What do you think?
Rate this book
One Day I'll Meet You
“I was afraid to think of the parting, but felt it coming. I felt how each moment with her was my last. Every moment almost brought me to tears…”
St. Petersburg, 1998. Ira, a widowed pediatrician, works at the local orphanage. Every child who comes under her care breaks her heart a little, but when her son is left paralyzed after an accident and with her struggling daughter-in-law expecting a second baby girl, Ira must make a heartbreaking decision of her own.
Knowing she cannot give her newborn grandchild the future she deserves, she gives her up for adoption – and when a match is made, Ira expects never to see her beloved granddaughter again.
Israel, present day. Ella’s always known she was adopted. Despite the happy, sheltered life she leads, as she grows older she cannot shake the relentless feeling that she’s never truly belonged – and she finally makes the momentous decision to open her adoption file.
Together with her adoptive mother, Tali, Ella embarks on a transformative journey of self-discovery, which will change everything for her – and for the women who have never stopped loving her.
St. Petersburg, 1998. Ira, a widowed pediatrician, works at the local orphanage. Every child who comes under her care breaks her heart a little, but when her son is left paralyzed after an accident and with her struggling daughter-in-law expecting a second baby girl, Ira must make a heartbreaking decision of her own.
Knowing she cannot give her newborn grandchild the future she deserves, she gives her up for adoption – and when a match is made, Ira expects never to see her beloved granddaughter again.
Israel, present day. Ella’s always known she was adopted. Despite the happy, sheltered life she leads, as she grows older she cannot shake the relentless feeling that she’s never truly belonged – and she finally makes the momentous decision to open her adoption file.
Together with her adoptive mother, Tali, Ella embarks on a transformative journey of self-discovery, which will change everything for her – and for the women who have never stopped loving her.
328 pages, Kindle Edition
Published October 6, 2022
407 people are currently reading
271 people want to read
Ratings & Reviews
Friends & Following
Create a free account to discover what your friends think of this book!
Community Reviews
Displaying 1 - 18 of 18 reviews
January 1, 2023
Interesting
Much thought and research must have gone into writing this book. It clearly reveals difficulties and emotions of an international adoption. I could relate because I also adopted international children.
Much thought and research must have gone into writing this book. It clearly reveals difficulties and emotions of an international adoption. I could relate because I also adopted international children.
August 5, 2022
Adoption – and finding home
Israeli author Dr. Tamar Ashkenazi earned her doctorate in nursing and serves as the director of the National Transplant Center in Israel, having initiated support programs for organ donor families and for grief support groups. In addition to her journalism and scientific articles she has published two books – MOURNING: THE DAY AFTER LOSS, and now ONE DAY I’LL MEET YOU, translated form the Hebrew by Noël Canin.
The current preoccupation with ancestry on the media should draw even more attention to this new novel, a story informed by the author’s own experiences with adoption as a single parent and her experience as a counselor for adoptive parents. Her writing skills reveal a degree of sensitivity that greatly enhances the impact of this beautiful story, evident as the book opens:’ Eight babies were born at the hospital during the night shift but only seven mothers were happy. For the eighth mother, joy in the pregnancy had faded during the fifth month when her husband was injured in an accident. Not even the birth evoked a need to touch or hug. Even when the baby cried upon leaving the womb, she couldn’t find the words to soothe her. At that very moment, the baby’s first missing experience was stamped in the memory book of her mind.’ Sveta enters the world.
Tamar explains the significance of the moving opening in her condensation of the plot: ‘’St. Petersburg, 1998. Ira, a widowed pediatrician, works at the local orphanage. Every child who comes under her care breaks her heart a little, but when her son is left paralyzed after an accident and with her struggling daughter-in-law expecting a second baby girl, Ira must make a heartbreaking decision of her own. Knowing she cannot give her newborn grandchild the future she deserves, she gives her up for adoption – and when a match is made, Ira expects never to see her beloved granddaughter again. Israel, present day. Ella’s always known she was adopted. Despite the happy, sheltered life she leads, as she grows older she cannot shake the relentless feeling that she’s never truly belonged – and she finally makes the momentous decision to open her adoption file. Together with her adoptive mother, Tali, Ella embarks on a transformative journey of self-discovery, which will change everything for her – and for the women who have never stopped loving her.’
Elegant prose and an obvious thorough understanding to the parameters of adoption place this new novel in a high category of appreciation and compassion. Dr. Ashkenazi is an impressive, sensitive author and hopefully will continue writing novels of this sophistication. Recommended.
Israeli author Dr. Tamar Ashkenazi earned her doctorate in nursing and serves as the director of the National Transplant Center in Israel, having initiated support programs for organ donor families and for grief support groups. In addition to her journalism and scientific articles she has published two books – MOURNING: THE DAY AFTER LOSS, and now ONE DAY I’LL MEET YOU, translated form the Hebrew by Noël Canin.
The current preoccupation with ancestry on the media should draw even more attention to this new novel, a story informed by the author’s own experiences with adoption as a single parent and her experience as a counselor for adoptive parents. Her writing skills reveal a degree of sensitivity that greatly enhances the impact of this beautiful story, evident as the book opens:’ Eight babies were born at the hospital during the night shift but only seven mothers were happy. For the eighth mother, joy in the pregnancy had faded during the fifth month when her husband was injured in an accident. Not even the birth evoked a need to touch or hug. Even when the baby cried upon leaving the womb, she couldn’t find the words to soothe her. At that very moment, the baby’s first missing experience was stamped in the memory book of her mind.’ Sveta enters the world.
Tamar explains the significance of the moving opening in her condensation of the plot: ‘’St. Petersburg, 1998. Ira, a widowed pediatrician, works at the local orphanage. Every child who comes under her care breaks her heart a little, but when her son is left paralyzed after an accident and with her struggling daughter-in-law expecting a second baby girl, Ira must make a heartbreaking decision of her own. Knowing she cannot give her newborn grandchild the future she deserves, she gives her up for adoption – and when a match is made, Ira expects never to see her beloved granddaughter again. Israel, present day. Ella’s always known she was adopted. Despite the happy, sheltered life she leads, as she grows older she cannot shake the relentless feeling that she’s never truly belonged – and she finally makes the momentous decision to open her adoption file. Together with her adoptive mother, Tali, Ella embarks on a transformative journey of self-discovery, which will change everything for her – and for the women who have never stopped loving her.’
Elegant prose and an obvious thorough understanding to the parameters of adoption place this new novel in a high category of appreciation and compassion. Dr. Ashkenazi is an impressive, sensitive author and hopefully will continue writing novels of this sophistication. Recommended.
September 3, 2022
ספר מרתק ומרגש המספר, מכמה זוויות, על החוויה של אימוץ ילדה, ולאחר מכן ילד, מבית יתומים ברוסיה.
הספר מציג כמה זוויות ראיה על האימוץ מהצד של האמא, של מנהלת בית היתומים ושל הילדה.
מבטיחה לכם שלא תוכלו להניח אותו מהידיים.
הספר מציג כמה זוויות ראיה על האימוץ מהצד של האמא, של מנהלת בית היתומים ושל הילדה.
מבטיחה לכם שלא תוכלו להניח אותו מהידיים.
Read
October 13, 2022Poignant
An Israeli woman who is not able to have children longs to be a mother. She adopts two children from Russia and raises them as Jewish children. They have a good life, but the older child, a girl called Ella, starts to experience very painful feelings of rejection and abandonment as she grows older. This story documents her adoptive mother's experiences, and her own. It is a raw painful story. It is very personal too, possibly experienced by many families who adopt and the children who are given up for adoption. At times I was tempted to delete the story because of the petty behaviour of those in authority who allowed babies to experience traumatic loneliness when left alone at night, with no loving parent to comfort them, until they developed behavioral problems, like rocking and waking eight times a night, when there were desperate people longing to become parents. Authorities claim to consider the interests of the children, but the reality is that they enjoy the power they have over parents applying to adopt, at the expense of the babies' security. That is sickening!
An Israeli woman who is not able to have children longs to be a mother. She adopts two children from Russia and raises them as Jewish children. They have a good life, but the older child, a girl called Ella, starts to experience very painful feelings of rejection and abandonment as she grows older. This story documents her adoptive mother's experiences, and her own. It is a raw painful story. It is very personal too, possibly experienced by many families who adopt and the children who are given up for adoption. At times I was tempted to delete the story because of the petty behaviour of those in authority who allowed babies to experience traumatic loneliness when left alone at night, with no loving parent to comfort them, until they developed behavioral problems, like rocking and waking eight times a night, when there were desperate people longing to become parents. Authorities claim to consider the interests of the children, but the reality is that they enjoy the power they have over parents applying to adopt, at the expense of the babies' security. That is sickening!
December 30, 2022
Great book. I al.most gave up on it but read to the end !
A great read although hard at first for me to follow the characters and keep them straight. Turned out to be a great story and the love for a grandmother wanting a better life for her grand baby even though it meant never seeing the child again was beautiful and so unselfish.
A great read although hard at first for me to follow the characters and keep them straight. Turned out to be a great story and the love for a grandmother wanting a better life for her grand baby even though it meant never seeing the child again was beautiful and so unselfish.
October 17, 2022
A really great book
Great Book highly recommend. Wow a great story about adoption. This story broke and warm my heart. Two different places, so much heartbreaking.
Great Book highly recommend. Wow a great story about adoption. This story broke and warm my heart. Two different places, so much heartbreaking.
October 29, 2022
A wonderful and touchig book, about adupting 2 kids from the soviet union and the hardships on the way.
I loved reading the book from 3 difrent angles.
Couldn't stop reading.
I loved reading the book from 3 difrent angles.
Couldn't stop reading.
February 28, 2025
Memories
This book jostled so many memories for me. We adopted a child from Russia and spent two weeks there. The descriptions of the baby home before Sveta’s birth were so familiar because they were scenes we saw in our daughter’s orphanage. All the delays and events in Tali’s adoption process seemed to mirror much of what we went through as well. I would love for my daughter to read this book as she is now an adult but I am not sure she could work her way through it. It would be eye opening for her though. The depictions of every day life in Russia were things we saw/heard about.
This book jostled so many memories for me. We adopted a child from Russia and spent two weeks there. The descriptions of the baby home before Sveta’s birth were so familiar because they were scenes we saw in our daughter’s orphanage. All the delays and events in Tali’s adoption process seemed to mirror much of what we went through as well. I would love for my daughter to read this book as she is now an adult but I am not sure she could work her way through it. It would be eye opening for her though. The depictions of every day life in Russia were things we saw/heard about.
January 4, 2024
Interesting story
I was unaware that there were Russian babies/children adopted by Israeli people. It was also unique that a single woman was allowed to adopt 2 children. I have read many stories about Jewish people, though I am not Jewish, and I never knew some could be adopted. I like that the book was separated by chapters and the person talking in the chapter was identified as the chapter head. How sad that Ella's was so troubled in her teenage years; but in the end did find closure on her adoption.
I was unaware that there were Russian babies/children adopted by Israeli people. It was also unique that a single woman was allowed to adopt 2 children. I have read many stories about Jewish people, though I am not Jewish, and I never knew some could be adopted. I like that the book was separated by chapters and the person talking in the chapter was identified as the chapter head. How sad that Ella's was so troubled in her teenage years; but in the end did find closure on her adoption.
February 14, 2024
One Day I’ll Meet You
Interesting book about adoption in Israel and Russia. Emotionally exhausting but it’s well written. I did enjoy it very much.
Interesting book about adoption in Israel and Russia. Emotionally exhausting but it’s well written. I did enjoy it very much.
November 2, 2022
Always enjoy a book where I've learned something new. This historic insightful read is told by the various characters of the story: the adoptive mother, the doctor grandmother and Ella, the adopted child. It is based both in Russia where the adoptions take place and Israel from where many families adopt Russian babies. Amazing is the fortitude of many adoptive parents and all they had to go through for their babies, never realizing Israel was as involved with this as the USA. Extremely eye-opening involving an emotional roller coaster of both adopting and raising an adopted baby and the effects of the lack of early nurturing in the later years. The ending was heartwarming for both Ella and the reader to realize how fortunate these babies were in their placement outside of Russia.
November 1, 2022
This is some of the most convincing fiction I've ever read. It is so detailed and well researched that I had decided it must be personal experience rather than fiction. The end notes corrected my false assumption. Well done! This author goes deep into the feelings of all involved in the adoption process; birth parents and extended family, adoptive parents, the child, and to some degree those involved in the process. This was a fascinating read into a world with which I not familiar.
October 22, 2022
I enjoyed the story, but I had kind of a love/hate relationship with it because of all the worldly things in it. Lots of psychological Bible, that sort of thing. I enjoyed it because it was true to life, but that’s also what bothered me. I guess I am more for feel good stories, and this didn’t quite satisfy me.
December 30, 2022
I liked the book and the research that went into it to make it so real. I enjoyed the story. However, I got bogged down with all the details of some of the journey with the names etc. However I know this was done for authenticity. The story was good, the details not so much.
April 12, 2023
I'm sure the book deserves more stars than I gave it. A lot of research was done and very enlightening about adoption in foreign countries. However I got bogged down in all the names and Jewish and Russian customs. The pain of giving up a child and the love of an adopting parent were heart felt.
October 14, 2022
You want a downer to read? Well, this is it. Well-written, technically. Accurate? Maybe. But don’t keep reading expecting things to get better - they don’t.
May 21, 2023
The topic of this book was moving. Heartbreaking, really. But I found the writing style distracting. Perhaps because English is the authors second language?
July 2, 2023
This novel tells the story of an Israeli woman adopting 2 children from Russia.
Displaying 1 - 18 of 18 reviews