The Things I Want Most
The Extraordinary Story of a Boy's Journey to a Family of His Own
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4.1 • 10 Ratings
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- $14.99
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- $14.99
Publisher Description
The remarkable story of a couple who risked everything to open their home--and their hearts--to answer an abandoned child's wish.
It was a small note buried in the file of a deeply troubled eleven-year-old boy--a plea for a normal life Rich and Sue Miniter couldn't ignore:
The Things I Want MOST:
A family
A fishing pole
A familyThe Miniters heard in that simple note the voice of a frightened child who wanted what all children want and need: someone to love who would love them in return.
So they brought Mike home to the cozy country inn they'd restored and managed in rural upstate New York. There, over the next year, they would try to make Mike's dream come true. But first they would have to work through the fear, anger, and distrust that accompanied this boy who had lived his whole life with the label "severely emotionally disturbed." For the biggest obstacle to Mike's happiness was Mike himself, who gave the Miniters every reason to give up but one--the power of love.
When Richard and Sue Miniter decided to open their home--and their hearts--to a foster child, they couldn't imagine the frustrations and joys, the breakthroughs and setbacks, not to mention the emotional toll, that awaited them. Here is the remarkable true story of how their lives changed forever with their decision to answer an abandoned child's wish for THE THINGS I WANT MOST. -->
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
Sue and Richard Miniter's nest had recently been emptied of six children when they came across a program looking for experienced parents to provide a home for abused children. After going through training they were paired with a boy, or more precisely with a file, and two things jumped out: (1) "the child... was a sociopath" and(2) a piece of notebook paper with the words The Things I Want Most: A family, A fishing pole, A family. Those simple words allowed the Miniters to put aside their deep-seated reservations and plow forcefully ahead with the adoption of a severally emotionally disturbed 11-year-old boy. Mike, in and out of mental institutions, foster care and group homes since his mother beat him unconscious when he was three, screams obscenities often and loudly, he prefers his pants to the toilet, and he won't listen or follow authority (he adamantly believes he should do no work). On his first day of school the Special Ed teacher calls Mike "the most disturbed child" he's ever seen. The Miniters, however, are determined to raise Mike like their own children: with structure, guidance and a good deal of tough love. Clearly meant to be uplifting, this lacks some of the self-doubt and grimy reality of Ann Kimble Loux's The Limits of Hope: An Adoptive Mother's Story (1997). Miniter can be heavy-handed, and the writing is often earnest (lots of exclamations!) and somewhat repetitive, but the book's strength lies in the story of a dogged persistence in the face of a child who physically refused to be loved.
