From the Dust Jacket: Over the course of the past three decades, Dr. Jane Aronson has touched the lives of thousands of adopted children from around the world, and in this inspiring book she presents moving first-person testimonies from families whose lives have been blessed by adoption.

Divided into thematic sections—such as “The Decision” and “The Moment We Met”—each prefaced by Dr. Aronson, her book introduces readers to Claude Knobler, a writer from Los Angeles who traveled to Ethiopia to adopt his son, and who had an unexpectedly moving encounter with the boy’s courageous birth mother; actor Mary-Louise Parker, whose older son’s bond with his adopted baby sister was magically instant; and Lynn Danzker, an entrepreneur who set off alone to adopt her son, and in the process met and married her husband. The authors of these testimonies range from teachers to filmmakers, from stay-at-home dads to celebrities—all of them bound by the transformative experiences as adoptive parents.

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About the Author: Dr. Jane Aronson is a pediatrician specializing in adoption medicine. She has held prestigious positions at Cornell, Columbia, Mount Sinai, and Albert Einstein College of Medicine. In 1997, her dedication to adoption medicine led her to create the Worldwide Orphans Foundation, which has developed successful programs in Bulgaria, Ethiopia, Haiti, Serbia, and Vietnam, all aimed at improving the lives of orphans in their home communities. A blogger for The Huffington Post and CNN.com, Dr. Aronson has been profiled in The New Yorker, The New York Times, Redbook, and Glamour, and was a 2009 Glamour Woman of the Year. She has been featured on CBS Evening News and NBC Nightly News and on CNN. She lives with her family—including adopted sons Ben and Des—in Maplewood, New Jersey.

A portion of the author’s royalties for this book will be donated to the Worldwide Orphans Foundation.

From the Publisher: Nearly six in ten Americans have a significant personal connection with adoption, yet little has been written about the subject from a biblical perspective. Adoption usually includes a tumultuous mix of sorrow and joy, loss and redemption, fear and fulfillment. Though often heart-wrenching, it offers a rich opportunity to draw nearer to God. Adoption can also be a precious part of a pilgrimage toward God. This book is a companion to come alongside those involved with adoption and the blessings found throughout the twists and turns of the journey.

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About the Author: Kristin Swick Wong is the mother of two daughters by birth and two sons by adoption. A graduate of the University of Michigan she and her family live in Ann Arbor, MI, where she is homeschooling their children.

Concerning the matter of older-child adoption in Jamaica.

From the Back Cover: One hot summer’s afternoon, two abandoned infants are brought to Trisha and Mike Merry’s door, forlorn and afraid. Their mother walked out on them and now their young father has given up on them too. These cast-off kids desperately need somewhere to live and a family to love them. They’ve come to the right place.

Foster-carers Teisha and Mike welcome them into their home and their hearts. There are now ten children under five in this household, where every day is filled with cuddles, fun, sometimes tears, and more than a few challenges.

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By the Same Author: Four Waifs on Our Doorstep (2015).

Having kids is easy, right? Not for us, it wasn’t. We’re Cathy and Dave. After Cathy was diagnosed with cancer in the summer of 2004, we started our adoption journey. How many years did it take to bring our “Miracle Boy” home? Come along, and let us share the inspiring story of our journey to bring our son Georgiy home as Justin. There were times when Dave didn’t think he would ever be a dad.

From the Dust Jacket: From the rice paddies of Vietnam to the slums of Calcutta, from the majestic Oregon coast to the depths of Harlem, from sunny Florida to the guerilla war of El Salvador, they have come to be our children and to form ... The Celebration Family.

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Compiler’s Note: In the mid-1990s, Diane and Dennis Nason were indicted on numerous charges, including three count of manslaughter and several of child abuse, in connection with their adoptions of over 80 children. It was alleged that the so-called “Celebration Family” constituted a criminal enterprise. Ultimately, the Nasons were acquitted of the more serious charges of manslaughter and child abuse in a months-long trial; but they were convicted of lesser counts of forging documents, which led to a guilty verdict on a charge of racketeering. At the time, the trial was the longest and most expensive in Oregon state history. See also, “Protecting the Rights of Hard to Place Children in Adoptions” by Troy D. Farmer (1997) (Indiana Law Journal: Vol. 72: Iss. 4, Article 7).

From the Dust Jacket: Most children fall into five basic personality types that stem from inborn physical characteristics: the sensitive child, the self-absorbed child, the defiant child, the inattentive child, and the active/aggressive child. Stanley Greenspan, M.D., is the first to show parents how to match their parenting to the challenges of their particular child. He identifies and vividly describes these five universal temperaments and then, with great empathy, shows parents how each of these children actually experiences the world and how to use daily child-rearing to enhance an individual child’s strengths and talents.

A profoundly optimistic book, The Challenging Child reassures parents that they do not have simply to “live with” or adjust to their child’s temperament, but that by creating new parenting patterns based on the child’s characteristics, they can help the child overcome behavior problems and develop his or her emotional and intellectual capacities to the fullest. Parents will learn how to spot personality differences in the earliest years, and also how to build relationships that nourish growth from the start.

“As parents,” writes Dr. Greenspan, “we are not the cause, but we can be the solution.”

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About the Author: Stanley I. Greenspan, M.D., is Clinical Professor of Psychiatry, Behavioral Sciences, and Pediatrics at the George Washington University Medical School and a practicing child psychiatrist. He is also a supervising child psychoanalyst at the Washington Psychoanalytic Institute in Washington, D.C. “One of the leading child psychiatrists of our time” (T. Berry Brazelton), he was previously Chief of the Mental Health Study Center and Director of the Clinical Infant Development Program at the National Institute of Mental Health. A founder and former President of the National Center for Clinical Infant Programs, Dr. Greenspan is the author or editor of more than one hundred scholarly articles and twenty books, including First Feelings: Milestones in the Emotional Development of Your Baby and Child (with Nancy Thorndike Greenspan) and Playground Politics: Understanding the Emotional Life of Your School-Age Child (with Jacqueline Salmon).

Jacqueline Salmon is an editor at the Washington Post. Her articles have also appeared in Ms., Seventeen, and American Baby. She has two children.

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Compiler’s Note: See, particularly, “Kyle’s Story” (pp. 140-164), a subsection of Chapter 5: The Defiant Child.

A Chance At Life: Stories of Inspiration and Hope for Foster and Adoptive Parents of Abused Children is a compilation of true short stories told from the point of view of a foster parent who shares her experiences of success, failure, and courage, with helpful advice mixed in. People who have provided loving homes to children with abused pasts, as well as adults who were victimized by violence as children, will find this poignant collection of stories filled with humor, hope, and wisdom.

Radical obedience. Experiencing God’s presence. Overcoming fear. Listening for God’s voice. Unconditional love. A new world view. These lessons are a sampling of how God used an adoption journey to change the author as a person at her very core. Everyone is waiting and hoping for something, and the waiting game is one no one likes to play. Come along as she relives these lessons and experience what God may have to say to you as well.

Relationship between Eurasian girl in France, born in Hanoi and abandoned, and her adopted American mother.

From the Back Cover: Chicken Soup for the Adopted Soul will touch your heart with stories of finding and creating families. From tales about international orphaned babies and children who spent years in the foster-care system to those who were adopted at birth, this very special compilation conveys the true meaning of unconditional love.

Read a moving letter from a birth mother to her son explaining how difficult it was to give him up when she didn’t have the means to care for him, how she still thinks about him often, and how she will always love him. Read stories from now-grown children and even those from the Vietnam Operation Babylift in 1975. Through their stories, you will delight in meeting happy, well-adjusted, grateful members of families and society.

Find hope in stories of infertile couples who are given the gift of parenthood, adopted children who thrive and find joy in life, and older couples given a second chance at family. Chicken Soup for the Adopted Soul provides insight into what adoption is all about and what it’s really like to be adopted. Share in our celebration of the lives of adopted children who found forever families and parents who found forever love.

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About the Author: Jack Canfield and Mark Victor Hansen are the #1 New York Times and USA Today bestselling authors of the Chicken Soup for the Soul series.

LeAnn Thieman is a professional speaker, author, and nurse. Her story of helping to rescue three hundred babies—and adopting her son—as Vietnam fell was featured in Chicken Soup for the Mother’s Soul.

Amy Newmark is author, publisher, and editor-in-chief of the Chicken Soup for the Soul book series.

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Compiler’s Note: The revised edition includes most of the same stories as the original edition; it deletes some and adds others. See, also, Chicken Soup for the Parent’s Soul: 101 Stories of Loving, Learning and Parenting (2000, HCI).

From the Back Cover: Child Adoption is a straightforward, concise and comprehensive guide which adoptive parents and the professionals who advise them will find invaluable. René A.C. Hoksbergen covers the practical and emotional issues and possible problems which affect child and parents in adoption, such as:

• preparation of the family and the child

• adopting from different races or cultures, and dealing with discrimination

• helping the child adjust to school

• discussing the adoptive status with the child.

This handbook provides much-needed information so that everyone involved in the adoption process can make educated and fully thought-out decisions. It is invaluable reading for anyone involved in the process of adoption including adoption workers and lawyers, social workers and couples who are considering adoption.

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About the Author: René A.C. Hoksbergen is the general director of the Adoption Centre at Utrecht University, and since 1984 has been senior professor in the adoption of Dutch and foreign foster children at the University’s Faculty of Social Sciences.

In March 2001, the National Institutes of Health issued the following warning: “The number of Web sites offering health-related resources grows every day. Many sites provide valuable information, while others may have information that is unreliable or misleading.” Furthermore, because of the rapid increase in Internet-based information, many hours can be wasted searching, selecting, and printing. This book was created for medical professionals, students, and members of the general public who want to conduct medical research using the most advanced tools available and spending the least amount of time doing so. This is a 3-in-1 reference book. It gives a complete medical dictionary covering hundreds of terms and expressions relating to child adoption. It also gives extensive lists of bibliographic citations. Finally, it provides information to users on how to update their knowledge using various Internet resources. The book is designed for physicians, medical students preparing for Board examinations, medical researchers, and patients who want to become familiar with research dedicated to child adoption. If your time is valuable, this book is for you. First, you will not waste time searching the Internet while missing a lot of relevant information. Second, the book also saves you time indexing and defining entries. Finally, you will not waste time and money printing hundreds of web pages.

Adoption has been around for as long as there have been people, but as time has progressed, so have the rights and legal actions of becoming an adoptive parent. When adoption originated it wasn’t like what it is today. Often times children who were orphaned or abandoned were sold as slaves for other families. More modernized adoption began in the 1850s when war left thousands of children homeless. Friends or family members of homeless children would take them in and nurture them as their own, it wasn’t until more recently that states provided laws about adopting children. Today, adoption is anytime that a person who is not the biological parent of a child becomes the legal caretaker of them through the adoption process. There are many reasons that people turn to adoption, a lot of children in adoptive situations come from a broken home. This may mean the parents were too young to raise them, abusive, addicts, or many other reasons. Some children are placed in adoption when their families are too large to provide proper care for another child. This guide will educate you on not only why people adopt but also why they may give a child up for adoption as well as what to expect during an adoption. You will also be provided with information on how to start the adoption process, what to know, what is expected of you and tips to provide a wonderful transition in your family as you adopt your newest member.

From the Back Cover: In Child Development: Myths and Misunderstandings, author Jean Mercer uses intriguing vignettes and questions about children and families to guide readers in thinking critically about 51 common beliefs. Each essay confronts commonly held misconceptions about development, encouraging students to think like social scientists and to become better consumers of media messages and anecdotal stories. The book is organized so that essays can be assigned to parallel either chronologically or topically organized child development texts.
Features and Benefits
• Presents 51 short essays about child development that challenge readers to reconsider their preconceived notions
• Includes critical thinking questions at the end of each reading
• Offers examples of research to help students make the . connection between research designs and conclusions
• Shows students how to approach research reports
• Provides reference lists, including links to relevant SAGE publications

Child Development: Myths and Misunderstandings is intended for use as a supplementary text in courses in Child Development, Child and Adolescent Development, and Developmental Psychology.

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About the Author: Jean Mercer (PhD, Psychology, Brandeis University), Professor Emerita of Psychology at Richard Stockton College, has taught undergraduate courses on developmental psychology, infant development, statistics, and research methods for 30 years. A past president of the New Jersey Association for Infant Mental Health and a Fellow of the Commission for Scientific Medicine and Mental Health, she has written a general interest book about early emotional development, Understanding Attachment, and a textbook, Infant Development: A Multidisciplinary Introduction. She recently served as an expert witness in the trial of a mother who kept her adopted children in cages and claimed she had a book advising this, providing a good example of failure to think straight about child development.

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By the Same Author: Attachment Therapy on Trial: The Torture and Death of Candace Newmaker (with Larry Sarner & Linda Rosa; 2003, Praeger) and Understanding Attachment: Parenting, Child Care, and Emotional Development (2006, Praeger), among others.

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Compiler’s Note: See, particularly, The Chapter entitled “Adopted children have many more problems of social and emotional development than nonadopted children do.”

From the Dust Jacket: “Why don’t you study medicine?” asked the woman who was dying of cancer of young Elizabeth Blackwell. “Had I been treated by a lady doctor my worst sufferings would have been spared me...”

This was the autumn of 1845 and to the delicate blond girl who had been wrenched with her remarkable family from England while still a child and thrown boldly into the new and turbulent civilization, it seemed almost like a divine command. It was a time of growth and ferment and revolt, when the hum of machinery was swelling from a whine to a roar—along with the clarion cries of Susan B. Anthony. Immigrants were pouring into America from a dozen different countries, bringing their languages, crafts, customs, and political faiths. Elizabeth Blackwell, feeling the restlessness of the age and having lately been disappointed in love, was ripe for suggestion. And so with dogged determination, with pride, and with indomitable courage which characterized her throughout her life, she set out to be the first woman doctor in America or England.

It was a long and arduous road she followed. In the face of almost insurmountable adds and physical handicap she made her lonely way. She was the first to project the idea of preventive medicine, to lecture on prostitution, social diseases, and sex education for women—and among her closest friends were those whose names are most closely woven into the mesh of the history of the last century.

In writing the story of this woman’s remarkable achievements, Ishbel Ross has performed a triple task. She has given us a colorful and dramatic record of America in one of its most exciting eras. She has charted some of the least-known but most significant landmarks in the history of modern medicine. And last—and best—she has written the deeply satisfying story of a woman who was a zealot, a pioneer, and a prophet—but above all, a woman.

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About the Author: Ishbel Ross was born in Sutherlandshire, fifty miles north of Inverness, capital of the Highlands of Scotland, a picturesque old town where Highland chieftains still walk the streets in their tartans, and Gaelic is spoken. Her own name is Gaelic for Isabel but, she says, that doesn’t mean that she can speak a word of the language.

She was educated in Scotland and then came to Canada where she was on the staff of the now defunct Toronto Daily News. In 1919 she joined the New York Herald Tribune and during that time she covered a wide variety of stories, including the Stillman divorce, the Hall-Mills murder, the Starr Faithful case, the Communist riots, and the Lindbergh kidnapping. She has interviewed scores of the world’s celebrities and covered innumerable murders and catastrophes, as well as the more peaceful Easter parades, fashion shows, conventions, and lectures.

She is married to Bruce Rae of the New York Times and although a Scot by birth and education is an American citizen by marriage.

In 1987, an old woman finds a baby girl abandoned by the road in El Salvador. In the USA, Diane Remer-Thamert mourns the loss of a stillborn child. A civil war is raging in El Salvador. Diane’s husband Glen wants to adopt a child from El Salvador. He meets a Salvadoran attorney whose father can help them. Glen goes to El Salvador to meet the attorney and becomes involved in helping Salvadorans who wish to flee. Diane flies down a few days later. She is intimidated by the military who carry automatic weapons and wear mirrored sunglasses. The couple meets Norma in an orphanage, and Diane knows this is the child intended to be theirs. Adopting Norma is a struggle played out against a fickle and dangerous government in El Salvador and a suspicious American one. Will Glen’s involvement cost them their child?

From the Back Cover: Families come in all shapes, sizes, and colors. Some are big. Some are small. And some don’t even look like each other. But no matter what your family looks like, one thing is certain: the most important part of being a forever family is feeling loved.

In Child of Many Colors, experienced author Shannon Guymon has compiled an inspiring collection of stories depicting the drama, excitement, and pangs of anxiety that accompany building a family. Drawing on her own experiences as an adoptive mother, Shannon presents the true-to-life realities of transracial adoption. And while we all know that transracial adoption has unique challenges, it also offers special opportunities and a joy you won’t find anywhere else.

Whether you’re just beginning the adoption journey or you’re already a seasoned traveler, this book is the perfect companion to help you find your destination—a home filled with laughter and love. Enjoy the smiles, the tears, and all the hugs and kisses that come with belonging to a forever family—no matter what that family looks like.

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About the Author: Shannon Guymon lives in Utah with her husband and six children. In what little free time she can find, she enjoys being in the mountains, gardening, traveling, spending time with her family, and, of course, writing.

In addition to Child of Many Colors, Shannon is the author of Never Letting Go of Hope, A Trusting Heart, Justifiable Means, Forever Friends, Soul Searching, Makeover, and Taking Chances.

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By the Same Author: Never Letting Go of Hope (2001, Bonneville Books); Justifiable Means (2003, Bonneville Books); and Sophie’s Christmas Wish (2013), among others.

Do you know that...
• Skin care products are seasonal? This means different products for the summer and winter months.
• People with darker skin can develop skin cancer?
• The curlier the hair, the less often it needs to be washed?
Child of Mine: Caring for the Skin and Hair of Your Adopted Child is an essential resource for parents, and caregivers whose children don’t share the same medical history or background. Dr. Brooke Jackson, a board-certified dermatologist and adoptive mother, teaches parents and their kids how to achieve and maintain healthy skin and hair. Many adoptive parents may be unfamiliar with conditions related to their child’s skin and hair as it may be different from their own. In an easy-to-read format, this invaluable reference offers a complete guide to skin and hair issues. Dr. Jackson explains the signs, symptoms, causes, and treatments for a variety of different skin and hair conditions, and pinpoints some red flags where consulting a dermatologist may be prudent.

From the Back Cover: They are the children we choose: longed for, hoped for, dreamed about ... the ones who fill the empty spaces at our tables, in our homes, in our hearts.

In this beautiful celebration of the joys of adoption, Michelle Pfeiffer, Pearl S. Buck, Robert Fulghum, Dave Thomas, and Rosie O’Donnell, among numerous others both well-known and little-known, share their personal observations and experiences, revealing how adoption has touched—and changed—their lives. For anyone who has known the excitements, the frustrations, and the ultimate fulfillments of the adoption experience, this is a book to read, to give ... and to cherish.

You may be from different towns or different states — maybe even different parts of the world. But from the moment you met, you were, suddenly and forever, family.

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About the Author: Barbara Alpert is the author of No Friend Like a Sister and The Love of Friends, and is coauthor of many other titles, including How to Be a Christmas Angel (with Scott Matthews) and Dessert Every Night! (with JoAnna M. Lund). A former executive editor with Bantam Books whose articles have appeared in Cosmopolitan, Hemispheres, and ParentSource magazines, she teaches book editing as an adjunct associate professor at Hofstra University.

I stared at the letter and picture as the tears fell. I hadn’t heard from Vickie in almost twenty years. And then tonight, of all nights, I had received such a letter! I held my breath as I sensed God’s presence all around me. Adoption, was that what God had in mind for us? Ten years of infertility brought Debbi and Phil Migit to a crisis of faith. Child of Promise is the true account of one couple’s journey from barrenness to the blessing of transracial adoption. There is a message that goes beyond infertility and adoption; it will touch any believer and bring them to a better understanding of God’s ultimate faithfulness. Walk with Debbi and Phil as they remain faithful to God and finally receive their “child of promise.”

From the Back Cover: Stories of women who mother are central to this book. The women come to mothering through birth and adoption, as birth mothers, placing mothers, adopting mothers and teen mothers. Woven between the women’s narratives, the author offers reflective commentary intended to show the mothering experience in its complexity―bodily, culturally, and as the rootbed of relationship. Using phenomenological research, Bergum brings the mothering experience to light―as it is lived―exploring themes of love and pain, responsibility, belonging, choice, transformation, and quickening of the moral impulse to attend to the child. Bergum’s intent is to encourage thoughtful reflection about what is learned through mothering―by women and by society―in order to create and sustain a society that is good for children and the women who mother them.

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About the Author: Vangie Bergum, Ph.D., is Professor in The Bioethics Centre and the Faculty of Nursing, University of Alberta. She is principal investigator of the Ethics of Nurturance Research Project which produced the video and, they want a child (University of Alberta, 1996). She is the author of numerous works, including Woman to Mother: A Transformation (Bergin & Garvey, 1989).

From the Publisher: In this book, Mr. de Hartog gives us personal accounts of adoption of Asian children in the 1960s, but his observations and insights are equally applicable to intercountry adoptions today, particularly in light of the fact that intercountry adoptions are an ever-increasing component of the whole picture of adoption. An invaluable source of expert practical information and wise and witty advice, covering all major and minor problems they are likely to encounter: not a “how to,” but rather a “what to do after” guide.

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About the Author: Jan de Hartog was born in Haarlem, Holland, in 1914, and ran off to sea at an early age. In 1940, just after the Germans occupied Holland, his novel Holland’s Glory was published, a rollicking story of the Dutch ocean-going tugboats on which he had served. Although it mentioned neither the war nor the Germans, it became a symbol of Dutch defiance and was banned by the Nazis, but not until 300,000 copies had been sold. In 1943 the author escaped to England.

Since then Mr. de Hartog has sailed many miles and has written a number of books: The Lost Sea, The Distant Shore, A Sailor’s Life (these three are now collected in the volume titled The Call of the Sea), The Little Ark, The Spiral Road, The Inspector, Waters of the New World, The Artist, The Hospital and The Captain.

Mr. de Hartog’s name has gained added familiarity through the popularity of his plays Skipper Next to God and The Fourposter (both of which became films, and The Fourposter has recently been adapted for the musical stage as I Do! I Do!). Three of his novels have also been made into films: The Distant Shore as The Key, The Inspector as Lisa, and The Spiral Road.

From the Back Cover: Children of Dreams is born out of Lorilyn Roberts’ shattered dreams. The inspiring story of turning stolen dreams into life-changing hope not only for her but two destitute children will bring tears to the reader as he identifies with her feelings of insecurity and fear. The timeless theme of God’s faithfulness—the stuff out of which God brings redemption—will leave the reader riveted to the pages of this book.

Children of Dreams is more than an adoption story set in the remotest regions of the planet. Facing insurmountable odds—communist blockades, life-threatening illness, betrayal and deceit—Lorilyn Roberts’ courage and determination never to give up will touch the reader.

Despair transformed into heavenly joy and evil overcome by God’s redemptive love will inspire even the most skeptical to believe in miracles. Children of Dreams resonates with Biblical truth at a deep level and in a sense is everyone’s story. Timeless in nature, Children of Dreams is sure to be a favorite adoption story for years to come.

Ms. Roberts is intimately familiar with adoption, having also been adopted as a child, and is able to present the spirit of adoption, as never before captured, in this tender story. Comparing the adoption of her daughters to her adoption by the heavenly Father throughout the story flows naturally.

From the Dust Jacket: Children of intercountry adoption have complex histories that place them at high risk for difficulty or failure in school. Teachers and other school professionals rarely know how to test them, teach them, or meet their needs. This volume explains those needs and offers guidelines and suggestions for maximizing the educational performance of these children and helping them to meet their potential.

The volume includes research on children adopted from several countries, including Russia and former Soviet states, Romania, and China. Content includes information from adoption literature on English as a Second Language classes, as well as special education law and research. The volume also presents the stories of real children adopted from Romania, Russia, and China, along with their parents and their interactions with schools in the United States.

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About the Author: Ruth Lyn Meese is Professor of Special Education at Longwood University in Virginia. She is the author of three textbooks and numerous articles on special education. She is also a member of Families for Russian and Ukrainian Adoption (FRUA) and the proud parent of a daughter adopted from Russia at age four.

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By the Same Author: Family Matters: Adoption and Foster Care in Children’s Literature (2009, Libraries Unlimited).

As a young professional working in Jerusalem, Ashley Lackovich-Van Gorp struggled to embrace her Orthodox faith with all her heart. She never dreamed her search for an intimate relationship with Christ would lead her to Ethiopia and into the hearts and lives of two little orphan girls—now orphans no longer. About the Author: Ashley Lackovich-Van Gorp is an international consultant for Girl Child Protection and Adaptive Behavior Change. She works for international humanitarian and development organizations on issues pertaining to adolescent girls and women. She specializes in prevention of harmful practices such as female genital mutilation, child marriage, and trafficking. She currently resides in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, with her husband, daughters, and cat. She attends St. Frumentius Greek Orthodox Church.

From the Back Cover: A popular college town minister and his wife want to adopt a four-year-old girl but learn she has three older brothers and decide to welcome all four children into their home. They arrive from a bleak county children’s home, bringing with them invisible histories of neglect and abuse.

This true story, based on case files and family interviews, opens with the children’s background and the oldest boy’s determined struggle to keep his family together. The four children barely survive ever worse threats as they lose the adults in their world to imprisonment, abandonment, and death. When all seems hopeless, a talented social worker intervenes, trying to change their fate.

The story then shifts to describe how their foster parents put in place programs to restore the physical and emotional health of their instant family while the children struggle to adjust to the upper middle class culture and university-sponsored grade school into which they have been plunged. Dick resists surrendering his role of “child parent” to his younger siblings. His attachment to their imprisoned biological father further complicates the picture while the eccentric personality of their clergyman foster father challenges all four children.

This is a lively and sometimes humorous story. Children of the Manse entertains as it describes how four wounded children respond to intelligent and loving foster care.

Do you get confused reading complex, technical books about attachment disorder? Do you wish you could find a basic book that you could give to relatives, teachers, and doctors to help them understand the problem? Would you like to educate others on the difficulties you face when parenting your child with attachment disorder? Then Children Who Shock and Surprise is for you. This book is designed to provide you with a brief, but complete, description of the causes and symptoms of attachment disorder, some useful parenting tactics, and the most effective treatment techniques.

This book is mainly intended for parents (biological, adoptive, and foster) who are working with children who are diagnosed as having Reactive Attachment Disorders or those who are undiagnosed but show symptoms of having Reactive Attachment Disorders. The focus of this book is on the reactive attachment disorder behaviors and how the quilting method approach helps in restoring the damaged years.

From the Dust Jacket: Aching to expand from a couple to a family, Jeff Gammage and his wife, Christine, embarked upon a journey that would carry them across a shifting landscape of emotion—excitement, exhilaration, fear, apprehension—and through miles of red tape and bureaucratic protocol, to a breathtaking land on the other side of the world where a little girl waited. When they met Jin Yu, a silent, stoic two-year-old, in the smog-choked city of Changsha in Hunan Province, they realized that every frustrating moment of their two-year struggle was worth it. But they also realized that another journey had only begun. Now there was much to experience and learn. How do you comfort a crying toddler when you and she speak different languages? How do you fully embrace a life altered beyond recognition by new concerns, responsibilities—and a love unlike any you’ve felt before?

Alive with insight and feeling, China Ghosts is a journalist’s eye-opening depiction of the foreign adoption process and a remarkable glimpse into a different culture. Most important, it is a poignant, heartfelt, and intensely intimate chronicle of the making of a family.

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About the Author: Jeff Gammage is a reporter for the Philadelphia Inquirer. He lives with his wife, Christine, and their daughters, Jin Yu and Zhao Gu, in Elkins Park, Pennsylvania.