Adelaide has lived her whole life in rural Ethiopia as the white American daughter of an anthropologist. Then her family moves to South Carolina, in 1964. Adelaide must finally choose where she belongs: the Ethiopian village where she grew up, to which she promised to return? Or this place where she's become part of something bigger than herself?

If your story involves growing up among different cultures - either moving between them or having them move around you - then read this book. Growing up and transitioning cross-culturally can present unexpected challenges and bestow surprising skills. This is a book of adventures that helped me identify some of those challenges and realize some of those skills. Hopefully it can help you too - which is important because you've got more to contribute to the world than you realize.

Being the child of parents in ministry brings both beauty and challenge. Tim Sanford, himself a missionary kid, ordained minister, and licensed professional counselor, unpacks the hidden lies many missionary and pastor’s kids believe. With refreshing honesty, humor, and a dash of sarcasm, he helps readers take a deeper look at their own experiences and find freedom in new perspectives.

As an Adult Third Culture Kid (ATCK), Ruth E. Van Reken began journaling to make sense of the often-overlooked struggles of growing up as a missionary kid—challenges that were easy to hide behind the many positive experiences of her childhood. Her book offers TCKs a mirror for their own stories, helping them feel seen and inviting them to process their experiences more deeply.

Inspired by Ruth E. Van Reken’s Letters Never Sent, this heartfelt collection brings together letters from those who have lived between cultures—stories rich with both beauty and struggle. As readers journey through these honest reflections, they’ll recognize themes of grief and loss interwoven with apology, affirmation, celebration, gratitude, and love.

Making sense of the impact of your childhood TCK experience can feel overwhelming, especially if we have long experience of our stories being met with bafflement and incredulity. My hope is that this collection of my thoughts over the last seven years of working with Third Culture Kids will create space for you to explore and make sense of the incredible life you’ve lived. As you read, I hope that you feel the invitation of community and belonging where you see your personal experience shared by so many others. So get comfortable, know you are oh-so welcome, and enjoy the journey!

From the backdrop of a once thriving British colony in the southeast corner of China to middle America to a provincial island termed “The Ends of the Earth,” Faith Dea sheds light on her place in a greater narrative only a redeeming Savior could write. Unraveled is a moving memoir of a young life uprooted, transplanted, and refitted over and over across continents and beyond borders. It’s a story of how faith was poured early upon the soil of a missionary daughter’s heart, and how she grew to plant roots - not in the temporary, but the eternal.

Blending memoir, research, and storytelling, Michèle Phoenix draws on a lifetime as a Missionaries’ Kid and more than three decades working with Third Culture Kids to paint a compelling and compassionate portrait, inviting the reader to explore fifteen formative aspects of the MK and TCK experience that influence how this people group uniquely navigates identity, hardship, and spirituality. More than anything, Pieces of Purple is a celebration of the immeasurable gift of growing up between worlds.

TCK's experiences can make it challenging to find, form, and sustain a sense of belonging to place and to people. Belonging Beyond Borders supports the journey of Adult Third Culture Kids in unpacking what it means to belong in their multiple communities: personal, professional, familial, cultural, spiritual. Questions and self-reflection exercises invite you to get curious about how to belong, where to belong, and why to belong.

This book gently invites us to delve into our experiences from an emotional perspective and gives us a helpful grid for doing this work that has historically been so abstract. If you are looking to grow in emotional intelligence, self-awareness, and internal processing, this book will guide you in that journey.

When sharing about our childhood abroad, we’re often met with awe and envy. What many don’t see are the number of losses we experienced with each move, the amount of “goodbyes” we said, or the hardships that we endured. Each of these stack up like blocks on a tower, each block influencing how we deal with the next hardship we face. This hope-filled book offers you the invitation to uncover and process the blocks on your Grief Tower. Through her own experience, Lauren Wells walks you compassionately and practically through unstacking your Grief Tower in light of your TCK experiences

What Made That Feel So Hard? is the foundational book for the Unstacking Method - a methodology based on The Grief Tower by Lauren Wells that has been used by coaches, counselors, and in professional certifications worldwide to help adults and children to work through past and current grief. This book offers an easy-to-read, gentle approach to looking back on the hardships of your past and seeing how those have influenced your present. Through personal anecdotes and stories, Lauren guides you through the process of unstacking so that you can move forward in healthier ways.

Misunderstood explores the impact international life can have on the children of such families – while they live overseas, when they return, and as they mature into adults. Similarities in their shared experiences (regardless of the different countries in which they have lived) create a safe space of comfort and understanding. Tanya Crossman introduces this space – the Third Culture – through the personal stories of hundreds of individuals. Whether you grew up overseas, are raising children overseas, or know a family living abroad, Misunderstood will equip you with insights into the international experience, along with practical suggestions for how to offer meaningful care and support.