An honest and revealing insight into the world of fostering.

The tale of one woman’s quest to become a mother. As the goal is moved further and further away and endless obstacles are thrown in her path, she wonders if the day will ever come when she can hold her child in her arms. This mix of diary, blog and memoirs follows what becomes an increasingly lengthy and frustrating process as it takes one unexpected turn after another.

From the Back Cover: Multicultural families are everywhere! In Dim Sum, Bagels, and Grits, Myra Alperson guides adoptive parents (and parents-to-be) on the Journey toward creating a family that represents more than one culture. She discusses:

■ The importance of balancing birth culture aad adoptive culture within the family

■ Finding a community where your children see other “kids like them” (and what to do if this is not possible)

■ Shaping a multicultural home, with appropriate traditions, religious observances, and role models

■ Developing alternative approaches to the family tree

■ Facing and addressing anti-ethnic and anti-adoption prejudices

In addition to drawing on her own experience as an adoptive mother and on extensive interviews, Alperson includes a wealth of on-line and other resources for the multicultural family:

■ Suppliers of books, periodicals, clothing, food products, and toys that celebrate your family’s cultural diversity

■ Discussion groups, support organizations, and heritage camps for both parents and kids

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About the Author: Myra Alperson is a New York-based writer whose books include The international Adoption Handbook: How to Make Foreign Adoption Work for You. She is the adoptive mother of Sadie Zhenzhen Alperson.

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By the Same Author: The International Adoption Handbook: How to Make Foreign Adoption Work for You (1997, Henry Holt & Co.).

The “duet” of calls—to follow God and to become a mother—began with Sarah’s story in Genesis and continues in God’s people today. As more women follow God’s call into ministry, many are discovering the power of this duet. These women are gifted for ministry, trained and shaped through excellent educations, and affirmed in their call. They serve as pastors in churches, on campuses, in impoverished areas, prisons, hospitals, hospices, the military, and in academia. And many of them are also called to be mothers: birth mothers, adoptive mothers, mothers to other people’s children, mothers to their students. As they continue to follow God, the call story and the birth story combine, and the duet rings true. Each essay in this inspiring collection is as different as the mother-minister who wrote it, from theologians to chaplains, inner-city ministers to rural-poverty ministers, youth pastors to preachers, mothers who have adopted, birthed, and done both.

This 19-page ebook outlines a strategy that I created to find a baby to adopt without going through an agency. Although my wife and I ultimately did not adopt, this strategy helped us have three birth mother’s contact us in one month to inquire about us adopting their child. The basic process outlined in this ebook is to create an online adoption profile and market it to birth mothers seeking to give their child up for adoption. You do not need any technical skills use this strategy. My DIY Adoption Method is riskier than traditional adoption methods because there is nobody to guide your through the process. However, it has the potential to be much quicker than an agency adoption and save you over $10,000. As a bonus in this book, I give you 4 techniques to reduce your adoption cost to virtually 0. Thank you for considering purchasing my ebook. Good luck with your adoption!

From the Back Cover: Stepparents and domestic partners can adopt a child in California without a lawyer, and Do Your Own California Adoption shows you how. Packed with plain-English information and instructions, it’s the only book available that takes adopting parents through the entire process, one step at a time. Find out how to:

• decide if adoption is right for your family

• determine if it’s legally possible

• choose the correct procedure

• prepare and file all necessary papers with the court

• terminate the rights of an absent parent, if necessary

• have your adoption petition approved by a judge

The 6th edition includes the latest forms and is updated to reflect legal changes that now allow same-sex couples to use these streamlined procedures. All the forms you need are included as tear-outs and on CD-ROM.

This book does not cover private or agency adoptions.

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About the Author: Frank Zagone was a social worker for more than 20 years, and worked in the Children’s Protective Services Department, helping abused and neglected children.

Emily Doskow is a Nolo editor, an attorney/mediator in private practice in Berkeley, and co-author of How to Change Your Name in California.

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Compiler’s Note: The first edition of this book was originally published in 1979 and subsequent years under the title How to Adopt Your Step Child in California. See the entry for that volume for previous publication history.

Adoption can be an extremely rewarding experience for both the adopter and adoptee. Though the process is complex, those who are in need of loving homes find them, and those who wish to provide a loving home can. With the help of adoption agencies, children can find places to grow that are healthy for their bodies and spirits. The adoption process can be arduous and take time, but there is a lot to consider when thinking of adopting, especially for the first time. It is not a rash decision to be made, and the process is enduring to ensure those who wish to be parents will be able to provide for their new bundle of joy. There is a lot of paperwork that is involved with adoption, and there are many different ways to go about adoption. There are many special circumstances that you can take into consideration—whether you are adopting internationally, a child with special needs, or if you have a special type of home that you want to welcome them into. Agencies and lawyers that specialize in adoption will walk you through the process, but you must be mentally and emotionally prepared for what is to come. Adopting into your family can bring great joys—and great obstacles. Knowing the key information that will help make the procedure as smooth as possible is elemental to a successful transition for both you and your future family member.

If you’re tired of old-fashioned adoption advice like “take out a home equity loan” and “ask around at church,” this guide is for you! Written by adoptive mother Chryssa Rich, it’s full of fresh advice that makes sense in our post-recession economy. Single and coupled hopeful adoptive parents will enjoy reading advice for choosing an agency or attorney to claiming the adoption tax credit and everything in between. Special Myth vs. Fact and Real Life Example sections offer insight you won’t find anywhere else.

From the Publisher: He lies naked on the cot, his body nothing more than paper thin skin stretched tightly around a tiny bony carcass. How can he still be breathing? His huge oval eyes are inky pools of pleading passion. “Save me.” They implore. “Save me.” How strong his spirit must be to still be alive in that emaciated body. We must do something. We must help him and the others before it’s too late. But how can we? He will be dead before we can do anything. The pain in my chest stops me from being aware either of my tear-soaked face or the sound of Judy’s sobbing. It was watching this 20/20 program that compelled the authors to go to Romania. This book details the five weeks they spent there, describing the thousands of unwanted children and the horror of a stifled communistic culture unwilling and unable to see past its nose or to accept help with its dilemma. It is a true story of frustration, emotional turmoil and of miracles. Assad and Jamell were two idealistic, middle-aged women in for the shock of their lives. The experience caused them to question their spiritual beliefs and to sink into a depression that seemed endless. After experiencing the drab poverty of a third world country, they discovered they will never take their plentiful lives for granted again.

Between the years of 1956 and 1967 my mother wrote to the Holt Adoption Agency. I am sure she would never have dreamed her letters would surface some 46 years later, or indeed, that she had anything to impart on the world. We never know the ramifications of our lives do we? Mother commented often to me of that her dream was to have a baby in the house always. The trouble was all she got was me—for 19 years—then she adopted two Korean children. Two years later, a natural son arrived, born 21 years after me. Later on, due to an inheritance, she adopted yet one more child. These children were her dream, her joy, and they flourished under her care. Her letters stopped in 1967. She died in 1968. During those years she chronicled the progress of the children. She described them, the sweet things children do, the challenge of making ends meet, the gratefulness she had for the agency, and indeed the letters she wrote to help make proxy adoption legal. She died and was spared knowing that her beloved children suffered at the hands on the one person they trusted the most. I intersperse my letters to her telling her our secret.

From the Back Cover: Imagine being so consumed by rage that you are compelled to destroy everything in your world. Imagine feeling such primitive fury that your behavior becomes more animalistic than human. Imagine enduring these intense feelings—and being only five years old. ... This is the world of Jonathan Jacob Justice. Like hundreds of thousands of other children in our society, Jonathan suffers from attachment disorder, an inability to trust others caused by early abuse and neglect. Unless their disorder is properly diagnosed and treated, these children often grow up to vent their rage and pain on society. Don’t Touch My Heart tells Jonathan’s story. Ideal for parents of children with attachment disorder, therapists, doctors, teachers, and social workers, Don’t Touch My Heart provides hope for all who care about children and the future of our society.

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About the Author: Lynda Gianforte Mansfield is an award-winning writer, working primarily in the arena of print and broadcast advertising. Her work has appeared in both national and international publications, and on radio and television stations throughout Northern California. She is also the adoptive mother of an attachment disordered child.

Christopher H. Waldmann, M.A., L.P.C., is in private practice with Evergreen Consultants in Human Behavior in Evergreen, Colorado. He has been working with attachment disordered children and their families since 1983, and has been a consultant and therapeutic foster parent for The Attachment Center at Evergreen since 1985. He also conducts nationwide training sessions and workshops on attachment disorder for parents and professionals.

Doorway to Heartbreak Path to Hope is the true story about tumultuous adoption. Mental illness, retardation, misfortune, incest and pedophilia—unbelievable, deviously stigmatized and frequently unbearable, the family, while hurt deeply, remains steadfast. Relying on instinct, trial and error, faith and a steady sense of humor, much of their technique was blessed by kindly social workers, sincere adoption advocates and the most grandiloquent of bureaucrats. Much was not. Jake and Sarah were abused by their biological parents, and other alcoholics, drug addicts, criminals, sociopaths and sexual deviants. Jake was subject to severe neglect; Sarah to behavior, bizarre and unnatural. Both had homicidal tendencies, however subtle or flagrant. The adoptive parents were aware of some of the debauchery, but not of its horrible depth. The good servants of Child Protective Services (“CPS”) were themselves overwhelmed, the unpleasant consequence of a societal culture which shows little appreciation for their calling and sad disinterest to the most innocent amongst us. The family’s life becomes one of finding help for the adoptees—and themselves. Narrated by the father, reflecting on his often questionable style, the calming influence of his endearing wife is a strongly emotional standard. Without the feminine touch, recovery was impossible; tragedy, imminent. The author and his wife try to do right by adoption. With the blessed intercession of CPS, two children are saved from early demise. There were many good times that softened the bad but there were terrible scars. Under extreme pressure for many years and pushed to the edge, the family suffers grievous injury. They had to pull together, or fall apart. Buoyed by his wife’s strong faith, the father would never surrender them. Fate could have dealt them an even harder blow, so somber in its consecration but for the blessed, unknown mischief with a pedophile. Every member of the family recovers except one, the cumulative effect of the abuse too much to carry. Adoption provides love and protection to children unable to fend for themselves—the easily forgotten, the forsaken. The couple opened their souls to strangers, devoted long hours and exorbitant amounts of money for two youngsters not of their own making. At what cost? Was there any lasting value? The author expresses the feeling that whatever the fault, it was his. He couldn’t handle the job. He couldn’t properly anticipate events. He dealt with them the wrong way. He had no style. He couldn’t properly communicate to his three older children why and what he did about their two youngest adopted siblings. He used the big stick and his wife, all the while fighting an illness he couldn’t cure, softened the blow. It isn’t all so but the thoughts endure, subsiding with the passage of time but never dormant. It hurts, the endgame of lingering doubt. What do you do when it all turns disappointing and dangerous? How do you reconcile to the blessing that adoption is meant to be? How are adoptive families to be encouraged? The family enjoys the best our social, legal and health care systems offer. Others fail them, many times. No one was ever held accountable. Not even an appeals court who, in an act of stupefying ignorance, enables a false memory advocate to clear the way for a multiple child molester. Despite the pain inflicted, the inherent goodness of one adoptee becomes evident. Undeniable mystery envelopes the other. There was no instruction manual. This adventure serves as one, haunting but resolute in description, even laughter, hopeful to the last. By gauging their own circumstance to what this family went through, parents, children and others closely involved with problematic adoptions won’t be alone, should tribulation come.

When Pip and Stacey John got married in 2004, little did they know of the emotional roller coaster heading their way. In this book, Pip talks openly and honestly about the emotional and personal journey through infertility the couple went on to achieve their dream to become parents. If you have ever wondered what is involved in adopting or have just started the adoption process, this book will give you an insight into every aspect of the adoption process. It is a heartfelt account of the ups and downs encountered by Pip and Stacey. It chronicles every step; from when they first attended an information evening, to the joy of bringing their children home and everything in between. It’s a heart-warming and compelling read, one which will leave you feeling inspired to chase your dreams and not look back.

From the Dust Jacket: This is the heartwarming story of Kathryn Cole’s efforts to adopt a child as a single parent and career woman. She takes readers on her voyage of heartache and joy: the years of waiting, possibilities, disappointments—and fulfillment beyond her wildest dreams.

Frustrated by the Canadian adoption system, Kathryn is forced to look farther—China, India, Korea, Bangladesh, Barbados. Ironically, she travels to Manila for an adoption hearing after she has already become a mother to one infant.

Kathryn’s adventures are both hilarious and touching. She negotiates adoption agencies, hospitals, courts, religious processions, bribes, a male impotence clinic, police stations, and ballroom dancing. And along the way, she deals with a cast of larger-than-life characters.

Through it all, she never loses her sense of humour, and this, along with her sensitivity, determination, and above all, profound love, creates a unique and truly unforgettable story.

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About the Author: Kathryn Cole worked for nineteen years at Scholastic, before becoming publisher of children’s books at Oxford University Press. She has recently become publisher of children’s books at Stoddart Publishing. Her books have won many awards, and she personally has won awards for book design and art direction. In her free time, she. volunteers for the crisis treatment program at The Metropolitan Special Committee on Child Abuse. She and her two teenage daughters live in Toronto.

From the Back Cover: HERE IS YOUR GUIDE TO THE FASTEST-GROWING TREND IN CHILDBIRTH—A TRADITION AS OLD AS MOTHERHOOD ITSELF.

Doulas, or professional labor assistants, have led thousands of expectant women through the birthing process in a way that’s safe and meaningful, and that creates the birth and post-birth experience all mothers long for. In The Doula Guide to Birth, senior-level doula Ananda Lowe and award-winning health reporter Rachel Zimmerman have written a comprehensive guide that combines science, wit, warmth, and support, as well as the inspirational stories of dozens of mothers and their parents. You’ll find the “doula viewpoint” on every major pregnancy and delivery issue, making this one of the most important childbirth books you’ll ever read and recommend.

• Labor Techniques anyone can use

• Pain medication: do you or don’t you—and when?

• How to prepare for unexpected medical procedures, including cesareans and epidurals

• A clip-out chart of labor techniques, birth plan worksheets, and much more

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About the Author: Ananda Lowe has been a leader in the doula movement since 1995. For seven years, she served as assistant director of the Association of Labor Assistants and Childbirth Educators, which conducts the oldest national birth doula training program. She has worked with prominent doulas and medical professionals as well as hundreds of mothers across North America. Ms. Lowe has been interviewed by major publications including American Baby, Child, NurseWeek, Parenting, Parents, and Shape’s Fit Pregnancy. She lives in the Boston area.

Rachel Zimmerman has worked as a journalist for more than two decades. She spent ten years at the Wall Street Journal, mostly covering health and medicine, and has written for a range of other publications, including the New York Times, Slate, and the Seattle Post-Intelligencer. The recipient of numerous awards for her work, Ms. Zimmerman has reported from Africa, China, Vietnam, Cuba, Europe, and across the United States. In 2008, she was selected as a Knight Science Journalism Fellow at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. She lives in Cambridge, Massachusetts, with her husband and two daughters, each of whom was born with the help of a doula.

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Compiler’s Note: See, particularly, “Doula Specialty: Adoption and Surrogacy” (pp.90-94).

Linda Bevis, an American teacher and lawyer, first lived in Beijing in 1983. Twenty-five years later, Bevis, her playwright husband, and her young Chinese-born daughter return to China. Aware of the necessity for adopted children to connect with their birth culture, Bevis and her family embrace their new Chinese heritage. They explore Chinese schools, community, language, theater, and the Jiangsu orphanage where Leyla Fu-Chi spent her early months. In the year preceding the Beijing Olympics, much is said of China, both good and bad. Bevis’s book offers an inside view not usually heard in the West. While writing about pollution, censorship, and human rights violations, she also portrays her Chinese friends and students as diverse, intelligent, kind people with awareness of past injustices, pride in their country, and hope for the Olympics. Tolerant but honest, balancing maternal and pedagogical concerns with cultural awareness and respect for China’s traditions, Bevis’s careful reflections reveal a complex, diverse, and surprising China.

From the Dust Jacket: This is the journey of a young woman who was profoundly affected by the war in her home country of Vietnam. She was thrown into the tragedy of the collapse of South Vietnam in 1975, escaped alone to the United States and established her life here as a medical doctor. She struggled with the profound cultural shock, learned to grow and deal with the prejudices against her perceived unconventional lifestyle, and protected her integrity.

The second part of the book is about the saga to adopt an infant from Vietnam alone; how she fought all the obstacles and the stigma of single motherhood in her culture to triumphantly bring the child to the US. In doing so, she managed to raise her child alone as a full-time professional and found happiness and peace of mind.

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About the Author: Ngan Ha is a physician who practices in California. She immigrated to the US in 1975 from Vietnam after the war. She lives with her daughter in Orange County, California.

Previous publication: “Contribution to the Study of the Self-destructive Patients,” doctoral thesis, Saigon University, Vietnam, 1974.

How does one deal with that deep down, tragically destructive pain that comes when he does what he sincerely believes God would have him do, only to watch his world crumble? In this book I share our experience of adopting a child and dealing with the deadly syndrome labeled “Reactive Attachment Disorder.” It is a simple label—but the consequences of this syndrome are far-reaching. We claim the promise that “All things work together for good to those who love Him and are called according to His purpose.” Yet, there remains that question. Can His love truly redeem even this situation? About the Author: As an adoptive parent of six and foster parent to nineteen children, Meghan Stewart has a deep understanding of the feelings of rejection, confusion, and turmoil of loving and raising children who can not receive love. Her family has grown through involvement with private adoption organizations as well as state agencies. Wounded children all need loving families! Meghan hopes to speak to all who struggle with emotional pain, whether involved in the adoption arena or not. God can heal even the deepest of our pain! Meghan and her husband live in Penrose, CO, raising children, sharing love, and extending hope!

From the Back Cover: Dreams are a regular part of every child’s life and a powerful resource for every parent. Dreamcatching is the first comprehensive dreamwork book covering children’s first reported dreams around age two into adolescence. Written by two renowned dream researchers, this practical guide to children’s dreams shows parents how to learn the hopes and fears that their children may not be able to articulate and to nurture their children’s creative, problem-solving, intellectual, and spiritual natures. Siegel and Bulkeley give guidance on how to encourage children to remember—and share-their dreams and include a “Dreamcatcher’s Workbook,” which is filled with projects using drawing and painting, playacting, and other playful ways to bring to life the meanings of the dream.

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About the Author: Alan B. Siegel, Ph.D., is a clinical psychologist who has worked with families and children for more than twenty years in Berkeley and San Francisco. He has taught courses and workshops on dreams for all ages—preschoolers through graduate students—for about twenty-five years and is the author of Dreams That Can Change your Life. He is vice president of the Association for the Study of Dreams and editor in chief of Dream Time, an international magazine on dreaming. His research projects on the dreams of expectant fathers, trauma survivors, and children has brought him international recognition. He has been featured on CNN News, Sonya Live, the Discovery Channel’s “The Power of Dreams,” and NBC’s “The Secret World of Dreams.” He lives with his wife and two daughters in the San Francisco Bay area.

Kelly Bulkeley, Ph.D., earned his doctorate from the University of Chicago Divinity School and his masters from Harvard Divinity School. He is the author of The Wilderness of Dreams, Spiritual Dreaming, Among All These Dreamers, and An Introduction to the Psychology of Dreaming, as well as several articles on dreams, psychology, spirituality, and child development. He is currently president of the Association for the Study of Dreams, the world’s leading international organization devoted to dream research and education. His work on dreams has been featured on a number of television programs, including CBS’s “This Morning,” the Discovery Channel’s “The Power of Dreams,” and NBC’s “The Secret World of Dreams.” He lives in Kensington, California, with his wife, two children, and three cats.

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Compiler’s Note: Adoption is addressed specifically in Chapter 6: “Dreams and the Changing Family: Divorce, Adoption, Blended Families, and New Siblings” (pp. 118-135), including one case study involving an adopted child whose dreams were, apparently, a reaction to seeing news reports about “disrupted” adoptions.

Every little girl loves a pretty new dress, and my daughter Anna was no exception. Trembling with emotion, she ripped open the department store bag that contained her new dress, tights, shoes, and undergarments. Then she pulled out the lavender floral print dress, caressing the silk lining and rubbing her face in the soft fabric. Platya, she whispered. Dress. The quiet was only momentary, though as the reality of the situation sank in. Platya, she then cheered. Halya doma. Halya is going home. Although it was the first time in her life that she had ever owned any piece of clothing, it was not the dress that brought such emotion, but what it represented. The new dress meant that it was finally the day that Halya (whom we would name Anna) would leave the orphanage and travel home to live with her new family. It was a day she had awaited for over three years, and a day that I had worked for nearly as long. A Dress for Anna: The Redemption of the Life of a Ukrainian Orphan tells the fascinating story of how God led Deborah and Rob Amend to adopt a handicapped preschooler from an orphanage in Ukraine, and intricately knit her into their family. Beginning with the circumstances that opened their hearts to adoption, continuing through the entire process, and culminating with the difficult adjustments for Anna as she experiences life in a new culture, this book honestly shares the struggles, grief, and joy the Amend family faced as they followed God down the rocky path of international adoption. This powerful narrative not only provides readers with a clear understanding of the often challenging aspects of adoption, particularly for special needs children, it also offers inspiration by illustrating just how much an average, ordinary family can do when listening to God and following His call. About the Author: Deborah J. Amend is the mother of five children, three of who were adopted internationally. A cum laude graduate of the University of Cincinnati’s College-Conservatory of Music, she is a former inner-city music teacher who retired to stay home and raise her children. She is a freelance writer and speaker, focusing on adoption, child advocacy, and a healthy biblical respect for people with disabilities.

From the Back Cover: Relief for Adoptive Parents of Traumatized, Attachment-Challenged Children

Drowning with My Hair on Fire is a lifeline for adoptive parents trying to navigate the choppy waters of raising adopted children from difficult beginnings. Author Ce Eshelman’s beautiful heart really shines through in the hundreds of letters to parents to read each day when needing hope, inspiration, advice, direction, reminders, or practical help. She deeply understands them and the chaos of their lives and families because she was there, but is now able to give them the wisdom culled from reading every book on the subject, attending hundreds of seminars and workshops, years of her own therapy, and fearlessly facing her own mistakes. If you are raising a traumatized, attachment-challenged child, Ce is the friend you want, and this is the book you need.

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About the Author: Ce Eshelman, LMFT, attachment specialist and founder of The Attach Place Center for Strengthening Relationships in Sacramento, CA, has been in practice since 1987. Learning from the best minds in the attachment field—Dan Siegel, MD, Bruce Perry, MD, PhD, Bessel van der Kolk, PhD, and others—she works every day with adopted children and their parents. Raising her two adopted children into adulthood has given her the insight, humor, and hard-earned wisdom to write with authority and love.

From the Back Cover: Stephen’s stories are filled with laughter, tears, challenges, and hope. This warmly personal portrayal of a child’s lifelong struggles with multiple medical disabilities—and his spirit that sustains him and enriches us all—is filled with tributes to and lessons for families, friends and caregivers of those with special needs.

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About the Author: Chrissy L. Nelson is Stephen’s adoptive mother. They have shared a remarkable journey together since she brought Stephen home as a two-year-old foster child. Eleven years later, they continue to instruct the lives of others. Chris, a nurse for 25 years, understands the struggles of being a single, foster, adoptive, and special-needs mother and caregiver. She is an active voice for children and adults with disabilities, both in the hospital and at home—an expert advocate for human rights. The recipient of national and community awards for her charitable work, Chris’s forthcoming books will honor everyday lives and those who have helped them, as well as focus on the needs, assets and difficulties of caregiving.

In Earning My Wings, author Agela LeBlanc describes how her dreams provided spiritual guidance for overcoming numerous life challenges. She believes God provides us with the answers we seek, but many times we do not know how to listen to His answers. Angela’s wish is for you to realize how many times God spoke to you, but you did not hear or did not want to listen to His guidance. After reading her story, you will learn to listen or open yourself to His instructions. You, like Angela, will start to soar spiritually, enabling yourself to grow the wings your soul so strongly desires. About the Author: Angela LeBlanc was born in Chatam, Alabama, in 1961. She and her family moved to Vidalia, Louisiana, where she continued to live until she moved to Baton Rouge, Louisiana, to attend Louisiana State University in 1979. In 1983, she earned a Bachelor of Science degree in Finance; in 1994. she earned her Juris Doctor from Southern Law Center. In 1994, Angela and her husband, Barry L. Elkins, founded Magnolia Title of Baton Rouge, LLC. They reside on a small farm in Greenwell Springs, Louisiana. Angela and her family attend Greenwell Springs Baptist Church. Compiler’s Note: See, particularly, chapter entitled “Fourth Message from God,” pp. 55-62.

Catherine Marshall’s story reveals the heartbreak and hope of foster parenting. Thirty-eight and newly married, Catherine yearned to be a mother and adoption seemed a viable option. The county’s Foster-Adopt Program was affordable, so she and her new husband were confident they could adopt and parent two siblings. But nothing was as it seemed. The birth parents used intimidation and the court system to sabotage the adoption. The social services agency wavered in its support. Even the children, three-year old Jenny and six-year old Robert, were unaware of the ticking time bomb of genetics and early neglect that would detonate in their teens. Would the family survive intact? Would the marriage withstand the stress? Would the children overcome the same afflictions and addictions that had plagued their birth parents? The Easter Moose: One Family’s Journey Adopting through Foster Care provides all parents, but particularly those adopting, fostering, or caring for children with challenges, the assurance they are not alone. Social workers, teachers, people who work in the family court system, and anyone who believes in nurture over nature will get a reality check.

From the Back Cover: At first glance Jeannie Satre’s life looks like any other mother: married, children, home in the suburbs, a mini-van and occasional trips to the family cabin near Yosemite. But she and her family are anything but typical!

Jeannie and her husband Neal have dedicated their lives to raising special children from around the world. Twin boys born to them were followed by girls from Korea, children from Mother Teresa’s orphanage in India and then a girl from their home town!

Various traumas ranging from a snake in the laundry room, to the children’s hospitalizations, and then to facing her own adoption issues and serious breast cancer risk have kept Jeannie’s life challenging and eventful. Through it all she and her whole family have learned life lessons of love, perseverance and joy.

Jeannie declares, “What started out as a humanistic act became God’s plan for our lives! And we found out that limits couldn’t be set by our license plate 8S INUF!”

About the Author: Jeannie Satre and her husband Neal are the parents of nine children. Six of the children are adopted internationally and four are orthopedically challenged. The seventh is from their home town and has Muscular Dystrophy. They make their home in Walnut Creek, California.

From the Dust Jacket: How did his mind work? What made him a genius? Isaacson’s biography shows how his scientific imagination sprang from the rebellious nature of his personality. His fascinating story is a testament to the connection between creativity and freedom.

Based on newly released personal letters of Einstein, this book explores how an imaginative, impertinent patent clerk—a struggling father in a difficult marriage who wouldn’t get a teaching job or a doctorate—became the mind reader of the creator of the cosmos, the locksmith of the mysteries of the atom and the universe. His success came from questioning conventional wisdom and marveling at mysteries that struck others as mundane. This led him to embrace a morality and politics based on respect for free minds, free spirits, and free individuals.

These traits are just as vital for this new century of globalization, in which our success will depend on our creativity, as they were for the beginning of the last century, when Einstein helped usher in the modern age.

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About the Author: Walter Isaacson, the CEO of the Aspen Institute, has been chairman of CNN and the managing editor of Time magazine. He is the author of Benjamin Franklin: An American Life and of Kissinger: A Biography, and the coauthor of The Wise Men: Six Friends and the World They Made. He lives in Washington, D.C., with his wife and daughter.

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By the Same Author: American Sketches: Great Leaders, Creative Thinkers, and Heroes of a Hurricane (2009); Steve Jobs (2011); and The Innovators: How a Group of Hackers, Geniuses, and Geeks Created the Digital Revolution (2014).

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Compiler’s Note: See, particularly, the sections entitled “Lieserl” (pp. 72-77) and “Marrying Mileva” (pp. 84-89) contained within Chapter Four: The Lovers, 1900-1904.

A father’s journal of his two-week trip to China with his wife and daughter to adopt their second child is captured from the daily emails he sent to friends and family.

From the Back Cover: After the disappointments of unsuccessful fertility treatments and the realisation that they are not to be one of the lucky few to conceive, John and Anne Ley-Morgan struggle to fulfil the wish of a lifetime.

This frank and honest account details the couple’s frustrations and the problems they encounter as they negotiate the minefield known as Overseas Adoption—and their unwavering hope and determination throughout the journey.

This is the story of John and Anne as they pursue the end of their own personal rainbow to find a daughter in need on the other side of the world. It’s also the story of the family Ellie leaves behind: her twin sister, Huyen, brought up in Vietnam by her birth mother until the two girls are finally reunited eleven years later.

For John and Anne, adopting Ellie unexpectedly fills more than one void in their lives as they finally achieve what they have always wanted—a complete family.

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About the Author: John Ley-Morgan was born in Weston-super-Mare, Somerset in 1938. He read mathematics at university and, after a five-year Short Service Commission in the Royal Navy, taught for 30 years in the Bristol area. Taking early retirement in 1993, he enrolled at the University of the West of England to read law and then practiced as a solicitor for a further 12 years. He is a local councillor, a past mayor of WsM and his hobbies include family history research. He is also new to beekeeping.

Anne Ley-Morgan was born in London in 1954 but her family soon moved to her mother’s home town of Exmouth, Devon. She trained as a PE teacher at Bedford College before starting her first job at Backwell, Somerset where she met John. She then managed her own small hotel in North Devon before opening a health food shop and restaurant in Weston which ran successfully for 14 years. Anne returned to full-time teaching in 2000 and currently works at a local comprehensive where she teaches Food Technology and Child Development.

From the Publisher: Through inspiring photography and warming eloquence, this book speaks to the heart of family. From the eyes of the adopted child we see the excitement and expectancy that builds as the day of adoption grows closer and the unique and powerful bond between child and parents. A lovely keepsake gift book celebrating adoption! Beautiful black-and-white photography of children from all over the world and their adoptive families accompany tender prose. Pages in the back of the book for families to personalize, add photos, and capture precious memories make this a wonderful, cherished memento!

From the Dust Jacket: Emerging Son is an autobiographical memoir about a man’s journey to a purposeful mid-life from youthful uncertainty. The author’s quest to recreate the happiness of his youth takes him from the newsroom to the courtroom as he launches a career, from the Midwest to Rome as he deepens his faith, and to South America as he builds a family. Looking to his father as an example, the writer ultimately discovers he has to look within himself for answers to life’s questions about faith, family and work.

In addition to appealing to memoir enthusiasts, Emerging Son speaks to many groups of people. First, the book will appeal to anyone preparing for marriage, especially marriage in the Catholic Church. Second, it will be of interest to people who have suffered through infertility and are contemplating adoption. And third, Emerging Son will be of interest to small business owners who want to read how one entrepreneur grows his company by taking on a business partner and adapting to changing markets. Emerging Son is for anyone entering midlife, particularly married men struggling to find home in their role as husband and father.

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About the Author: Tom Bengtson grew up in Minneapolis with his mom, dad, brother and three sisters. A University of Minnesota graduate, he is a journalist with experience in print and broadcast media. He is the owner of a small publishing company and editor of North Western Financial Review, a niche business magazine. A student of religion and politics, Tom believes it is important for ordinary people to record their stories for the benefit of peers and future generations. Emerging Son is Tom’s first book.