John M. Simmons

John M. Simmons is the author of the newly released To Sing Frogs, a moving memoir that chronicles his family’s quest to rescue five children from rural, impoverished Russian orphanages and the heartbreak of having to leave so many behind. The book is a follow-up to his previous novel, The Marvelous Journey Home, both available now in bookstores and online at www.johnmsimmons.com and Amazon.com.

His first title, The Marvelous Journey Home, tells the remarkable story of parents and children coming together, taking the reader on an incredible journey from the orphanages in small, remote Russian villages, to Moscow, and finally home to America. The book was the 2008 winner of the Utah Best of State Awards- Fiction category, earned Book of the Month status from Audio Book News Service and BookReview.com and made the Top Ten Reads Lists for MyShelf.com.

John and his wife have adopted both domestically and internationally, with five adopted children from Russia. He has a personal understanding of how the politics of Russian adoption affect those in the process of adopting children, and the impact to the children themselves.

Simmons recently resigned as the President/CEO of White Knight Fluid Handling, Inc., a business he started, to focus on adoption awareness and the charity he and his family founded, Ele Lembra (He Remembers). Ele Lembra is a 501(c)(3) public charity that assists children without parents as they age out of orphanages.

He lives with his wife, Amy and their children in Kamas, Utah, a small mountain valley east of Park City.