The books
These books end up on shelves next to Third Culture Kids and Good Inside. That is not a coincidence.
The reader who has all three is usually someone who moved through something difficult and paid attention the whole time. She gave birth in a country that did not know her name. She raised a child between cultures and gave her a map before the world expected her to already know the territory. She held everything together and somewhere in the middle of it stopped recognising herself, and she took that seriously enough to read about it rather than just push through.
These books were written for her. One for the beginning. One for the child navigating alongside her. One for the moment she finally has time to ask what happened to herself in the process.
They are not a trilogy. They are three entry points into the same experience, depending on where you are in it.
Start wherever you are.
Maternity Abroad: Becoming a Mother in a Foreign Land
This book is for mother giving birth in a healthcare system that doesn’t know her name, her norms, or her home.
Every pregnancy book assumed you had a village. Mine assumed you had a food delivery app and a robot vacuum.
I paid close to ten thousand euros for my daughter's birth because I did not understand how health insurance worked in Portugal. Nobody told me. The pregnancy books told me what to pack in my hospital bag. None of them told me what happens when the system you are giving birth inside has never heard of you.
Maternity Abroad was written for the mother giving birth in a country that was not built for her. Not a checklist or a five step guide to a successful expat pregnancy. The specific, practical, occasionally expensive things that happen when you are pregnant in a place that was not built with you in mind. Healthcare navigation. What to ask and what to push back on. How to advocate for yourself when you are not fluent in the system. What the village looks like when the village is on the wrong continent.
Read in over 15 countries. Endorsed by Luciana Gomide, author of In Brazil. Used by intercultural psychologists with their patients.
The first forty pages are available to read for free. No email required. Just the book.
My First American Coloring Book: Everyday Life in the U.S. for Little Hands
This book gives your child the school bus, the lunchbox, the s’more, and the American flag before the world expects them to already know what those are.
The moment a child points at a picture and says: I know that one. I belong here a little more than I did yesterday.
Germany led the sales of this book without a single campaign targeting Germany. South Korea was not far behind. Both are education fever markets — parents who research everything before they buy, who look for tools that do far more than fill time.
101 illustrations of everyday American life for children from age two. The school bus, the mailbox, the Thanksgiving table, the Halloween pumpkin, the fire truck, the baseball field — the things that seem obvious to everyone who grew up there and are completely new to the child who just arrived.
Screen-free. Ages 2 and up. Illustrated by Janyne Azevedo.
Parenting Unpacked: Parenting Through the Loss of Self
This books is for the parent raising children abroad who functions perfectly on the outside, but feels completely lost on the inside.
For the parent who held everything together and somewhere in the middle of it stopped recognising herself.
You are still functioning. The school runs happen and the appointments get made. From the outside nothing looks wrong, but from the inside something has been quietly off for longer than you want to admit, and you do not have a word for it yet.
This book has the word, and several more besides.
Real stories from families raising children across countries, systems, and expectations. Specialist voices that sit alongside those stories without overriding them. A structure most families move through without naming: Leave, Adapt, Anchor, Thrive. And the specific, honest account of what it costs to hold everything together when the context that used to make you competent has changed.
Endorsed by Ruth Van Reken, co-author of Third Culture Kids. Selected for the official SIETAR congress resource pack, Valencia 2026.
This book is for the parent who notices the gap. Not everyone does. Most keep moving and call it fine.
If you are reading this, you noticed.
Not sure where to start?
If you are pregnant abroad right now, start with Maternity Abroad.
If you have a toddler adjusting to a new country, the coloring book is for her.
If the logistics are mostly sorted and something quieter is asking for your attention, Parenting Unpacked is where that conversation happens.
Or go to the Start Here page and I will help you find your way in.