ADRIAN — What began as a quiet, familiar ritual around the family dinner table has evolved into a children’s book now traveling far beyond its original home.

Sisters Laura Banks Goble and Lyndsey Banks recently collaborated on a self-published children’s book inspired by a simple but meaningful handshake from their childhood. Titled “My Love Is All Around You with a Kiss on Top,” the book blends family memory, faith, and reassurance into a story designed to comfort young children facing moments of separation.

The pair are the daughters of Bruce and Beth Banks of Adrian and graduates of Lenawee Christian School.

Goble, the book’s author, is a physician’s associate for an orthopedic surgery practice in Rome, Georgia. Banks, the illustrator, is a lieutenant colonel in the U.S. Air Force currently stationed in Germany. Though separated by an ocean and six time zones, the sisters brought the project together through late-night phone calls and emails, scanned artwork, and a shared sense that the story was something worth telling.

Goble said the idea came to her while she was breastfeeding her younger daughter, Emersyn.

“It was almost like a dream,” she said. “I remember sitting there the next day thinking, ‘What just happened?’ I started writing it down, and it came so easily. It felt like a gift.”

Until then, writing had never been on her radar. Goble’s background is in exercise science and athletic training. She attended Olivet Nazarene University in Bourbonnais, Illinois, and went on to earn her master’s degree in medical science at Emory University, so her studies were firmly planted in the sciences.

But once the story began to take shape, Goble said she felt compelled to see it through.

The plot centers on a 5-year-old girl preparing for her first day of kindergarten who is anxious about being apart from her mother. To comfort her, the mother teaches her a secret handshake — a quiet, portable reminder that love can be felt even when someone isn’t physically present.

For the Banks siblings, the handshake has important family ties. Banks recalls how, growing up, they would sit at the dinner table, hands joined in prayer, when their mother would squeeze their hands three times to say “I love you.” The girls would squeeze back twice, then all would squeeze together as hard as they could — a silent exchange that carried meaning without words.

Banks recalls carrying that tradition into adulthood. During stressful moments, even during her military service, she and her mother would text each other “three squeezes.” After a car accident and surgery overseas, Banks said, her mother left handwritten notes around her house — including one that read simply, “three squeezes.” That note still hangs on her refrigerator.

When elder sister Goble asked her younger sister if she would illustrate the book, the answer was an immediate “yes!”

Though she didn’t study art in college, Banks rediscovered painting during the isolation of a COVID-era deployment. Art became a form of therapy, and for the book she created each illustration by hand, sketching and painting with acrylics before photographing and sending the images back to Goble for layout.

“It was important that the art felt realistic but still whimsical,” Banks said. “Each image took time, but it was worth it.”

The sisters self-published the book through Amazon, navigating editing, formatting, and multiple revisions. They used Canva for layout and selected a font that resembles a child’s handwriting. With help from friends and family, they later expanded the book into additional languages, including Spanish, Italian, and Brazilian Portuguese.

One of the most meaningful moments came when Goble’s’s oldest daughter, Trevi — the namesake of the story’s young character — learned to read just as the final copies arrived.

“She read the entire book out loud on our front porch,” Goble said. “She was so proud.”

While marketing the book has been a learning curve, the sisters say the response has been encouraging. Libraries, families, and even local medical offices have shared copies, and feedback continues to trickle in.

“It’s not just a one-and-done experience,” Goble said. “What would be really sweet is someday seeing a child use our handshake and knowing we helped spark that moment.”

“My Love Is All Around You with a Kiss on Top” is available on Amazon in hardcover and paperback.

And somewhere, perhaps in a school dropoff line or a crowded hallway, a small pinky promise may already be doing its quiet work.