From the Back Cover: Ready to begin the adoption process but don’t know where to start?

Understanding all the steps, paperwork, and legal requirements can make the difference between adopting now and adopting years from now. The Essential Adoption Handbook walks you through the entire process step by step, covering all types of adoption and the situations you may encounter. Filled with practical information, and written in straightforward language, this is the definitive resource.

Here prospective parents will find both answers and advice, including:

• the pros and cons of each type of adoption

• samples of the necessary letters, forms, and documents—and how to best present yourself as a prospective parent

• how to prepare for a home study, with a review of the questions a social worker may ask

• how to adopt independently, or through an agency, and the fees involved

• how to adopt in the U.S. or from another country and the expenses to expect

• an extensive resource section that includes nationwide listings for adoption attorneys, support groups, and private and public agencies—so you can start your search immediately!

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About the Author: Colleen Alexander-Roberts founded Families United for Adoption, Inc., and is a contributing editor for AdoptNet. As a volunteer consultant, she has helped hundreds of prospective adopters become parents. She lives in Ohio with her husband and their two adopted children, Christopher and Blake.

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By the Same Author: The Legal Adoption Guide: Safely Navigating the System (1996).

An easy to reference pocket sized booklet to help ‘everyday’ people understand and work with the court system. This booklet has been written to give the everyday person a good basic understanding of how the court system works. It covers what everyone does and what the “legal speak” actually means. This booklet provides the key guidance and information that should allow you to better understand proceedings and work with professionals to get the best outcome for the child concerned. The booklet encourages the reader to act in a way that will be in the best interests of children. This book has been written by an experienced children’s guardian. He has collaborated with a number of everyday people who, just like you, have themselves had to deal with the court system for a variety of reasons. Many of the questions included in this booklet are based on their personal experiences.

From the Publisher: Where do adoptive parents and prospective adoptive parents find a comprehensive, yet short and easy-to-read summary of attachment and bonding? The Essential Link: Attachment Information for Adoptive Parents is the answer. The book provides information and explanations about attachment and bonding between adoptive parents and their new child; answers questions about what attachment is and how it might be compromised in children who were adopted; and provides practical tips for ways to improve the attachment and connection between parents and adopted children. Short, easy-to-read summary of RAD (reactive attachment disorder), attachment, and bonding within adoptive families. Adoption agencies should make this required reading for all adoptive families. (Some agencies already do this, but ALL adoption and social service organizations should give it to their clients.) Read this and be more informed about a critical adoption topic.

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About the Author: Susan Ward, M.A., from Asheville, NC, is a therapeutic family consultant. She’s been a foster parent, therapeutic tutor, and is the adoptive parent of a child who is healed from RAD. She has worked with children from across the country who were diagnosed with reactive attachment disorder (RAD). Many of these children had other diagnoses including autism, bipolar, anxiety, post traumatic stress, learning disabilities, and more.

From the Dust Jacket: When Euro-American parents adopt children from other countries their level of understanding of who they themselves are will be tested. Their capability in handling those obstacles that arise in their path will be an important part of the adoption experience for their children and for themselves. With each chapter examining issues that inter-ethnic adoptive families experience, Chris Winston weaves her own perspective on her adoption experience with perspectives related to her by her own children, adopted adults, other adoptive parents, birth parents, Koreans, Korean Americans, and Asian Americans. While the book’s focus is on experiences with Korean adoption, the experiences are transferable to inter-ethnic adoptions from any country.

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About the Author: In April 1988, Chris Winston and her husband, Mark, began to experience life as the adoptive parents of a one-year-old Korean-born daughter, Diana, and a nine-year-old son, Alexis, who was born to them. Their son David, then five and a half, joined the family from Korea in December 1989. The founder of two adoption community organizations, Friends of Korea in Northern California and The Korean American Adoptee Adoptive Family Network (KAAN), a national networking organization, Chris’s life’s work has been in creating opportunities for dialogue. She hopes that this book will be one more such opportunity. Proceeds from this book will be used on projects that promote better insight and understanding within the adoption community.

How radically lives can be altered by sudden twists of fate ... by luck ... by backroom politics in a darkened corridor in Beijing. From an orphanage in Guongdong, South China and the 13,000 kilometer (8,000 mile) journey to a fishing village on Nova Scotia’s south shore, this is just one story in what was the largest exodus of children from a single country in the history of mankind. This is the story of Eva and Me.

From the Publisher: The real story behind a foster family’s struggle to raise an abused teenager is revealed in Sandy Knauer’s heart-wrenching tale, based on her own experiences as a foster mother.

Fifteen-year-old Annie experienced more abuse and trauma than any teenager could have imagined. From foster placements to group homes to psychiatric hospitals, Annie lacked love and support all of her life ... until she met Sandy Knauer.

Every 10th Starfish will open your eyes to the immense love and generosity it takes to raise a foster child, particularly one who has a history of sexual abuse, drugs and emotional trauma. This isn’t a Cinderella story, but a story of real people who had the power to make a difference in at least one of the many children who fall through the safety net of our foster care system.

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About the Author: Sandra Knauer, LCSW, is a psychotherapist who has helped countless victims of child abuse throughout her career. She is the owner of Middletown Counseling in Middletown, Delaware, and currently lives with her family in nearby Townsend.

From the Publisher: The winners of the SheBooks/Good Housekeeping memoir contest offer three slices of life as a mother. In “People Don’t Get Me, Mom,” Jackie Mercurio carries a troubling secret that will change the life of her brilliant, misunderstood boy. Then a family trip to the Butterfly Garden takes them to a place of healing and wonder. In “Coyote Tales,” Jacinta Hart Kehoe recovers from an accident she wasn’t supposed to survive but struggles to help her adopted daughter learn to love and trust again. And in “Pulling Rabbits from a Hat,” Cynthia Leonard tells her fascinating story of growing up in a magical act, with a mother who disappeared and reappeared nightly.

From the Back Cover: Every Parent’s Guide to the Law provides today’s information-seeking parents the right tool to anticipate and solve family legal questions.

No one who has children today can afford to remain ignorant of the many legal concerns that will touch parents’ lives. For anyone thinking about becoming a parent and for parents in the child-rearing years, this comprehensive guide provides information about legal issues specifically affecting parents and children. Designed to be read before consulting a lawyer, Every Parent’s Guide to the Law is a readable, easy-to-use reference providing sensible explanations and advice.

Professor Forman describes topics affecting nearly all parents in their daily lives including: parental rights in the workplace • housing • child care • medical care • education • financial matters • rights and responsibilities of teenagers

Also covered are issues that bring many parents directly into contact with the legal system: custody and visitation • child support • juvenile crime • child abuse and neglect

In addition, Professor Forman discusses such timely topics as: adoption • new reproductive technologies • single parents • disabled parents • gay parents • father’s rights

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About the Author: Deborah L. Forman, nationally known expert on family law, is a graduate of Stanford Law School and a member of the California Bar since 1987. A professor of law at Whittier law School in Southern California, she is also an active member of the Whittier Law School Center for Children’s Rights.

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Compiler’s Note: See, particularly Chapter 11: Father’s Rights (Fathers and Adoption) and Chapter 12: Nontraditional Means of Becoming a Parent.

Imagine taking a refreshing two-minute time-out that will bring godly encouragement to the maddening pace of any day. That’s just what Donna Huisjen has created with her fast-paced daily readings that combine a brief story, a scriptural reflection, a prayer, and an inspirational thought to take you through the day. As a single adoptive mom who raised three special-needs daughters, her struggles and joys will strike a familiar chord with any mother. Her thoughts on topics such as character development, compassion, appreciating each child’s uniqueness, and savoring simple pleasures are sure to brighten every single day with positive perspective-builders. The author is the adoptive mother of three daughters.

From the Back Cover: Families don’t just happen—they are made. And this is nowhere more evident than in adoptive families. Adoption can be a joyous, frustrating, uplifting, disheartening, frightening and exhilarating experience. here, one adoptive mother tells the story of how she and her husband—and friends—formed their beautiful family. Everything In Its Own Time speaks to those who long for children but do not have them, for whatever reason, and reminds us all that, no matter how we strive, everything happens in its own time.

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About the Author: Rebecca Patton Falco has degrees from Duke and Emory Universities in psychology, history, theology, and law. She has worn many professional hats, including: branch director of an adoption agency specializing in open adoption, litigation associate at a large corporate law firm, coordinator of sexual assault support services at the Duke University Women’s Center, a high school social studies teacher, and a youth minister. A lifelong Atlantan, Rebecca is an author, attorney, athlete, adoption advocate and activist for causes involving women, children and issues of equality. She’s a wife to John Falco and mom to Emily, K.J., Skye, Journey and Becton Falco. Rebecca may be contacted at rpfalco@mac.com.

From the Back Cover: Domestic or international? Baby or older child? A child with special needs? The number of decisions you will need to make when deciding to adopt can at times seem overwhelming. The Everything® Parent’s Guide to Raising Your Adopted Child offers all the information any potential or newly adoptive parent might need. Parenting expert and adoptive parent Corrie Lynne Player has interviewed hundreds of adoptive parents and presents a cross-section of age, ethnicity, and cultural backgrounds to help you make the most informed decisions. This essential guidebook is packed with reassuring advice on how to handle the most common issues, including:

• Questions to ask before adopting

• Bonding techniques for each age group—from newborn to teenager

• Adopting children with physiological or psychological special needs

• Adopting outside your ethnic group

• Navigating international adoptions

• Fielding difficult questions about your adopted child’s birth parents

• Helping your adopted child cope with feelings of loss and abandonment

With this book by your side, you will bond with your child for a lifetime!

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About the Author: Corrie Lynne Player, M.Ed., is a recognized child-rearing expert and the mother of nine children, three of whom were adopted She ran a special needs foster home for thirty-five years and has fostered more than forty children. Ms. Player holds a master’s degree in education from Stanford and is the author of several parenting books. Her work has been endorsed by leaders in, among others, the National Foster Parents Association. Her articles have appeared in Family Circle, Woman’s Day, and Parents magazine. Ms. Player lives in Cedar City, UT.

Brette McWhorter Sember is a former attorney who focused her practice on family law cases, including adoptions, which she found to be the happiest cases to pass through Family or Surrogate’s Court. She has extensive training in all types of cases involving children and served as a Law Guardian in adoption cases. She is the author of The Adoption Answer Book. She lives in Clarence, NY.

Mary C. Owen, LCSW, is the executive director of American Foundation for Family Attachment, the clinical director of the Wendt Center for Loss and Healing, and the director of “R” Place, a family retreat center offering body-mind-spirit programming for families. She has more than twenty-five years of experience as a mental health counselor, focusing on adoption, children, and the needs of families. She lives in Burke, VA.

From the Dust Jacket: Here is the information-packed guide for the fan who wants to know all there is to know about Rosie O’Donnell and The Rosie O’Donnell Show.

From the tragic loss of her mother at age ten to discovering the joys of motherhood with her own adopted children, Rosie O’Donnell’s is a story of well-earned success. This unabashed celebrity-watcher has become one of today’s most loved celebrities herself. And now, as “the Queen of Nice,” she has revitalized the TV talk show. Rosie O’Donnell provides a positive role model for women throughout the country.

In Everything Rosie you’ll find dozens of biographical facts, plus commentary and excerpts from her stand-up act, a chronicle of her many film and television performances (from hosting VHI to her short-lived stint on TV’s Gimme a Break to her standout performance in the feature film A League of Their Own, and much more), and reprinted text from the interviews she has given to the press and online over the years. There is an annotated episode guide for The Rosie O’Donnell Show—from the first “test shows” to the present—which includes the guests who appeared, what occurred on the show, and snippets of amusing dialogue exchanged by Rosie and her guests, not to mention bits of Rosie’s funny song parodies. You’ll also discover how to reach Rosie online, how to join her fan club, and learn about Rosie’s obsessions—from Barbra Streisand and Tom Cruise to Koosh Balls and Ring Dings. Learn more about John McDaniel and the rest of the Rosie Show band, emcee Joey Kola, hairstylist David Evangelista, and other notable staff members. Everything Rosie even tells you how to see the show in person.

Illustrated with photographs throughout—and a color insert—Everything Rosie documents the life of this driven, one-of-a-kind comic who has won the hearts of so many, and the popular daytime talk show that she has created.

If you consider yourself a Rosie fan, you need this ultimate companion guide to her life and career!

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About the Author: Patrick Spreng is a corporate senior computer analyst by day and a successful Webmaster by night. He has turned his passion for online research and Rosie O’Donnell into his own Acme Rosie Page web site, which led to this, his first book. Spreng has also produced web pages on the Los Angeles Dodgers, Dolly Parton, Joe Bob Briggs, Karen Allen, and Whoopi Goldberg. He lives in Tulsa, Oklahoma.

From the Back Cover: Adoption has changed enormously in recent years. New ways are being tried of matching children and adopters, and many children are now enjoying a stable home life with adults who had almost lost hope of adopting.

Maggie Jones gives you all the information you need if you are thinking of adopting—what to expect from the selection procedures, how to explain to your child about being adopted, where to apply and how to respond to your child’s special needs. There are sections on adopting a physically or mentally handicapped child, on “mixed race” adoption and on finding a child abroad, and the experiences of families who have adopted give an insight into the problems and the rewards of bringing up a child who is not yours by birth.

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About the Author: Maggie Jones is a freelance journalist. In 1975 she graduated from Exeter University with a BSc in Biological Sciences. She then worked for five years at the Family Planning Association in their Press and Publications Department, where she wrote reports and edited the quarterly journal Family Planning Today. She is the author of Trying to have a Baby? (Sheldon Press) and has also written articles which have appeared in such newspapers and magazines as the Guardian, World Health and the Sunday Times. She has edited a series of practical guides for the National Council for Voluntary Organizations. She is married and lives in London.

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By the Same Author: Trying to have a Baby? (1984).

Attention: After Reading This, Don’t Blame Us If Your Wife Comes Up To You And Suggests Another Adoption...! Always Wanted To Adopt A Kid, But Super-Confused About The Entire Process And Don’t Know Where To Start? Fret Not! Discover How To Sail Through The Entire Adoption Process And Find Out How It Really Works! At Last! You Have The Ultimate Guide To Make Your Adoption An Event That You Would Not Regret! Don’t Waste Your Time And Money Trying To Muddle Through The Adoption Process... Instead, Walk In Completely Prepared And Be In Control Of The Entire Situation! Childless couples no longer need to despair about all the legalities that adoption entails. The 99-page book, Everything You Need to Know to Adopt a Child, explains all the adoption laws in a simple, well-organized manner. Several valuable tips on how to adopt a child either in your own home country or from a foreign land form the contents of this book, which is written just to help you bring home your new child.

From the Dust Jacket: In Fifty Acres and a Poodle, Jeanne Marie Laskas described how she survived her first hilariously tumultuous year at Sweetwater Farm. Now she returns with a funny, touching, and personal new memoir of what happens after your dream comes true.

With a picture-postcard farm, a wonderful marriage, two mules, and a new refrigerator that spits crushed ice, what more can a girl ask for? That’s precisely the question Jeanne Marie asks herself as she and Alex settle into their new life at Sweetwater Farm. Two years ago they left the city behind for a life filled with the practical, often comical, lessons of living close to the land—and they never looked back.

Yet when her strong-willed mom is hospitalized with a sudden and mysterious paralysis, Jeanne Marie rushes home to Philadelphia and her extended, sometimes chaotic, but always loving family. It’s there that she realizes what is still missing from her life: a family of her own. Now it’s a matter of bringing up the subject to her husband, Alex, fifteen years older and with adult children of his own, who seems terrified that she’s thinking of adopting a Chihuahua.

With warmth, wisdom, and unfailing humor, Laskas tells the poignant story of her search for motherhood—and what happens when a woman risks happily-ever-after for something even more precious. As she tends to her own ailing mother, Jeanne Marie discovers that the challenges and rewards of living with Mother Nature pale in comparison to those awakened by the nature of mothering.

The Exact Same Moon is filled with hilarious and heartwarming vignettes of people and a way of life you’ll be glad you met. From “borrowing” sheep to help mow the lawn and sitting in on the racy hay jokes at the Agway Equine Clinic, to befriending the notorious old lady who holds the water rights to their future pond, corrupting the neighbors with satellite TV, and learning the fine art of going a-calling, Laskas proves once again that laughter, love, and wisdom are truly homegrown.

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About the Author: Jeanne Marie Laskas is a columnist for The Washington Post Magazine, where her “Significant Others” essays appear weekly, and a contributing editor at Esquire. She is also an assistant professor at the University of Pittsburgh, where she teaches creative writing. When she’s not working on her next book, she, Alex, and their two daughters tend the goats, sheep, horses, mules, and other animals at Sweetwater Farm in Scenery Hill, Pennsylvania.

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By the Same Author: Growing Girls: The Mother of All Adventures (2006), among others.

From the Dust Jacket: In 1958, faced with the inability to bear children, Marion and John Wolff return to Germany in search of a child to adopt.

As the Wolffs travel from town to town visiting orphanages, they encountered bureaucratic hurdles, children’s homes that vary greatly in their philosophies of child rearing, and Germans who labeled them “foreigners.” They detect no trace of Jewish life in places where Jewish culture had flourished for centuries.

They find however, four officials who see in the Jewish couple’s quest an opportunity to make amends for the past. Through dramatic coincidences they find Rebecca, the little girl they take home to the United States as their own.

The Expanding Circle is based on diaries and careful historical research. A list of sources, several photographs, and an epilogue are included. A clear, understated style masks the emotional, suspenseful story. The Expanding Circle is suitable for teenage readers and anyone interested in adoption and Judaica.

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About the Author: Marion Freyer Wolff was born in Berlin, Germany, and came to the United States in December 1939. She is a retired mathematics teacher. Her first book, The Shrinking Circle: Memories of Nazi Berlin 1933-1939, was published in 1989 by UAHC Press. Her essay, “You Always Come Too Late and Leave Too Early,” is included in the collection Dutiful Daughters, published in 1999 by Seal Press. She lives with her husband in Bethesda, Maryland.

Expect A Miracle reveals the frailties and strengths buffeted by disappointment after disappointment during one couple’s lengthy and formidable efforts to become parents. As the author and her husband began their journey into the world of infertility they had no idea as to what degree their love for each other would be tested. It portrays the most emotional, stressful and out of control time in their lives. The author expresses her most intimate and deepest thoughts as she and her husband struggle to survive their greatest tragedy. It uncovers the differences between individuals as each attempt to understand why bad things happen to good people. It provides comfort and support to those inflicted by the death of a child. Eventually it details the author’s experience with the adoption process and finally at long last reveals the rainbow breaking through the clouds when they brought home from another continent and into their lives a bright eyed smiling miracle. (A portion of the proceeds from the sale of this book will be donated to Lawrence & Memorial Hospital’s Pregnancy and Infant Loss Support Group. Lawrence & Memorial Hospital is a not-for-profit, general, acute care hospital located in New London, Connecticut.)

From the Publisher: The selfless act of adoption comes replete with the widest possible variety of human experience. There is joy and reward along with trial and challenge. Dennis weaves the lessons of adoptions into a tapestry that parallels the Christian walk. The Apostle Paul alludes to these lessons in his writing to the Romans. This book explores what Paul meant by the “Spirit of adoption” as well as some insight into the healing and potential wholeness that awaits all who have experienced insecurity, uncertainty and brokenness. In these pages you will find a ray of hope for healing the hurts you have received, not only for yourself, but for those you know who have not walked in the victory won for them through Jesus’ sacrifice on the cross.

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About the Author: Dennis Nice lives in McMinnville, OR, with his wife, Margaret, and their two adopted sons. His three married daughters have made him the proud grandfather of nine, two of whom are also adopted. He has pastored at True Vine Christian Fellowship for the past twelve years and Margaret serves as Executive Director of a local adoption agency.

Author Jody Cantrell Dyer’s candor, wit, humor, and soul color each page of The Eye of Adoption. She directly addresses the sorrows of infertility and the demands of adoption while consistently word-weaving a life rope of assurance and optimism for her readers. A middle-aged wife, mother, and teacher, Dyer “tells it like it is” in hopes that waiting adoptive parents, birthparents, adoptees, and those close to them will find kinship through her story.

In this slim volume, the author tries “to present a cogent and credible philosophical justification for the practice of open adoption while also detailing how that philosophy might bloom first in specific rituals and practices whose effectiveness is there for all to see and, second, into a poetic revelation of something both about the grandeur of the human spirit and the healing power of love.”

From the Back Cover: “I just want to know why I was given up. That’s all,” Karen pressed her hands on the table and leaned towards me. “I just want to know why!”

In the summer of 1985, Crook travelled across the country in a van and interviewed forty of you about your feelings and ideas towards adoption.

Written for you, the adopted teenager, The Face in the Mirror examines the ways other adoptees deal with the complex relationships in their lives.

• How you relate to your families

• What you expect from society

• How you see society

• Questions you have about yourselves

Parents, teachers and counsellors will find it a help in communicating about the subject of adoption.

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About the Author: Marion Crook, B SCN, Seattle University, is the mother of four children: two adopted sons, one step-daughter and one natural daughter. She worked for many years as a public health nurse with many community health programs, including maternal, prenatal and school-age health counselling and consulting in British Columbia, before turning to writing fulltime. Recent works include sever acclaimed novels of mystery and suspense for young people, radio drama, magazine articles on entomology and conservation, as well as the second, widely acclaimed book in this series, Teenagers Talk About Suicide.

“I had prejudices and ideas of my own and you swept them away in your explanations, conversations and talking, talking, talking you did about adoption. Sometimes you told me quietly, sometimes emphatically, but you wanted to tell me and through me other teenagers what it was like to be adopted. I became a vehicle of your expression and this book became yours.” — the author

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By the Same Author: Thicker Than Blood: Adoptive Parenting in the Modern World (2016, Arsenal Pulp Press), among others.

We can’t successfully take our children on a path we haven’t traveled. For those that are called to love a child through broken and difficult beginnings, parenting presents unique opportunities for personal growth. When our own childhoods are marked with loss and challenge (as most childhoods are) it is common to find out usual methods of coping under fire. Parenting kids with early loss and attachment difficulties magnifies those areas in us which need deeper exploration. Face the Rain was written to help parents engage in their own healing journey so they may have greater capacity to help their children walk a path of joyful living.