Melissa Fay Greene comes to Seattle on her book tour!

Merrily looks over Melissa Fay Greene's shoulder as she signs a book

 Post submitted by AAI parent Susan Denning

When Melissa Fay Greene’s book tour for No Biking in the House Without a Helmet hit the Seattle/Tacoma area, local adoptive families enjoyed a great evening out.  Co-hosted by the Ethiopian Community Mutual Association, the event took place at the ECMA’s new facilities in South Seattle and attracted a sell-out audience of over 200 people.  Melissa enthralled the crowd with excerpts from her very entertaining new book and was joined onstage for a panel discussion by author David Guterson who shared his views as an adoptive parent.  Members of the local Ethiopian community were present and they contributed to the Q&A discussion, offering their own views on international adoption.  Many adoptive parents seemed to value the opportunity to hear this frank and open dialog.

Merrily and Ted Ripley and Barbara Patton attended, bringing along the AAI quilt for display.  Eliott Bay Book Company, another co-host of the event, donated 10% of the proceeds from the evening’s book sales to the ECMA.  And most touching of all, even the local Ethiopian teens who provided childcare for the evening quietly donated their takings to ECMA.  This was a truly wonderful community event.