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Foreword

by Melissa Gilbert

New York Times best-selling author, wife, mother, actor and activist

Several years ago, I found myself reliving key moments of my life as I started to piece together stories for my memoir. As with most people in the world, my life has been filled with plenty of ups and downs. Through it all, the one thing that stood out to me was the reoccurring theme of family. And when I say family, I don’t just mean the nuclear type with a mom, a dad, two-and-a-half kids and a white picket fence. I mean the kind of family built on love, where people are there for each other through thick and thin no matter what happens in life.

This theme dates back to my father, who was an only child and lived with his parents in Philadelphia before being sent away when he was about eight or nine years old. He went to live with a family of circus performers and learned how to be an aerialist like his mother. After both of his parents died when he was just a teenager, he wound up traveling in a circus with his surrogate family.

As for me, I was adopted when I was just a few days old and am the oldest of three children. My mother loved and cherished me the best she knew how and for that I will always love her unconditionally. My father was funny, smart, handsome, kind, generous and fair. He was the kind of parent I aspired to be.

When I was just nine years old, I landed the role of Laura Ingalls Wilder on Little House on the Prairie. The cast and crew quickly became my second family and there was a sense of compassion, faith, togetherness, support and camaraderie with everyone on the set. I was particularly close to Michael Landon, an amazing man who was a father figure to me, both on and off screen. He was warm and nurturing and he had a powerful impact on my life. We were so close that my family even had a yearly tradition of going on vacation with Michael and his family.

Flash forward many years and I now have a family of my own, complete with four grown boys, two grown stepsons, a stepdaughter and a granddaughter. My own family includes my dearest friends and their children as well. I am so blessed. I tell people I don’t have a family tree, I have a family shrub!

Looking back on my life, my family has been ever-changing. It’s been filled with a diverse group of people. What I’ve learned over the years is that families are strong units that aren’t held together by biology; they’re held together by love.

Families look different now than they did a few decades ago. Whether they consist of a mother and father, two mommies, two daddies, single parents, a foster family, grandparents or whatever, it’s not about what the family looks like. It’s about how much they love one another.

Being a parent is the most rewarding thing I will ever do in my life. If it is something you want, I pray your dreams of parenting come true. Every child deserves to be raised in a stable home with parents who love him or her.

I’ve read and have been touched by all the stories in this book. The lengths that people have gone through to build their families amazes me. I hope their stories help you along in your journey to parenthood.