My First Family Couldn't Stay A Story About Adoption - A Heartwarming Children's Book About Family, Belonging, and Being Special (Ages 3-7) Does your adopted child ask about their birth parents? Are you searching for a picture book that helps children understand losing a birth parent while still feeling loved and secure in their forever family? My First Family Couldn’t Stay is the picture book adoptive parents, foster parents, grief counselors, and social workers have been searching for and couldn’t find — until now. Roo is a small black kitten with a new home, a Mom and Dad who love her, and two precious things that came with her from before: a worn soft blanket and a stuffed monkey named Jennifer. One ordinary afternoon, the smell of her blanket stops her completely. Suddenly she is thinking about her first family, her Mommy and Daddy who are no longer here. This gently honest adoption story: • Helps adopted children ages 4 to 7 process grief over the loss of birth parents • Validates the experience of loving two families at the same time • Shows adoptive parents how to honor birth parents with warmth and openness • Models emotionally healthy conversations about death, grief, and forever love • Introduces the concept of a memory corner as a healing tool for adopted children Written with the emotional authenticity that has made award-winning children’s author Lara’s adoption books beloved by adoptive families, therapists, and educators worldwide, My First Family Couldn’t Stay fills a gap that has existed in adoption literature for far too long. Because some children carry two families in their hearts. And both of those loves are real. Perfect for: • Adopted children ages 4 to 7 • Foster care families navigating loss and grief • Adoptive parents looking for honest, healing conversations • Grief counselors and therapists working with adopted children • Social workers building adoption resource libraries • School counselors supporting children with complex family histories Also by this author: Chosen With Love, Room in Our Herd, Not Maybe Anymore