A true story about a single man and his quest to adopt three children out of the public system. Chronicling not only the troubles with our current child welfare system, but also its heroes. As a foster parent, I appreciate how well Marin conveys the challenges of working within the system, the joys and challenges of becoming a new parent, and the humor that exists in all of it.

An enjoyable and insightful read. Highly recommended.

Thank you David Marin for your story, and thank you even more for your perseverance and desire to make a difference in three young lives. You remind me of why we do what we do... not only as parents to our own children, but also to the ones that we welcome into our home as strangers.


This was a First-Reads selection. ( )

I’ve dealt with the bureaucracy Marin is writing about, so I was eager to see if he had similar experiences as my family. He did. This book provided a very real, often heart-breaking look at the struggles of children in the foster care system and of the people trying to help them. It was very honest and I would recommend it to anyone. ( )

This is US: The New All-American Family by David Marin is a memoir about a single forty-something-year-old man who decides to adopt a child. He ends up, in fact, adopting three siblings and learning about the prejudices, failings, and tragedies of social services. He learns that people do not understand, and therefore assume the worst about, a single man who wants children. He learns that anti-immigration anger extends to innocent children with nowhere to go and no one to love them. This is US is at once a sad and hopeful story about the new all-American family - a family that can come in all shapes, sizes, and colors. ( )

David Marin always wanted a family. Finding himself unmarried, he decided to adopt on his own from the California foster care system. As a result Marin became a father of three, and by all accounts they created a happy and functional family.

I was expecting that this book would be mostly about the children's adjustment to their new family, and Marin's adjustment to parenting. These were not the most significant issues. Comparatively, they were hardly issues at all. What were significant issues were the challenges of managing the bureaucracy of the foster-care system, and dealing with the absurd reactions of strangers.

The incompetence and resistance of the foster-care system is shocking. To give one piquant example: a social worker who was supposed to be doing a home visit spent her time trying to get Marin to sell her his daughter's bedroom furniture rather than checking on the children. The absolute disorganization and incompetence of the foster-care system is completely disheartening. The competent and caring social workers are entirely overburdened and lost in a sea of bureaucracy, and those who aren't competent and caring are a disaster. I hope this book helps bring some changes to the foster care mess. The good news is that the Marins did manage, despite odds against them, to create a happy family. ( )

An autobiography of a single white male adopts 3 Mexican-American children who were abused and abandoned by their mother. It’s really 3 stories in one. First a very troubling look at Social Services that makes you understand why adoption in the US is so difficult yet there are hundreds of thousands of children waiting in Foster Care. The second story is tells of our prejudices and assumptions we make just because doesn’t look like or live like us. From children being a different color to being discriminated or suspected of deviant behavior because you’re a single male adopting. Last the story of being single for 40+ years to all of sudden raising 3 children ages from 2, 4 and 6. Including raising a 4 year old girl with no womanly knowledge (learning how to paint nails and braid hair for starters). With these 3 stories in one your emotions ranged from anger to laughter and everything in between. ( )