From the Dust Jacket: In Facing the Wind, the New York Times-bestselling author Julie Salamon undertakes a unique and constantly surprising exploration of responsibility and fate—the causes, consequences, and legal and moral implications of one man’s deranged killings of his family.

Robert and Mary Rowe’s second child, Christopher, was born with severe neurological and visual impairments. For many years, the Rowes’ courageous response to adversity set an example for a group of Brooklyn mothers who met to discuss the challenges of raising children with birth defects. The Rowes adopted a third child so that their eldest would not have to bear the burden of Christopher alone later on; they made a tape to assist other parents facing similar challenges; they spoke bluntly and freely about things that most of the mothers couldn’t, like their anger and feelings of guilt. Then Bob Rowe’s pressures—professional and personal—took their toll, and he fell into depression and, ultimately, delusion. And one day he took a baseball bat and killed his three children and his wife.

Savage and horrifying as this act was, Facing the Wind stands at the opposite literary pole from tabloid sensationalism. In an eloquent and emotionally astute voice—and after years of intense research, hundreds of hours of interviews, and personally witnessing events crucial to understanding what happened to the Rowes—Julie Salamon not only tells their tragic story with intelligence and drama but explores the lives of others drawn into it: the mothers’ group, a social worker with problems of her own, an ocularist (a maker of prosthetic eyes), the young woman who became Bob Rowe’s second wife, and a judge of unusual wisdom.

Facing the Wind is a work of redemptive insight and compassion. It addresses the questions of how human beings cope with the burdens that chance inflicts upon them, and what guilt and innocence consist of. Does Bob Rowe’s attempted suicide after he kills his family testify to his madness, or does the failure of that attempt indicate sanity? Should a man whose past is so shadowed by an atrocity be readmitted to the legal profession? Such issues are fascinating and compelling in their own right, especially when addressed in such a brilliant, natural style. But, like all distinguished literary journalism, Julie Salamon’s account of these extreme events and their resolution goes beyond the “story”: It asks us to join its issues, and to look at our own lives and our own problems in the new, bright light that good writing always sheds.

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About the Author: Julie Salamon’s previous books include The Devil’s Candy (a national bestseller), The Net of Dreams, and The Christmas Tree—a New York Times bestseller. Formerly a reporter and movie reviewer for The Wall Street Journal, she is now a television critic for The New York Times. Her writing has also appeared in The New Yorker, Vogue, and The New Republic. She lives in New York City with her husband and their two children.

From the Back Cover: Since Facebook was launched four years ago, it has given people a means to make and sustain relationships in a way previously unheard of. Little wonder then, that Facebook is making an impact on adoptive family life. What was once largely managed by adoptıon agencies—the exchange of confidential and identifying information—is now possible through the vast database that is the internet.

Young people are searching for birth family members on Facebook without realising the complexity of what might happen and where this could lead. Birth relatives, too, are tracing and approaching children. Sometimes this happens in secret. Many adoptive families have found such situations difficult to manage. For birth parents too, an unexpected approach from a child they have not seen for years can also present dilemmas.

Facing up to Facebook: A Survival Guide for Adoptive Families examines the challenges faced by all parties involved in contact after adoption and looks at how adoptive parents can help children satisfy their curiosity and their need to know while minimising potential risks to their security and stabilıty. It looks at the pressing questions facing adoptive parents and practitioners. What do adoptive families, adopted children and birth families need to know about adoption in the Facebook age? How can they be equipped for new challenges? What do adoptive parents need to learn about protecting privacy and security in the best Interests of their children? How can they manage the complex situatıons that arise from unauthorised and unmediated contact? What help and support are available?

This guide provides a wealth of information, raises important questions, and offers valuable advice. Case studies and quotations enable readers to share others’ experiences and reveal the potential and significant risks that some people have experienced and how they have managed these. It also demystifies the technology behind social networking sites and provides a practical explanation of how they work. Essential reading for all those affected by the new reality of adoption in the age of social networking.

From one of America’s most insightful and independent-minded critics comes a remarkable new collection of essays, her first in more than fifteen years. Daphne Merkin brings her signature combination of wit, candor, and penetrating intelligence to a wide array of subjects that touch on every aspect of contemporary culture, from the high calling of the literary life to the poignant underside of celebrity to our collective fixation on fame. “Sometimes it seems to me that the private life no longer suffices for many of us,” she writes, “that if we are not observed by others doing glamorous things, we might as well not exist.” Merkin’s elegant, widely admired profiles go beneath the glossy façades of neon-lit personalities to consider their vulnerabilities and demons, as well as their enduring hold on us. As her title essay explains, she writes in order “to save myself through saving wounded icons ... Famous people ... who required my intervention on their behalf because only I understood the desolation that drove them.” Here one will encounter a gallery of complex, unforgettable women—Marilyn Monroe, Courtney Love, Diane Keaton, and Cate Blanchett, among others—as well as such intriguing male figures as Michael Jackson, Mike Tyson, Truman Capote, and Richard Burton. Merkin reflects with empathy and discernment on what makes them run—and what makes them stumble. Drawing upon her many years as a book critic, Merkin also offers reflections on writers as varied as Jean Rhys, W. G. Sebald, John Updike, and Alice Munro. She considers the vexed legacy of feminism after Betty Friedan, Bruno Bettelheim’s tarnished reputation as a healer, and the re-envisioning of Freud by the elusive Adam Phillips. Most of all, though, Merkin is a writer who is not afraid to implicate herself as a participant in our consumerist and overstimulated culture. Whether ruminating upon the subtext of lip gloss, detailing the vicissitudes of a pre-Yom Kippur pedicure, or arguing against our obsession with household pets, Merkin helps makes sense of our collective impulses. From a brazenly honest and deeply empathic observer, The Fame Lunches shines a light on truths we often prefer to keep veiled—and in doing so opens up the conversation for all of us. Compiler’s Note: See, particularly, “Sleeping Alone (Diane Keaton) (2005),” pp. 266-279.

Statistics show that over two million couples will experience some type of infertility issue when they try to become pregnant. However, when you are one of those two million, you feel completely alone and believe that no one can truly understand what you are going through. This honest and revealing book documents one couple’s long and arduous journey to become parents from the eyes of the author. The longer this process took, the more emotional and difficult things became, and the more the author relied on this journal to sort out all the emotions she was having. She never expected that this journal would last for years, hundreds of hormone shots and pills, blood draws, surgical procedures, terrorist attacks, international flights and the most emotional and financial roller coaster that she had ever been on. But she and her husband were desperate to become parents, to have their own child to love, to hug, to experience life with. By sharing their experience, this book offers insight into the emotional, physical and sociological effects infertility has on a couple’s relationship, their families, friends and themselves as individuals. It also provides in-depth detail of popular infertility treatments, domestic and international adoption processes.

From the Publisher: Then he said, “I think I am really lucky.”

“That’s good, William,” said Evie. “Why do you think that?”

He scooped up the remains of his dinner, put it into his mouth by himself, and began chewing, taking his time; keeping us in suspense.

Would he tell us that he was lucky because he had nice parents, maybe? Or because he had such lovely brothers and a sister?Or because he was part of a happy family?

The answer, when it came at last, didn’t feature any of these things. “I’m lucky because I’m so cool.”

The Family Business is the true story of the adoption of William, a little boy with cerebral palsy, by a middle-aged couple with three birth children. It tells of the journey William and the other members of the family made to get to the point where they felt they were a whole family. The story describes the doubts of the parents in the early days, the confused feelings of William, and some of the frustrations and humorous adventures the family has had in the “disability world.” It is a positive, upbeat account of the growth of love and the cementing of family bonds.

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About the Author: Robert Marsden was born in Newcastle on Tyne and brought up in Cumbria. He trained as a social worker more years ago than he cares to remember, and has spent most of his life working with children. He has had a number of short works of fiction published by Polygon, Fish Publishing, New Writing Scotland and others.

This book recounts the story of Paul and Ruby Field and how they set up The Children’s Family Trust in England. Without resources, the couple fought authority to rebuild a family of misfits, Britains unwanted problem children, to each of whom he gave his name.

This book is developed with the objective of promoting the concept of adoption in India. There are 12.4 million destitute children in India and yet only about 3,000 legal adoptions happen in a year! There are certainly many reasons for this startling fact...but is this justified? Can we as parents, as people who are mobilizing ourselves to become a super, liberalized economy really afford to close our minds to this picture? Adoption in India is mired by red tape, poor social acceptance, illegal practices and many misconceptions about the process itself. These issues and many other questions is what the book covers—right from the causes behind this dismal scenario to actual case stories of adoption and various organisations involved in this cause. This book presents a picture of the still-not-so-used word “adoption” in India. The book caters to: 1) social and child welfare workers and interested individuals; 2) the many interested but unsure couples/aspiring parents who want a baby, but are not aware of the process/implications/issues involved; 3) parents who have already adopted and are seeking some answers; 4) adoptees themselves. Adoption is one of the best forms of rehabilitating a destitute child. It is the most complete form of rehabilitation which provides a highly satisfactory solution to those seeking the experience of bringing up a child and for the child itself. Adoption is an option to many people who are unable to have a child due to medical/infertility/other problems as well as those who may not want to have biological child out of choice. The cherished hope is that many more people are made aware and are able to contribute in some way towards this very fulfilling cause. It’s a social awareness book. The articles are compiled by Catalysts for Social Action (CSA), who is producing this book. Articles are written by experts in the field, by celebrities and parents who have adopted and also by adopted children who are now adults. To find out more about CSA, please log onto www.csa.org.in. The book consists of 28 articles across five sections: 1) The first section is about the joy of adoption—first-hand accounts and interviews from adoptive parents and celebrities about their experience with adoption. Articles cover experiences around their process of assimilation, societal assimilation experiences, single parents’ experiences, parents who have brought up a biological child and have also adopted, etc. 2) This section covers the current adoption scenario in India—facts and figures, laws, organizations involved, corporate viewpoints, NGO view points and the process of adoption. 3) The third section consists of articles on adoptive parenting—the various stages of development, addressing adoption related issues, support groups, telling the child about adoption, adoption of a special needs child, the appropriate adoption language, etc. is comprehensively explained through personal and expert writings. 4) The fourth section explores the concept of closure which most adopted children seek and their deep desire to understand why they were relinquished. 5) The final section provides a comprehensive list of adoption agencies in the country. The book will carry photographs of children from various orphanages in India and also some adoptive parents. The photographs will be in black and white. The jacket will be in color with spot lamination. The book is in standard paperback size. Our objective is to give two messages—first that adoption is a life altering, win-win option that is very worth-while for both the child and parents. Second, since this is the case, why is the adoption rate so low and what can we do about it? We would like this message to go to as wide an audience as possible.

Foster caring is as challenging as it is rewarding. There is a school of thought that if one is interested in fostering, then one can become a foster carer. Considering the many problems that surface on a day-to-day basis in a given fostering environment, it takes much more that interest in fostering to make fostering work. Family Matters frankly discusses what fostering entails and clearly demonstrates how Mohammed and Sharon Lahrichi have had a reasonable degree of success in their fostering work. It documents cases that tell how foster children as well as biological children interpret their lived experiences as children of the same household. It is a book that foster carers, social workers and all those who involve in care work should read. In fact, it will make an interesting read for all members of any given family. Family Matters also advances the idea that fostering is a work of love, which should be taken seriously, but which also should be celebrated in spite of the range of emotions that foster caring is capable of evoking.

Helen Doss’s beloved memoir is the remarkable and inspiring true story of a couple who adopted twelve children, ten of them considered “unadoptable” because of mixed racial parentage. Doss’s charming, touching, and at times hilarious chronicle tells how each of the children, representing white, Chinese, Japanese, Filipino, Korean, Mexican, and Native American backgrounds, came to her and husband Carl, a Methodist minister. She writes of the way the “unwanted” feeling was erased with devoted love and understanding and how the children united into one happy family. Her account reads like a novel, with scenes of hard times and triumphs described in vivid prose. The Family Nobody Wanted, which inspired two films, opened doors for other adoptive families and was a popular favorite among parents, young adults, and children for more than thirty years. A recently republished edition by Northeastern University Press (2001), with an epilogue by Helen Doss that updates the family’s progress since 1954, will delight the book’s loyal legion of fans around the world.

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About the Author: Helen Doss has been a writer and an internationally known advocate for adoptive families for more than fifty years. She has published numerous articles in such national periodicals as American Girl and Reader’s Digest, and is the author of thirteen books, including All the Children of the World and Really Real Family and the coauthor (with Carl Doss) of If You Adopt a Child. She lives with her husband Roger Reed in Yuba City, California. Mary Battenfeld, who wrote an Introduction to the new edition, is Associate Professor of Humanities at Wheelock College. She is the author of several articles on teaching and multicultural literature, and the mother of two children adopted from India. She lives in the Boston area.

Having been partners for many years, Paul Hampsch and his life partner, Domenic, made the decision together to adopt. But finding an adoption agency that would even consider allowing a single gay man and his partner to adopt was quite a challenge. With the support of friends and family, Paul was surrounded by blessings and felt sure he would eventually be able to adopt. As time passed, Paul navigated a range of challenges, some of which tested his level of resolve in one way or another, but he was finally able to adopt and return to America with his children. His story is enclosed in these pages, and he tells his readers, “The bittersweet joy of parenting continues to make my soul complete...Each bend in the road leads to a new horizon.” About the Author: Paul Hampsch lives in Arizona with his two sons, Paul Jr. and Andrew. He currently volunteers at a local hospital emergency room, plays guitar, and loves to cook. Mr. Hampsch has also published trade manuals and training materials and is also the author of Marketing Is Relationship Building (1985).

From the Back Cover: YOU CAN PUT THE PIECES TOGETHER.

We’re all familiar with Cinderella, her wicked stepmother, and cruel stepsisters. Luckily for her, everything worked out in the end. But fairy-tale endings are never guaranteed when two families become one.

The Family Puzzle helps parents of blended families avoid the common pitfalls in the blending process and recognize the unique benefits of their new situation. You’ll learn the ins and outs of step-parenting: how to deal with ex-spouses, assorted relatives, and friends; and ways to make the transition as smooth as possible for all the children involved.

Practical and insightful, The Family Puzzle will give parents of blended families the help they need to turn their two families into one.

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About the Author: Nancy S. Palmer, a board certified marital and family lawyer and past chair of the family lawyers in Florida, left a successful law practice to mediate and help others parent after divorce. She trains mediators around the country and currently serves as co-chair of the Alternative Dispute Resolution Committee of the Family Law Section of the American Bar Association. Nancy is the coauthor of When Your Ex Won’t Pay: Getting Your Kids the Financial Support They Deserve (Piñon Press, 1995).

William D. Palmer is a certified civil and family mediator who practices in the areas of litigation, family law, and appeals. He has been an attorney with the Orlando office of Carlton, Fields, Ward, Emmanuel, Smith & Cutler, P.A. since 1976. Bill and Nancy parent a blended family of five children: Brent, Nicholas, Michelle, Carley, and Joanna.

Kay Marshall Strom has written thirteen books and contributed to many others. She is president of Santa Barbara Literary Service, an editing and critiquing service for writers. When she isn’t writing, Kay teaches writing classes and speaks at seminars and special events throughout the country. She and her husband, Larry, are the parents of two young adults.

Joey was ten years old when he walked up the path to the home of his new family. With him he brought three snakes and ten years of memories about the home and friends he had left 3,000 miles away. Time would prove to the loving family who tried to make a new life for this orphan boy that easing the pain of hose memories would take years of patient understanding.

Picture pack for use with 6- to 11-year-olds. Designed to help children talk about family life and understand the implications of a new brother or sister joining their family. Includes guidelines for parents.

From the Back Cover: When Phyllis Burke’s lesbian partner bore a child by donor insemination, it seemed natural for Phyllis to adopt him: baby Jesse, after all, was calling her Mama. But as Burke began adoption proceedings, she discovered that, even in liberated San Francisco, there were forces that would deny lesbians the legal right to be mothers.

Now Burke tells the deeply moving story of her entry into motherhood and, with it, the story of her growing politicization. Here, alongside accounts of shopping for Pampers and improvising costumes for a nursery-school Halloween party, are bulletins from a struggle that pits outrageous acts of civil disobedience against gay-bashing and homophobic films like Basic Instinct. Witty, eloquent, and vastly inspiring, Family Values celebrates the everyday courage of gay people while reminding us that love is always an active verb.

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About the Author: Phyllis Burke’s Family Values was the recipient of the 1994 American Library Association’s Gay and Lesbian Book Award for Nonfiction, as well as the 1993 PEN Oakland Josephine Miles Award, and was nominated for a 1993 Lambda Literary Award. Ms. Burke is also the author of the novel Atomic Candy. She lives in San Francisco with Cheryl and Jesse.

From the Back Cover: Fantastic Antone Grows Up is a field guide to life with an adolescent or young adult with fetal alcohol syndrome/effects. Under the best of circumstances, adolescence is a trying time for young people and their families. The budding adult seeks independence and autonomy while the resistant child within longs for protection and structure; questions about sexuality and work, social commitments, and solitary accomplishments loom large and can create a family battlefield. For the challenged and challenging young people with FAS/E, the circumstances as they begin maturing are never the best.

In this sequel to Fantastic Antone Succeeds, young people with FAS/E and their caregivers report on their experiences coping with the problems of adolescence and young adulthood. Again the editors and authors have concentrated on the wisdom of practice, as they candidly convey which techniques worked and which did not during the difficult passages of the teenage years and beyond.

The twenty-one chapters are grouped according to theme. Section one discusses the meaning of success for adolescents and adults with FAS/E—the need to define success in new ways. Cindy Gere found her path to success, for example, through creative expression. She graduated from college with a degree in fine arts and successfully completed a program in art. Many of her paintings, including the one illustrating the cover of this book, provide a poignant and candid expression of what FAS/E means to her. Section two discusses strategies that work in areas such as counseling, education, sexuality, trouble with the law, and independent living. Section three covers what families need from the community, including innovative programs that help individuals with FAS/E, and how to get a diagnosis at adolescence. The book also contains important resources, organizations to contact, and Internet addresses.

More has been learned about how alcohol poisoning in the womb alters brain function and physical development since the release of Fantastic Antone Succeeds, but science is far from providing the answers that affected young people and their caregivers need. Until such answers are forthcoming, nothing can replace the voices of experience with their practical messages of coping, caring, loving, weeping, laughing, and—more often than might be expected—succeeding.

From the Dust Jacket: This book began with the First International Conference on Educating Children with Fetal Alcohol Syndrome, held on the University of Alaska Fairbanks campus in spring 1991. Dr. Judith Kleinfeld brought together experienced teachers, professionals and parents to explore the issue: How do we educate the alcohol-affected children whose numbers appear to be increasing in the schools, especially schools in remote northern communities with high levels of alcoholism? What can parents do in the home and what can educators do through the schools?

Conference participants presented their personal and professional experiences working with alcohol-affected children. Contrary to stereotypes of hopeless brain damage, delinquency, and victimization, many of the children were thriving and succeeding. A remarkable outcome of the conference was the discovery that teachers, parents, therapists and researchers from all over the world have independently devised very similar educational techniques that enabled these children to progress far beyond what had been thought possible.

Several themes emerged from the conference:

The negative stereotypes of alcohol-affected children are highly misleading.

Early intervention and excellent family care make an enormous difference to the success and happiness of children with FAS/FAE.

We can identify specific educational strategies that help alcohol-affected children learn in the classroom and the home.

The chapters in Fantastic Antone Succeeds! expand on these themes and provide what educators call the wisdom of practice—the lessons and inventions of experience. The experiences are presented in the form of narratives—stories of people’s lives—rather than sterile lists of educational techniques. These stories emphasize that alcohol-affected children are not all alike. What works for one family and one child may not work for another. Educational strategies must be adapted to different families and to different cultural contexts. But inventive and loving parents and teachers are figuring out what to do and finding that much can be done.

Without minimizing the seriousness of FAS/FAE and the first priority—prevention—this book provides practical educational tools and strategies that can help alcohol affected individuals and their families lead happier, more productive lives.

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About the Author: Judith Kleinfeld is a professor of psychology at the University of Alaska Fairbanks. She developed and now directs the UAF Northern Studies Program, an interdisciplinary masters program for students interested in the circumpolar north. In 1987 she created and became the first director of the Teachers for Rural Alaska Program, an innovative teacher education program using the case method to prepare excellent teachers for village schools. Since 1969 she has done research on educational and northern policy issues. Her findings have been published in numerous professional journals and in a biweekly column in Alaska’s major newspapers as well as many outside the state. In recognition of her work, she received in 1993 the UAF Emil Usibelli Distinguished Research Award. Dr. Kleinfeld earned her Ed.M. in 1967 and Ed.D. in 1970 from the Harvard Graduate School of Education.

Siobhan Wescott is currently working towards a Masters in Public Health with an emphasis on behavioral sciences and health education. She first became interested in fetal alcohol syndrome while a legislative assistant for Senator Tom Daschle of South Dakota. Ms. Wescott published several articles on various aspects of FAS FAE in Winds of Change, a Native American magazine. She is a member of the board of directors of the National Organization on Fetal Alcohol Syndrome. After completing the requirements for her degree, Ms. Wescott plans to pursue her interest in finding creative solutions for educating women about the effects on children of alcohol consumption during pregnancy and on caring for children who are alcohol-affected.

From the Back Cover: Over the past three decades, more than a quarter of a million children have become citizens of the United States through international adoption. Kindergarten teacher Jane Katch recently found herself with three such children in her class: Katya, born in Russia, Jasper, from Cambodia, and Caleb, from Romania. Each child had spent early years in an orphanage, and each had unique educational and emotional needs. How Katch came to recognize and respond to those needs makes up the journey of discovery in this moving and insightful book.

Interspersing vignettes from the classroom and conversations with the children’s parents, Far Away from the Tigers first explores Katch’s misunderstandings and mistakes as she struggles to help the children adjust to school. As Katch learns more about each child’s preadoption past, she gradually realizes that they were deprived of some basic learning experiences and she needs to find ways to fill those gaps. Before Caleb can learn to read or write, he must improve his verbal skills by learning nursery rhymes, stories, and songs. Katya, who came from an overcrowded orphanage, now needs to be the center of attention; before learning how to form real friendships, she first must gain control over more basic functions such as eating and sleeping. And the youngest, Jasper, needs steady encouragement to play with classmates instead of sitting alone practicing his handwriting.

Slowly, through trial and error and by drawing on the deep understanding and intense commitment of the children’s parents, Katch discovers the importance—and joy—of allowing each child time to develop in his or her own way. Beautifully told, wise, and candid, Far Away from the Tigers is a gift for parents, teachers, and anyone who cares for children growing up in a new home.

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About the Author: Jane Katch teaches at the Touchstone Community School in Massachusetts. She is the author of They Don’t Like Me: Lessons on Bullying and Teasing from a Preschool Classroom and Under Deadman’s Skin: Discovering the Meaning of Children’s Violent Play.

Most couples in the U.S. have to wait up to seven years to adopt an infant domestically—and all the expense and waiting doesn’t always result in a successful adoption. Now, rather than relying on slow-paced and expensive adoption agencies, many couples are choosing to privately adopt a child. By eliminating the adoption agency, couples can customize and control their own adoption plans.

Inside this book, couples will learn how becoming proactive in the adoption process may significantly speed up the adoption. Following the Fast Track method, readers will learn how to:

• Establish a budget

• Assemble a professional team

• Obtain an approved home study

• Prepare an effective family profile

• Advertise for and talk to potential birth mothers

• Detect warning signs for frauds and scams

• Be prepared at the hospital

With this book as their guide, potential parents can actively pick their own birth mother. By doing so, couples will save time and money, reduce stress, and, most importantly, find a baby to adopt.

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About the Author: Susan Burns, Psy.D., is a licensed psychologist with over seventeen years of experience helping children and families. Using the Fast Track method, Burns and her husband, Scott, adopted their first baby in October 1997 and their second baby in April 2001. She currently lives with her family in Hawaii.

Fasten Your Sweet Belt is a must-read for any adoptive parent. Using personal stories, firsthand accounts from adoptive children and refreshing humor, the author and her 15-year-old adopted daughter dispense insightful wisdom on the do’s and don’ts of the journey of building a family through older child adoption.

From the Dust Jacket: Given our history, this father and this son might well have gone completely separate ways ... And only in becoming a father did I even begin to understand what it meant, what it was, what would be required of me, and who I was/am within that identity, father.

Pastor, author, and father Walter Wangerin Jr., along with his adopted son, Matthew, tell the story of their own lifelong relationship and how they survived times when brokenness and bitterness seemed inevitable. It is the story of Matthew’s desperate search for independence and his father’s own search for authentic fatherhood.

This is a book of deep emotion and serious meditation about broken lives and redemption. Father and Son weaves together each writer’s personal story and shows:

• how earthly fathers and sons are shaped by a Creator’s relationship with his creation

• how within the human experience of parenting we discover insights into the spiritual nature of home, family, and eternity itself.

As in As for Me and My House, Mourning into Dancing, and Little Lamb, Who Made Thee?, Walter Wangerin Jr. develops a series of insights about family, which readers can apply to their own lives. And these insights gain added resonance from the words of Matthew Aaron Wangerin.

Together, father and son have written a book that must be experienced as well as read. It’s a book parents will want to bring their lives to, not just their attention. Father and Son is the story of all of us, for we are all wayward children in need of a loving, patient father.

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About the Author: Walter Wangerin, Jr. is widely recognized as one of the most gifted writers writing today on the issues of faith and spirituality. Starting with the renowned Book of the Dun Cow, Wangerin’s writing career has encompassed most every genre: fiction, essay, short story, children’s story, meditation, and biblical exposition. His writing voice is immediately recognizable, and his fans number in the hundreds of thousands. The author of over forty books, Wangerin has won the National Book Award, New York Times Best Children’s Book of the Year Award, and several Gold Medallions, including best-fiction awards for both The Book of God and Paul: A Novel. He lives in Valparaiso, IN, where he is writer-in-residence at Valparaiso University and holds the Jochum Chair.

Matthew Wangerin played both high school and college basketball, serving as team captain at both levels. He enjoys public speaking and has dedicated himself to encouraging others to avoid life’s pitfalls. He lives in Atlanta, GA, where he manages a restaurant. Father and Son is his first book.

This book isn’t just for fathers, but it isn’t for everyone. It might be for you if you’ve ever changed jobs, moved out of one home into another, or had to explain the dead fish to a three-year-old. It might be for you if you are still enough of a child to ride the roller coasters, go sledding in the winter, or toss food up the air so you can (try to) catch it on the way down. If you go to weddings, if you dread the day your dog may be put down, or losing loved ones, you might want to read this. If you are older than fourth grade and know the real truth about Santa Claus, read this. If you’re not sure, have someone else read it and decide for you.

From the Back Cover: Think of the remarkable progress made in the child care field. Science has become aware of the basic needs of children after birth and even now is beginning to look at and examine what happens before birth.

For the many fathers (and mothers too) who want their children to develop healthy and grow into a sound maturity, we have tried to deal with those things which shed light on the parental role in a constructive and enlightening manner. There are those who want to return to the “old fashioned ways.”

There are those who want “present day thinking.” We have tried to combine the most interesting modern concepts with time-honored precepts so that father can better do his part in creating a reasonably cheerful home life.

—O. Spurgeon English, M.D.
Professor and Head, Dept. of Psychiatry
Temple University Medical Center

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About the Author: Dr. O. Spurgeon English is professor of psychiatry at Temple University in Philadelphia.

Mrs. Constance J. Foster has been a free-lance writer since 1927 and her articles have appeared in Parents’ Magazine, Good Housekeeping, Ladies’ Home Journal, etc.

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Compiler’s Note: See, particularly, Chapter 14: Father By Adoption (pp. 228-242).

When Sariah Fletcher and her husband discovered they would not be able to have biological children of their own, their dream of having a family of their own was shattered. What followed was a dark and painful time in their lives where they pursued one option after another to no avail. Finally, when they had hit rock bottom, they stumbled upon a solution. Many children in the foster care system are waiting for people to open up their hearts and homes. Often these children need permanent placement, because their biological home is not a safe environment. Sariah and her husband, with the support of family and friends, soon began their journey towards adoption. Fearless Motherhood: The Road to Adoption was born from the sincere desire to help bring families together. Chronicling their own experience, Sariah peals back the myths that surround the foster care system and walks the reader through the process of adoption. The biggest challenge for many couples is putting aside preconceived ideas about these children. Fear and self-doubt are the first obstacles to tackle. In the end this is a triumphant tale of faith, hope and the healing power of love. By sharing the emotional roller-coaster and small triumphs that were part of their journey, this book offers hope to others in similar situations. DNA and biology are not reasons to put aside the desire to start a family of your own. Fearless Motherhood has a clear message to anyone who reads it: having a family is an achievable dream. Family is a choice. If you want it, you can have it.

Reviewed in Psychosomatic Medicine (Journal of the American Psychosomatic Society), May-June 1953 (Vol. XV, No. 3): This is a good book for the layman. The important facts are well organized, if in somewhat wordy fashion. Some of the exposition is too complex for the lay reader. The general tone is possibly too optimistic, and the impression on the reader may be that more can be dome for the sterile patient than is actually the fact. On the whole it is a useful book for the gynecologist to give to his patients, after first instructing them, thus giving the book sharper emphasis. — Benjamin Bacon

This heartfelt memoir is the story of two orphans who met and married, then completed their family by adopting three children. It is the story of my family. Woven into the story of my family is a rich and detailed history of Appalachia in northeast Tennessee (including Johnson City, Jonesborough, Erwin, Flag Pond, Limestone, and Telford, among others) and North Carolina (including Alamance County, Wake County, Durham County, Randolph County, Henderson County, and Duplin County) throughout the 20th century. This is a story of lessons Daddy and Mama passed on to us kids about handling and overcoming adversity, of unconditional love, of unwavering commitment, of continual resilience, and of always keeping promises. And this is a story of the heart-breaking, yet compassionate last journey Mama and I traveled together in this life until her death in August 2012 through vascular dementia, Lewy Body dementia, and Alzheimer’s Disease. Along the way, through our lives separately and together as family, we had some disappointments and tears, but we also had a lot of fun and laughter. This book includes all of that and more.

From the Dust Jacket:
In this world you are an orphan—

eagerly anticipating your adoption

as God’s child.
In this world you are a widow—

longing for reunion with

your Bridegroom.
In this world you are a stranger—

a pilgrim waiting to become a

citizen of heaven.

And in this world, God has called you to care
for the orphan, the stranger, and the widow.

Fields of the Fatherless is a journey that brings
you back to what Christianity is really about:
Giving yourself to others
Being Christ to a hurting world
And living for the one that comes next.

Think of this little book you’re holding as a map that leads to a field filled with treasure. The treasure is the truth about what brings joy to God’s heart—and can bring great joy to yours, too.

Unfortunately, many Christians today aren’t experiencing the kind of fulfillment and joy they long for in their walk with God. In Fields of the Fatherless, author and inspirational speaker Tom Davis reveals why this is so. “Real joy is not always found in obvious places,” writes Davis. “Instead, it hides in corners, waiting to be discovered when we sacrifice our desires for God’s desires.”

With compassion and insight, Davis shows you how to reach out to a special group of people who are most in need—and who the Bible reveals are most on God’s heart. Starting now, you can know the kind of purpose and joy that comes when you work side by side with God in His favorite fields.

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About the Author: C. Thomas Davis is an international missions consultant and serves as the President of Children’s HopeChest, a missions organization bringing God’s hope to orphans around the world. He served as a pastor for ten years and has a M.A. in Theology from The Criswell College. Tom is also a professional speaking consultant, training speakers in presentation and communication skills. His greatest joy in life is raising his four children, Anya, Hayden, Gideon, and Scotlyn with his wife, Emily, in Colorado Springs, Colorado.

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By the Same Author: Scared (2009, David C. Cook), among others.

From the Back Cover: The guidelines for adoption are so ill-defined, parents are often required to write the book as they go along. Valenti’s book deals with the realities of adoption in a sensitive, probing way. It is a veritable arsenal of adoption information.

—Marjorie Margolies,
NBC-TV News Reporter

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About the Author: Laura L. Valenti, born and raised in St. Louis County, lives in rural southwest Missouri on the grounds of a trout hatchery, where her husband, Warren, is the assistant manager. Throughout her childhood, Ms. Valenti traveled and studied in Mexico. Both of her children, Francesca (age 8) and Ricardo (age 6), were born in FE] Salvador, where she and her husband served in the United States Peace Corps for over three years.

The plight of abandoned children in Central America first moved the Valentis to seriously investigate adoption, both overseas and in the United States. Two years after returning to Missouri, Ms. Valenti traveled to El Salvador alone to bring home 10-month-old Ricardo. The following year, she cofounded an adoptive parent support group in rural Missouri. “We were told it was impossible to keep such an organization going in a rural area. But then some said an American woman couldn’t be an effective Peace Corps volunteer in rural Central America either; and that we’d never get our son out of El Salvador once he was adopted. I’ve never been good at accepting the word ‘impossible.’ More important, however, we’ve proved that people all over the country from the cities, the rural areas, and everywhere in between—are interested in adoption and children in need.”

Ms. Valenti is knowledgeable on both American and foreign adoption and how prospective parents can best prepare themselves for the joys and the frustrations involved. She was a member of the original Governor’s Adoption Task Force founded in 1983 and is now a member of Missouri’s State Advisory Committee on Adoption. She is also a member of NACAC and president of an OURS chapter, in addition to being editor of Ozark Echoes, her state’s largest regularly published adoption newsletter.

Ms. Valenti is a member of the Christian Church, Disciples of Christ. She is the youth coordinator in her local congregation, as well as a junior high Sunday school teacher and an active member of her congregation’s choir.

As the president of an adoptive parent support organization, Ms. Valenti has spent the past several years answering questions of prospective and adoptive parents in person. She has now compiled that information into this, her first book.

There are two main types of adoptions: domestic (adopting a child in the U.S.) and international (adopting a child from another country). There are private adoptions (facilitated through an attorney or adoption agency) or adoption through the State (foster-care system). There are open adoptions, closed adoptions, interracial adoptions, adoptions by a family member or stepparent, even adoptions by an older sibling. For first-time adoptive parents, it can be overwhelming. While all adoptions have certain aspects in common, the steps to adopting internationally can be quite different from domestic adoption. This book is intended to give you an overview of the different paths of domestic adoption, with a special emphasis on adoption through the State, also known as the foster-care system. There are many roads to adoption, and each family’s journey is unique. I hope this book will help to clarify which is the right path for you and your family. Wishing you an amazing journey!

From the Back Cover: Have you thought about adopting, but been stymied by the many questions flooding your mind? Could I love an adopted child as I would one born to me? What if there are emotional problems? Would my family accept my adopted children? These are all real questions and not easy to ask.

In Filling the Quiver: Answering God’s Call to Adopt, author and adoptive father Rodney Peavy holds nothing back as he answers the questions you are afraid to ask in a way that is genuine, practical, and heartwarming. He shares his family’s personal testimony of the many challenges they faced in adopting their children, as well as the many blessings they have received. From there, Peavy takes on the questions he and his wife have been asked since adoption first became a part of their family history. To the Peavys, adoption is more than just a family decision; it is a faith decision. Filling the Quiver approaches the decision to adopt from the perspective that God is—and should be—involved in the process.

This testimony seeks to offer those who have considered adoption a deeper understanding of the impact and spiritual implications of adoption. If you are still wondering about adoption as an option, Peavy can help you discover this answer for yourself, with God's guidance.