2017 Bronze Medal Winner in Readers' Favorite International Book Awards.  I Promised Not to Tell: Raising a transgender child is a true and honest parenting memoir about one family’s journey to discovering the son they never knew they had.  

     Cheryl and her husband Jim had two daughters born four years apart.  Their eldest, Mariah was a girly girl who loved pink, Barbie dolls and playing dress up.  Her younger sister Jordan loved blue, toy trucks and army men.  It was presumed that Jordan was a typical tomboy, and these parents were totally okay with that.   Both girls were happy and, while they had different interests, they got along very well right from the start.

     When their youngest daughter was only a few years of age, she began to put forth a very strong male gender expression and this continued up until the time she reached puberty.   Jordan decided to drop the tomboy phase in an effort to embrace the biological girl she was.  However, instead of embracing the changes, Jordan experienced a drastic change in behaviour sending a once happy child into a tail spin of depression.  After a failed suicide attempt, Cheryl and her husband stepped up to the plate to get their child the help she needed.  They eventually learned that Jordan suffers from gender dysphoria and that all the sadness plaguing their youngest daughter was the result of this deeply seated gender struggle.  

     The family began a journey of learning that developed into one of self discovery for each member of the family.  These parents stood together as their family faced a religious statement that this child is ‘not of God’.  Mariah and Jordan grow apart and a home often filled with laughter became void of it.  It was a trying time.  Determination aided this family as they pushed forward in an effort to not just make the road ahead easier for Jordan but, with consideration for all those transgender children that will follow.

     The book is a deeply personal account of the steps this family took to keep their family together, to push forward and help Jordan become the healthy and happy young man he is today.   Each step of Jordan’s transition from female to male is documented in the hopes it will help others who may have found themselves on a similar path.  The underlying thread of this story is love; the consistent and unwavering love these parents have for their children and the steps they took to protect their family. 

     I Promised Not to Tell is an inspirational book about survival and love that transitions beautifully between the family’s own story and some of the larger issues that face the transgender community today.