of two. She and her husband Tom presently pastor New Creation Worship Assembly in Tulsa, Oklahoma.
