Book Review: Three Little Words by Ashley Rhodes-Courter

Ashley Rhodes-Courter spent nine of her twelve years of life as a foster child, living in fourteen different homes during that time. She spends that time remembering the words of her mother: "You're my baby, and I'm your only mother. You must mind the one taking care of you, but she's not your mama." These words, along with mistreatment in some of the foster homes she was in, kept her from forming any bonds with the many different people she knew as she grew up. It also kept her longing for the day her mother would rescue her.

Ashley is switched from one social worker to another, moved from school to school, and spends part of her childhood in a very abusive foster home. She and her brother Luke were separated and reunited several times during these years.

Ashley was finally adopted when she was twelve years old. It was on her adoption day that she said the three words that the books title implies: When the judge asked her if she wanted the adoption to be official, she answered, "I guess so." She had been rejected so many times that she was certain this 'placement' would also end some day. However, her adoptive parents stood by this troubled girl throughout the rest of her childhood, in spite of the many troubles she put them through.
Ashley choose to keep her birth name, hyphenating it with her new adoptive name.

She brought a lawsuit against her abusive foster home later in her teens, which was settled out of court, much to her disappointment.

She was reunited with her birth mother, another thing in her life which did not go well.

Ashley says writing this book helped her finally bring her jumbled childhood together in her mind, and helped her make sense of her troubled life.