Books, Blogs, and Clutter

 
The Best Single Mom in the World: How I Was Adopted
 
Although I am single, I knew I couldn’t go through life without being a mom. When I adopted my daughter from Russia, there were no adoption picture books featuring a single parent (unless you count Horton Hatches the Egg by Dr. Seuss). For years I wanted to write and illustrate a book to fill the single-parent-adoption void. But single motherhood was a demanding job. It wasn’t until my daughter was 9, and I fatefully lost my job, that I finally had the time to create my book. Even though my daughter was too old for picture books, I knew single parents and their children would benefit from the story of forming a forever family through adoption.

Around the blogosphere, I’ve written about:

Nerdy Chicks Rule!

• Something About Mary—Talented kidlit authors Kami Kinard and Sudipta Bardhan-Quallen gave me the opportunity to exercise my blogging muscles at their Nerdy Chicks Rule blog. I've always been thankful.
  
• Carpe Diem, Oprah, and Motherhood—the path that lead me to motherhood.
• My Mother’s 99 Years of Life through Photos—The year after this blog post, my mother reached 100 years before departing for Heaven.
• The (His)tory of Art and the National Museum of Women in the Arts
• Mother Nature: The Ultimate Nerdy Chick
• The Quotable Nerdy Chick: Mary Cassatt
• A Winter Dream Tree Grows in Jersey—I started 2014 with writing and illustrating dreams that are only now coming true.

The Clutter Chronicles
I photograph my many eclectic collections (Italian pottery, antique frames, globes, vintage children’s books, Beatles, upcycled furniture, and more) and write about them on my blog, The Clutter Chronicles. Sorry, nothing is for sale. Yet.

Single Parent and International Adoption

• "Our Dog Helped My Daughter Realize Family Is Forever"—a personal story on adoption about adopting my daughter, then our first dog, from Adoptive Families magazine.
  
• Interview with me about The Best Single Mom in the World and older child adoption at Comeunity.com.

All images, copyright Mary Zisk, 2023