"Adoption triad friends: This is a must read.'' - Rachel Garlinghouse, blogger, adoption advocate.
"I had to stop 4 times: twice to catch my breath and the other two times to grab Kleenexes." - Holly
"You will laugh and cry right along with her...This book is hard to put down." - Ruby
The first time I heard those three words I was 18 years old and just weeks into my freshman year of college. I was devastated. I did not want to be a mom. I was not ready to be a mom. I had to make a choice.
Those Three Words is my story of making difficult choices, taking chances, and the joy and pain of motherhood.
"You are pregnant."
About the Author
Christine (Chris) Bauer is writer and communications
professional living in Minneapolis. Those Three Words is her first book. Her writing has appeared in the Star Tribune, the University of Minnesota alumni magazine and numerous online publications including Brave Love, Gift of Adoption and America Adopts.
Chris is a featured speaker at adoption conferences and events and has presented to groups including Lutheran Social Services, Evolve Family Services, Adoption.com Virtual Summit and Wisconsin Adoption and Permanency Support, among others. e
She has loved reading and writing for as long as she can remember. Chris was born and raised in the big small town of Mitchell, South Dakota. While she loved her hometown, Chris was eager to move on to new adventures after graduating from high school.
Chris attended Minnesota State University- Mankato and majored in Mass Communications. She was a writer and editor of the University's newspaper, The Reporter. She has enjoyed her long career in corporate communications, public relations and marketing.
Her greatest achievement and most profound joy is being the mother of three kind-hearted children and two beautiful grandchildren.
Photo by Karen Fostervold Photography
Media Coverage
"Bauer’s story is an emotional tale that will have readers glued to the page. Bauer infuses a very serious and beautiful story with humor, warmth, and wisdom... A simultaneously heartwarming and heartbreaking tale about time and love lost, rediscovered, and strengthened."
Publishers Weekly
Book Life Awards Review
Semi-finalist
Reviews
"Author Chris Bauer captivated me with every word in her new adoption memoir. Adoption triad friends:
This is a must read!"
Rachel Garlinghouse
Author, The Hopeful Mom's Guide to Adoption and Encouragement for the Adoption and Parenting Journey, and others; leading blogger and adoption advocate
"You will laugh and you will cry as Christine tells her story. It is poignant and brings to light the harrowing decision a woman must make when she’s unexpectedly pregnant and not in a place in life where she is prepared to become a mother. I believe everyone involved won in this case. Beautiful and insightful writing. I would like to read more by this author."
Brenda Kula
Founder Cozy Little House & Adoptive Mom
"Bauer deftly addresses one of the most wrenching and emotional decisions one might confront: how to respond to an unexpected pregnancy. With candor and grace, she leads reader on a thought-provoking journey filled with unexpected twists and turns. I couldn't put it down."
Caryn M. Sullivan
Author of Bitter or Better: Grappling with Life on the Op-Ed Page
Winner of the 2015 Midwest Book Award for Inspiration.
"Those Three Words is a powerfully emotional memoir of a young woman’s choice, the miracle of chance connections & the unbreakable bonds of maternal love...I cried, laughed & held my breath.”
Michelle Madrid-Branch
Author of Adoption Means Love and Host of The Greater Than Podcast
"It was completely honest and raw at times. It is definitely a book I recommend to anyone who wants a glimpse into the journey of a birth family. If you are a birth family, an adoptive family, or an adoptive child I believe this story can offer you a perspective, but more than that it can offer healing."
Dawn Wright
Adoption Consultant
"On its surface, Christine Bauer's Those Three Words is an engrossing memoir detailing a young birthmother's hard path toward fulfillment and happiness. But even stronger currents race deeper down, about the difficulty of acceptance, the power of family, and the nature of love. Reading it is a moving and unforgettable experience."
Jack El-Hai
Author of The Nazi and the Psychiatrist and The
Lobotomist, and past president of the American Society of Journalists and Authors
"As a young girl, I was proud to be adopted. I was chosen. Then, after giving birth to my first child, I paused and was overcome with grief. How could any loving woman give up a baby?
Chrisy's book helped me understand the love, agony, and courage needed to be a birth mother, to do what's right for yourself, and for the helpless human you've brought into the world."
Lory Sutton
Chief Marketing Officer
Minnesota Historical Society
"I’ve long tried to imagine what my birth mother’s life might have been like — what her hopes and fears might have been, and from where her strength and support might have come, first as she made the decision to give me up for adoption and then as the time came and she followed through. “Those Three Words,” a deep and personal exploration of Christine Bauer’s own experience as a birth mother, helps to fill in what that missing context might be. But as Bauer’s story confirms, I’ve had one thought about adoption right all along: It is an act of love.
This book, though, is not just for those with a stake in the adoption process. It’s for anyone who understands that at any moment there are threads of pain and joy and conflict and redemption winding through the lives around them, and who would like to hear about one such set of life experiences, in an extended story compellingly told.
David Banks
Assistant Editor, Editorial/Opinion
The Star Tribune
I'm a paragraph. Click here to add your own text and edit me. It's easy.
Events
Book Clubs, Meetings, Conferences
Contact Chris directly at AuthorChrisBauer@gmail.com for Book Club events or other speaking engagements.
She is happy to join in meetings and discussions about her book, adoption, writing, women's issues and more.
2018 Christine Bauer
Connect with Chris!
For book club meetings, events, and speaking engagements, please contact Chris at:
Follow her on social: