This is the truly inspirational story of a woman who searched for her parents for forty years. She found a 100-year-old artist and free spirit living in Dublin. Could this be her mother? A fascinating and astonishing story to give you goose bumps. If you don’t believe in miracles, you will after you read this story.

From the Publisher: This book is the story of my life. The title has become my testimony in life, because I do have so much to thank God for. He has bought me from such a mighty long way, and without Him, I do not know where I would be today. “I have been sick, I have been homeless, I have been hungry, and I have been through so much, but through it all, God never left me.” I am a living miracle!

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About the Author: Barbara Alston was born and raised in North Carolina, and lives in New Jersey. She has been writing ever since elementary school. She has written plays and editorials for newspapers in both North Carolina and New Jersey. She is a published poet in Poetic Voices of America, Spring 1999 edition. Writing has always been a passion of hers, as well as singing gospel and playing the piano. Barbara has been married for 21 years, and is the mother of one daughter and grandmother of two, as well as several step-grandchildren. I Have So Much to Thank God For is her first published book.

When author Bianca Lyons-Brown was born to a drug-addicted mother in January of 1990, the four-pound baby experienced a plethora of health issues. She would be confined to a wheelchair, and doctors believed she would neither speak nor hear. In I Know I’ve Been Changed, Bianca shares her life story and narrates how, through God’s help, she has overcome a host of challenges to become a strong and talented black woman. In this memoir, Bianca tells how her adoptive parents and her faith in God have helped her lead a productive life, including earning medals and traveling through her participation in the National Olympics. Now a mother and a college student, she shows how she persevered during the last twenty-three years—and how she intents to continue to grow and learn. I Know I’ve Been Changed shares a message of inspiration—it is possible to achieve great things while living with a disability and major medical issues through a strong faith and reliance on God.

From the Dust Jacket: This is the life of General Smuts as seen through the eyes of his adopted daughter, Kathleen Mincher. Politics have little or no part in this intimate story, which deals with the private life of a great man, who is shown with some natural failings together with the determined qualities, which so distinguished him.

It is divided into three parts. The first is pre war; the author’s schooldays, the philosophy of her upbringing and contains many anecdotes never before told. The second part deals with the War years and many “off the record” incidents concerning Royal refugees, who lived with them, will be of more than ordinary interest. The final part has a great deal to do with the Royal visit in lighter vein than anything hitherto described and culminates with the death of the Oubaas, life with Mrs. Smuts thereafter, until this gracious lady also passed on...

A book that will leave a happy taste in the mouth of its readers; a unique picture of a man who stands amongst the immortals of our land.

Paula was adopted as an infant. She was “chosen” and therefore she was special. For the most part she had what seemed to be an idyllic life. On the surface she appeared to be happy, but on the inside she did not feel like she was good enough. She had been abandoned at birth. Every child experiences a time in their life when they feel like they are not good enough. For some, the feeling is temporary, but for others, that feeling becomes a belief, affecting all aspects of life. I Look Like Me is an inspirational story of transformation. Join Paula as she shares her journey, full of twists and turns, from low self-esteem/self-worth, through the process of discovery, to eventually finding self-love.

John Russell was born to a large family in 1951. After facing many hardships, his mother made the heart-wrenching decision to place her seven children up for adoption. In their attempt to insure that he bonded to his new family, John’s adoptive parents never allowed him to mention his former life. Memories were suppressed, and only after 34 years passed were the siblings reunited. Shortly after their reunion, Joe, John’s younger brother, was taken by cancer, having had only three meetings between the reunion and Joe’s death. John made one final visit to Joe’s home in Colorado to assist with chores before he passed away. These would be their last moments together. Revisiting in his mind the moments they shared as children began a healing exercise that would ultimately lead to this account of a life spent without siblings and a search for answers, resolution, and peace.

“I was born a bastard and I’ve been one all my life. I became a journalist.” So begins Joseph P. Ritz’s story of his search for his background and his career as a journalist and playwright. In a 40-year career, Ritz worked for six daily newspapers. Most of those years was spent at the Buffalo Courier-Express and The Buffalo News. He tells stories about reporters and editors at those papers and the end of The Courier. The title of the book comes from a journey he makes discovering what he owes the troubled man and woman who raised him and what he owes the mother who gave him birth. He describes a Catholic childhood with a foster mother who disguised her voice when she answered the telephone because she believed callers thought she has secrets and a volatile foster father who occasionally threatened suicide and other violent acts. The book tells of family funerals at which mourners debated whether police were justified in shooting the deceased and the son of the man in the coffin arrived with a prison guard. There is brutality in the book. There is also humor, madness and mischief. It also describes the failures and frustrations of a daily newspaper reporter and his impressions of some of the famous people he encountered such as Harry S Truman, Richard Nixon and Martin Luther King. It tells of interviewing a multiple murderer and the agony of questioning ordinary men and women who are in the news because of a terrible misfortune such as killing their child. It describes days spent with a mob-connected news source hiding from his associates in Costa Nostra and using a ruse to enter the home of a Mafia godfather. About the Author: Joseph P. Ritz is an award-winning journalist and a published author and playwright. In a long career he has worked for six daily newspapers He was a correspondent for the United Press and been a stringer for such newspapers as The New York Post, The New York Herald-Tribune, The Detroit Times, The National Catholic Reporter, The Chicago Tribune and The London Express. Ritz wrote part of a series of articles entitled The Road to Integration, which won a Pulitzer Prize for the Gannett Group of newspapers. He has also won several national and state awards in his own right for his newspaper stories. He was one of four finalists in the prestigious Drama League of New York’s 1987-88 Plays in Progress Competition for Abbey of the Monongahela, a play set in a Trappist monastery focusing on the conflict between a feminist reporter wishing to find out the truth about a famous monk’s illicit romance and the abbot who wants to keep the story hidden. It also won an award from the University of Massachusetts’ Theater Department, where it was further developed and renamed Trappists. opened in April, 2001 in New York City. It is published in an anthology entitled: Incisions: Award Winning Plays from the Stage and Screen Book Club. In 2002 he was awarded a playwriting fellowship by the New York Foundation for the Arts.

About the Author: Lisa Miller is an award-winning journalist and an editor at Newsweek, where she writes regularly about religion, values, culture, and politics. She lives in Brooklyn with her husband and daughter.

After three years in foster care, Robin R. Shaw is adopted by an unusual family: His new mother is wheelchair-bound, as is one of his new brothers. The other brother is Japanese. Two sisters are Japanese, too, and two more are Korean. Despite the love of his new family, Robin desperately wants to find his birth mother—had she really abused him when he was an infant? As soon as he turns eighteen, Robin sets out to search for her. This book details that relentless, passionate search and its unexpected denouement. About the Author: Robin R. Shaw was a battered child, who was placed for adoption and put into foster care. Although he was adopted by loving parents, he never stopped longing for his birth mother and went to extraordinary lengths to find her. He now lives in southern California, working in vitamin retailing. He is particularly interested in martial arts, chess, and spirituality.

This is the incredible but true narrative of a lawyer who respected his adoptive mother’s secret while she was alive, and who, the day after her funeral, found his birth mother’s best friend—who led him to find two sisters and a brother he did not know existed. More than just the chronicle of an adoption by the adoptee, it is the saga of two women who each had the courage to pick themselves up after their own heartbreaking tragedies, and the man—the son of both of them—who was destined to tell their stories. About the Author: Joseph A. Tringali is admitted to the practice of law in Florida and New York. He is the former Mayor of North Palm Beach, and was elected to three terms on the Village Council. He served as Assistant Corporation Counsel for the City of Buffalo; Assistant District Attorney for Erie County, New York; and Assistant State Attorney for the Fifteenth Judicial Circuit of Florida. He is currently a Florida Assistant Attorney General and regularly appears in all federal and state appellate courts. A lifelong yachtsman, Mr. Tringali is Commodore of the Palm Beach Sailing Club, a past commodore of North Palm Beach Yacht Club, a past commodore of Great Lakes Chapter, Matthews Boat Owners Association, and a past commander of Buffalo Power Squadron. He is also a past president of District 8 (Florida), International Order of the Blue Gavel, a past commodores’ association. He currently serves on the National Flag and Etiquette Committee of United States Power Squadrons and represents the State of Florida on Blue Gavel Executive Board. While living in Buffalo, Mr. Tringali held the rank of Major in the Civil Air Patrol and served as commander of TAK (Tonawanda-Amherst-Kenmore) Squadron which was accorded the honor of Squadron of the Year. He also served as deputy commander of Western New York Group, C.A.P.

Where is away, when your birth mother doesn’t want you, and your adoptive mother doesn’t want you either? Betty Markland was born in 1927 to an unmarried woman who was young, scared, and coerced into handing her baby over the fence for the neighbor to raise. Her childhood was filled with fears and hardships that no child should ever have to face. With an unloving, resentful adoptive mother who threatened to send her away, and a violent, unstable stepfather, life was very difficult for the young girl that no one wanted. Still, Betty experienced some happy moments and good times while growing up in rural Michigan, and received support and encouragement from concerned teachers as well as adults from the county 4-H club. Betty tells the remarkable story of her childhood in a series of poignant vignettes that also chronicle daily life in 1930s and ’40s rural America. Honest, yet written with grace and humor, I’ll Send You Away is ultimately a story of hope.

Life is not what you make it, it’s what’s handed to you. I’m Good is a story of a young courageous girl who battles through a whirlwind of life’s up and downs, constant pain, and disappointment. It tells the story of her hurts and fears, but it also explains how she overcame it all. A true and enlightening recollection of a child thrown into the system at a very young age, with no escape for years, Sophia’s story is an inspiring look at how sheer determination can pull you through the struggle. Self courage, willpower, and perseverance gave her the mindset she needed to push through, overcome, and make a life out of the ashes. There is a light at the end of the tunnel, and Sophia is the living proof.

I’m Not Broken, Just a Little Twisted is an inspiring memoir that starkly illustrates the difficulties that the author faced, as a child growing up in the foster care system. The author takes you on an unimaginable emotional roller coaster, as she tries to find herself, a family, love and her purpose in the world. A world unfortunately surrounded by chaos, confusion and unsavory characters.

From the Dust Jacket: Elyse Schein had always known she was adopted, but it wasn’t until her mid-thirties while living in Paris that she searched for her biological mother. When Elyse contacted her adoption agency, she was not prepared for the shocking, life-changing news she received: She had an identical twin sister. Elyse was then hit with another bombshell: she and her sister had been separated as infants, and for a time, had been part of a secret study on separated twins.

Paula Bernstein, a married writer and mother living in New York, also knew she was adopted, but had no inclination to find her birth mother. When she answered a call from the adoption agency one spring afternoon, Paula’s life suddenly divided into two starkly different periods: the time before and the time after she learned the truth.

As they reunite and take their tentative first steps from strangers to sisters, Paula and Elyse are also left with haunting questions surrounding their origins and their separation. They learn that the study was conducted by a pair of influential psychiatrists associated with a prestigious adoption agency. As they investigate their birth mother’s past, Paula and Elyse move closer toward solving the puzzle of their lives.

In alternating voices, Paula and Elyse write with emotional honesty about the immediate intimacy they share as twins and the wide chasm that divides them as two complete strangers. Interweaving eye-opening studies and statistics on twin science into their narrative, they offer an intelligent and heartfelt glimpse into human nature.

Identical Strangers is the amazing story of two women coming to terms with the strange and unbelievable hand fate has dealt them, an account that broadens the definition of family and provides insight into our own DNA and the singularly exceptional imprint it leaves on our lives.

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About the Author: Elyse Schein is a writer and filmmaker. Her short films, Steal Happiness and Private Dick have been shown at the Telluride Film Festival and at cinemas in Prague and San Francisco. A graduate of Stony Brook University, she studied film at FAMU, Prague’s Film and TV School of the Academy of Performing Arts. She has also worked as an English teacher, photographer, and translator. Schein lives in Brooklyn.

Paula Bernstein is a freelance writer whose work has appeared in The New York Times, New York, The Village Voice, and Redbook, among other publications. Formerly a reporter at Variety and The Hollywood Reporter, Bernstein has also been a regular contributor to CNN. A graduate of Wellesley College, she has a master’s degree in cinema studies from New York University. Bernstein lives in Brooklyn with her husband and two daughters.

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Compiler’s Note: The book was also reprinted in a condensed form by Reader’s Digest in its Today’s Best Nonfiction, Volume 98 (2008).

From the Back Cover: In her bestselling memoir As I Lay Me Down to Sleep, Eileen Munro vividly documented the abuse she experienced at the hands of her adoptive parents and, later, within the care system. The birth of Eileen’s son, Craig, and her escape from the authorities’ clutches should have seen her turn a corner, but she remains haunted by the spectre of her past.

In If I Should Die Before I Wake, Eileen chronicles her search for her real parents and her battle for an education for both Craig and herself. She faces exploitation, suffers further sexual and physical abuse, and endures periods of homelessness and bad health. Still she perseveres, clinging to her hopes for the future, until she eventually finds the sense of belonging that has previously eluded her.

In this harrowing but ultimately inspirational second volume of memoir, Eileen Munro proves that, against all the odds, happiness does sometimes come to those who never give up hope.

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About the Author: After attaining a lifelong dream by gaining a place at Strathclyde University, Eileen Munro suffered from the life-threatening condition encephalitis due to contracting adult chickenpox. Left without support and after being given a wrong diagnosis, she eventually recovered enough to become a committee member of the charity Headway South Lanarkshire, which offers support to those with acquired brain injuries. She has been instrumental in bringing in changes at her branch, such as good practices to protect vulnerable adults with disabilities, and is now the patron. Eileen has been active in campaigning since 1998 and addressed a cross-party committee of the Scottish Parliament investigating the extent and effects of child sexual abuse in Scotland. Part of her activism involved chaining herself to Parliament and “hijacking” an MSP under a false name to access health care. Eileen is also a longstanding supporter and friend of The Moira Anderson Foundation, set up in 2000 by Sandra Brown OBE to support the victims of sexual abuse and their families. Since the publication of her first book, As I Lay Me Down to Sleep, Eileen Munro has gained a Diploma in Literature and Creative Writing from the Open University. She is also a trained and passionate photographer.

From the Publisher: When Michael Mewshaw receives a call from a stranger who says she has reason to believe he is her biological father, Mewshaw realizes he has been half dreading, half hoping for this to happen for over thirty years. Just like the young woman who wants to find the last piece to the puzzle of her life, he thinks it’s possible that in the same process he will discover the answer to questions that have plagued him for decades.

In this fascinating Memoir, Mewshaw confronts his own past and complicated memories of the woman he had once loved who has gone on to great public success. His surprising role in the baby’s birth, her adoption and, now, her search for her biological parents sets the stage for a revealing personal odyssey that offers a quest for identity and a journey of discovery, an obsession with recapturing the past and righting old wrongs.

Along the way he has to deal with the complexity of adoption laws, the rigidity of bureaucrats, the strenuous resistance of his former lover and the desire of a young woman to learn the truth about herself and gain access to her family’s medical history before she herself had babies.

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About the Author: Michael Mewshaw is the best-selling author of ten novels and six previous books of non-fiction. He has won awards for fiction, travel writing, investigative reporting and sports journalism. He and his wife Linda live in Key West in winter and in London in Summer.

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By the Same Author: Life For Death: A True Story of Crime and Punishment (1980, Doubleday); Money to Burn: The True Story of the Benson Family Murders (1987, Atheneum); and True Crime (1991, Poseidon Press).

Phyllis S. Thomas says this book is her ministry—she believes she has been called to share her story in order to help others in abusive situations. Although her past haunted her for many years, Ms. Thomas was finally able to face her demons with the help of her relationship with God and some good friends. Now, she hopes that the journey she shares in If You Tell, I’ll Kill You will inspire others to overcome their own obstacles. Removed from her biological mother at a very young age, Phyllis was shuffled around for much of her childhood. At an orphanage she suffered neglect and physical abuse, and later was sexually abused by her foster father. She finally found some love and stability with her adoptive family, but by this time her emotional scars were deep and her past continued to be a burden for her. Her troubled relationships with men led to several pregnancies at a young age and Phyllis knew she suffered from very low self-esteem. Determined to improve life for herself and her children, Phyllis started a career and took solace in her church. Aided by a loving friend, she was finally able to stare down her past and start life anew.

The true story which begins with a young boy who is born on the tail end of a troubled teenager’s cross country runaway adventure, and in short order adopted by a compassionate but stern divorcee. After his younger biological sister abruptly appears from nowhere to join his foster life and just as suddenly she’s adopted off to a new family, he grows increasingly paranoid that soon he will be the next to go. And sure enough, as time progresses and his fear grows, a mysterious woman enters his life looking to make him her own child. She dangles before him the tantalizing offer of a place where he belongs, but the situation might not be exactly as it seems. Because he grew up in a world not knowing his often mentioned birth-mother, his longing to meet that mysterious woman is both intense and daunting. When the chance finally presents itself, he struggles with the ensuing jealousy of her acceptance and the progressively caustic nature of her apparent bi-polar disorder. He is at first able to gloss over her glaring faults and manic incidents, but it isn’t long before the troubles begin to mount. As his teenage years progress his strange father and inescapable sexual confusions are mixed into day to day life. Before anyone knows it, he finds himself caught in a degrading situation well beyond his years, and none of his choices come easy. Should he attempt to form the family bond that he’s always dreamed of by accepting the serious pollution caused by his mother’s blundering transgressions, or should he abandon that dearly held dream for the sake of his increasingly imperiled well being? Are the choices even his to make?

From the Back Cover: A childhood that saw her abandoned on the doorstep of a convent and then abused by her adoptive parents left Christine Hart vulnerable and desperate to find somewhere that she belonged. A quest to trace her real father led her along a confused and complex path to the prison cell of the notorious Moors murderer Ian Brady, and thereafter to a life of espionage and subterfuge.

Christine worked undercover for the British security services and then for a series of Fleet Street newspapers. She got to the core of notorious terrorist groups and witnessed first-hand the nefarious methods for which the UK media were to be vilified. Her continuing fascination with evil then drew her into the web of Los Angeles serial killer Ken Bianchi—the notorious Hillside Strangler.

In For the Kill is the remarkable, absorbing and sometimes shocking story of the author’s search for her own identity—a quest that has taken her into the very heart of darkness.

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By the Same Author: Searching for Daddy (2008, Hodder & Stoughton).

About the Author: Mary Ayres, the manager of the South Campus Learning Resources Center (LRC), is retiring effective August 31, 2011, after serving Southern State Community College for thirty years. Known to her colleagues and friends as the “Queen,” Mary came to Southern State in 1979 as a CETA worker. After a year and a half of training, she was officially hired by Southern State. She was a library aide and later was promoted to library technician. In 1995, she became the manager of the South Campus LRC and library. An outspoken advocate for library support staff, Mary has been an active member of the Ohio Library Support Staff Institute (OLSSI) and the Support Staff Interest Group (SSIG) of the Academic Library Association of Ohio (ALAO). She served as camp counselor for OLSSI and chaired SSIG several times. Mary is also a member of the American Library Association. Through her leadership, these organizations have grown over the years and now represent library support staff in most of Ohio’s libraries. When you’ve worked at a place for over thirty years, you leave a legacy behind. Mary’s legacy is her ability to coordinate social events. She started the annual women’s tea and heads a team of library staff each year planning events for National Library Week. Because of Mary’s inspiration and hard work, SSCC is known far and wide every April for innovative activities and programs during National Library Week. In fact, her expertise on programming in the library has led to numerous speaking engagements at various conferences in Ohio. Mary was awarded the prestigious SWON Libraries Support Staff of the Year Award in 2011. She was also awarded the Award of Appreciation from ALAO in 2009. Mary completed the associate of business degree from the Portsmouth Interstate Business College. Mary is an active member of her community in West Union. She is a member of the Adams County Women’s Club and the Ladies’ Christian Service. She is very involved at the Church of Christ, where she serves as youth sponsor, small group leader, the ministry of discipleship, Sunday school teacher, and the Praise Team. Mary has served the college community as ACT Site Supervisor for twenty years.

From the Publisher: A surprise letter from an aunt she has never met motivates Julie to search for Audrey, the mother she last spoke to 30 years ago, only to discover that she took her own life 17 years earlier. Matters are made more difficult as Julie finds herself drawn into a bitter legal dispute between her mother’s surviving siblings over their deceased sister Dorothy’s estate. Overwhelmed with feelings of sadness, anger and guilt, and realizing for the first time how little she really knows about her mother, Julie begins an obsessive search for answers—answers to the many questions she would now ask Audrey, were she still alive. Will the satisfaction of finally uncovering the truth, against all the odds, be worth the price she has to pay mentally and emotionally?

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About the Author: Julie Leek was born in Nottingham in 1954 where, apart from five years spent in Ireland and four years in Scotland, she has lived all of her life. Raised as an only child by her grandparents following the breakup of her parents’ marriage when she was five years old, Julie later learned that she had a younger sister who was adopted at birth. She and her sister were reunited in 1982 when both were in their 20s. Julie has been married for over 30 years to her husband, Stephen. They have a daughter, Emma.

From the Publisher: Transracial adoption has provoked much polarised commentary, initiated heated debate and stirred up strong feelings. Yet the experience of transracially adopted people themselves remains on the margins and has rarely been given a voice. Through a series of intensely moving testimonies, In Search of Belonging conveys the complexity for black and minority ethnic children of being raised by a white adoptive family. It demonstrates the lifelong impact of transracial adoption and illustrates that to view such placements in either positive or negative terms is far too simplistic. The themes of separation and loss, the search for identity and belonging permeate these accounts, but so does the power of healing and survival, happiness and hope. A wide range of experiences is described, including racism during childhood, placement disruption, visiting country or origin, reclaiming cultural heritage, searching for birth mothers, fathers and other relatives, becoming a parent, involvement with the psychiatric system and connecting with other transracial adoptees.

This highly original anthology brings together established writers, new and emerging writers and those who have never been published before. Through poetry, art, autobiography, memoir and oral testimony over 50 transracially adopted people tell it like it was, and is, for them. The contributors range in age from six to 56 years and were born and adopted both in the UK and countries as different as Kenya and Hong Kong, Cambodia, Sri Lanka and El Salvador. As well as a Foreword by acclaimed poet Lemn Sissay, the book includes a substantial introduction and a comprehensive resource section. In Search of Belonging is for all transracially adopted young people and adults. It will also be of interest to other adoptees, birth relatives, adoptive parents, prospective adoptive parents, social workers, social work students, family placement workers, counsellors, therapists, mental health and other professionals.

From the Foreword: It was not until I began my own search that I recognized the need for more sensitive adoption practices than those we have at present. Throughout my search I was met with obstacles impeding my connection. Those obstacles still remain. Through the countless number of searches I have since become familiar with, I have repeatedly seen other searchers encounter these same obstacles. It is my hope through a more perceptive understanding of the needs of adoptees, birth parents and adoptive parents a more humanistic approach will be realized and change will result allowing a more facile connection for those affected by adoption. About the Author: Nancy Sitterly is an adoptive parent, as well as an adoptee, and is founder and coordinator of Adoptees’ Search Connection of Connecticut and Massachusetts. She holds a Master of Education degree in Human Services and previously authored In Search of Connection.

From the Back Cover: Michael Watson had two moms. One was the adoptive mother who raised him from birth. The other was his birthmother who only existed as an obscure portrait in his consciousness. From the tender age of seventeen, Watson’s quest was to connect the missing link to his past. He knew three facts: his birthmother’s name was Betty Price, she was 22 years old, and he was born at Community Hospital in Indianapolis.

In his own words, Watson fills in the blanks of an amazing voyage that led to a wonderous yet horrific discovery twenty years later—Michael Watson was born dead!—according to Betty. In Search of Mom will captivate you from the beginning and give you a sense of wonder about adoptees who undertake the challenge of searching.

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About the Author: Never knowing his natural parents, Michael Watson was adopted when he was three days old. He spent most of his life in New Albany, Indiana, and graduated with a business degree from Indiana University. Intrigued with the beauty of precious diamonds, Watson spent the next ten years working for an Indianapolis-based jewelry chain. He relocated to Costa Mesa, California, and founded Gallery of Diamonds Jewelers in 1991. Watson is a Gemological Institute of America-trained gemologist and a member of the American Adoption Congress.

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By the Same Author: Adopted Like Me: Chosen to Search for Truth, Identity, and a Birthmother (2005).

An official letter from the State of Israel marks a significant step forward in Gareth’s quest to track down his birth mother. Sadly, it comes two years too late for him to actually meet his American mother, Sara, who gave birth to him three decades before in the sixties, as a free-loving, Gaia-worshiping college drop-out, during a discreet trip to Israel, returning home alone. She passed away from cancer two years before the paperwork enabling him to trace her was processed. But her spirit lives on in her rock-guitarist son and charismatic barmaid daughter—Gareth’s half-siblings, who are overjoyed to discover that he is trying to make contact with them, his niece, his uncles and his elderly grandmother. Follow Gareth—or David, as he becomes, preferring his middle name, which was the name Sara gave him—as he travels to Washington state to meet his new-found birth family in an emotional encounter in which Sara’s presence is felt as strongly as if she were still alive.

From the Publisher: In the Arms of Grace is the powerful story of a modern woman warrior and her battle for physical, emotional and spiritual victory. As a Vietnamese and an American, she provides a link between the two nations through her life experiences. From her days as an orphan in Vietnam, when she sang and danced for American G.l.s, to her “ideal” life of having it all in the United States, LeChristine Hai constantly searched for love, security and belonging. Her “rags to riches” story shows the underside of the “American Dream.” Enduring years of emotional and sexual abuse at the hands of her adoptive American father, LeChristine ultimately refuses to be a victim and transforms her life. She takes charge of her own life and becomes a successful business woman, only to discover that she still must confront the pain of abandonment in order to find true peace.

When LeChristine Hai’s soul search leads her to a reunion with her lost and found Vietnamese mother and sister, she comes full circle and learns how to heal the personal wars within. As she embraces her authentic self, she also opens her heart and life to reveal the healing power of love and courage.

LeChristine Hai’s uplifting story traces a journey of the heart. From an orphaned girl in Vietnam to a troubled life as an American teenager to the powerful woman who embraces the past and lives in the present, LeChristine demonstrates the power of faith. Her hardships have made her strong and compassionate. Now, through her non-profit organization, achild.org, this survivor of wars both international and personal is providing a means for others to help children overcome poverty and neglect. Her goal is to create a bridge from war to peace, reconciling Vietnam veterans to those for whom they fought and suffered. Through her life and her work, LeChristine shows us how to turn our trials and tribulations into inner power tools for personal success and spiritual development. Through her dedication to children around the world, she is a living example of the grace and hope that the life of one person can promise.

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About the Author: “The Vietnam War was my introduction to life. After I came to America, I experienced another war, a war with no name. Most people wouldn’t call it “war,” because there was no killing or physical combat no guns or grenades. Nevertheless, the destruction of life is the same. It is a more powerful war which slowly wounds the spirit and then kills the soul...” LeChristine Hai, a child of God, a Vietnam War orphan, American citizen, a mother, a former homebuilder, a professional speaker, an author and founder of achild.org is a woman with a mission, and she has a story to tell. A graduate of Southern Methodist University in Communications, she currently lives in Atlanta, Georgia. She is on tour globally to deliver a healing message to Vietnam Veterans and their families, “to motivate our youth, to inspire corporations and churches that a child can make a difference. The goal of her Peace Project is to create a better future for children by acquiring the land on which Cam Ranh City orphanage, her former home, was located and to build a modern facility for the neglected orphans of today.

What’s in a Name?

I chose the title In the Arms of Grace for my story for two reasons. The first reason refers to the “grace of God.” It is by the Grace of God that I, an orphan of war, exist today. The second reason that I chose this title is to honor the American soldier in the photo on the cover of this book. When I enlarged the photo for a banner for a speaking engagement, I discovered that I could read the name on his uniform: Grace. So, figuratively and literally my life has been ... In the Arms of Grace.

Considering Adoption? When Dorothy has a chance to meet her birth mother, she is overwhelmed by the possible outcomes: Will she love her? Will her adoptive father be hurt? Will she ruin her birth mother’s life now? This tender story of the selfless act of adoption addresses critical issues for those considering adoption, including:
Birth mothers wondering if they are doing the right thing
Adoptive parents wondering if introducing their child to the birth parents might change the way their child feels about them
Adopted adults thinking about trying to find their birth parents.

This book that I titled In the Stranger’s House lay dormant inside of me for many years. Now I am able to face the hurt and pain I am able to write about it. I wrote this book hoping to help another foster child out there. In the Stranger’s House, you can find love, happiness, connection and strength and most important you can find you. Let In the Stranger’s House open up some of your closed doors in your life.

From the Publisher: Nearly forty years after researchers first sought to determine the effects, if any, on children adopted by families whose racial or ethnic background differed from their own, the debate over transracial adoption continues. In this collection of interviews conducted with black and biracial young adults who were adopted by white parents, the authors present the personal stories of two dozen individuals who hail from a wide range of religious, economic, political, and professional backgrounds. How does the experience affect their racial and social identities, their choice of friends and marital partners, and their lifestyles? In addition to interviews, the book includes overviews of both the history and current legal status of transracial adoption.

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About the Author: Rita J. Simon is a sociologist who earned her doctorate at the University of Chicago in 1957. Before coming to American University in 1983 to serve as dean of the School of Justice, she was a member of the faculty at the University of Illinois, at the Hebrew University in Jerusalem, and at the University of Chicago. She is currently a “University Professor” in the School of Public Affairs and the Washington College of Law at American University.

Professor Simon has authored twenty-two books and edited thirteen, including: The Impact of Social Science Data on Supreme Court Decisions (University of Illinois, 1998); In the Golden Land: A Century of Russian and Soviet Jewish Immigration (Praeger, 1997); The Ambivalent Welcome: Media Coverage of American Immigration (with Susan Alexander) (Praeger, 1993); Women’s Movements in America: Their Achievements, Disappointments, and Aspirations (with Gloria Danzinger) (Praeger, 1991); International Migration: The Female Experience (with Caroline Brettell) (Rowman and Allanheld, 1986); Rabbis, Lawyers, Immigrants, Thieves: Women’s Roles in America (Praeger, 1993); Continuity and Change: A Study of Two Ethnic Communities in Israel (Cambridge University Press, 1978); The Crimes Women Commit, the Punishments They Receive (with Jean Landis) (Lexington, Mass., 1991); Adoption, Race, and Identity (with Howard Altstein) (Praeger, 1992); The Case for Transracial Adoption (with Howard Altstein and Marygold Melli) (American University Press, 1994).

She is currently editor of Gender Issues. From 1978 to 1981 she served as editor of The American Sociological Review, and from 1983 to 1986 as editor of Justice Quarterly. In 1966 she received a Guggenheim Fellowship.

Rhonda Roorda was born in Rochester, New York, in 1969. She was adopted two years later into a white family and was raised in the Washington, D.C., metropolitan area with her brother, Christopher, and sister, Jean. In 1992 she graduated from Calvin College with a bachelor of arts degree in telecommunications with an emphasis in Spanish and sociology. Her interests in learning about human stories became paramount as an intern in 1991 at WLS-TV, Chicago. In subsequent years she expanded her experiences in the media. From 1991 to 1996 she held intern positions at WOOD-TV and WLHT-Radio, Grand Rapids, and WILX-TV, Lansing. From 1992 to 1994 Ms. Roorda served as program associate to the Council for Christian Colleges and Universities in Washington, D.C., where she concentrated on racial and ethnic issues in higher education. She returned to Michigan to pursue graduate studies. During this time she became the managing editor of Community News and Views, a statewide newsletter published by the Michigan Partnership for Economic Development Assistance and the Community and Economic Development Program at Michigan State University. In 1996 she earned her master’s degree in Communication-Urban Studies at Michigan State University.

Currently she is working as coordinator of financial and support services at an educational advocacy association in Lansing, Michigan.

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By the Same Author: In Their Parents’ Voices: Reflections on Raising Transracial Adoptees (2007) and In Their Siblings’ Voices: White Non-Adopted Siblings Talk About Their Experiences Being Raised with Black and Biracial Brothers and Sisters (2009).

Author Helen Odenwald takes you on a very personal journey of discovery to find the family she never knew she had. Beginning with the family secret her mother carried for over 20 years. Helen opens up about the path to redemption for sisters separated by the unthinkable. You will laugh, you will cry and you will rediscover hope as you experience the story of three sisters who find their way back to each other-and heal their mother’s tears in the process. In You I See Me is a powerful expression of love, grace, and honor among women-and the belief that true family always finds a way home.