From the Back Cover: Adopting a child can be a joyous experience, but it is not without its difficulties and complications. In The Realities of Adoption, social worker and professor Jerome Smith examines the many controversies associated with adoption practice, which has changed dramatically in the past twenty years. Using examples from the hundreds of adoption cases he has worked on, including the famous Baby Jessica case, Smith discusses issues such as openness in adoption, the role of the birth father, transracial adoption, and children’s rights. From adoptive parents and their children to attorneys and social workers, everyone involved in adoption will find this book fascinating reading and a valuable resource.

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About the Author: Jerome Smith is one of the country’s foremost experts in adoption practice. Author of the best-selling You’re Our Child, Smith played a significant role in the Baby Jessica case as the evaluator of the parent-child bond. He is a former professor of social work at the University of Indiana. He lives in Indianapolis.

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By the Same Author: You’re Our Child: A Social-Psychological Approach to Adoption (with Franklin I Miroff; 1981, University Press of America).

Last Mom found her daughter through adoption from foster care. “Princess” was nine when she joined the family. Last Mom blogs daily about the daily joys and challenges of older child adoption, trauma, attachment, emotional special needs and the tween years. This book includes her ten most popular posts, as well as resources on trauma and attachment.

True story of Doss’s “United Nations Family” welcoming Elaine and Diane, orphans from Hawaii.

From the Dust Jacket: “WHY WOULD SOMEONE ADOPT A BADLY ABUSED, NON-SPEAKING; SIX-YEAR-OLD FROM FOSTER CARE?”

So, the author was asked at the outset of his adoption-as-a-first-resort adventure. Part love story, part political manifesto about “living with conviction in a cynical time,” the memoir traces the development of DJ, a boy written off as profoundly retarded and now, six years later, earning all “A”s at a regular school. Neither a typical saga of autism nor simply a challenge to expert opinion, Reasonable People illuminates the belated emergence of a self in language. And it does so using DJ’s own words, expressed through the once discredited but now resurgent technique of facilitated communication (FC).

Encouraged by new studies showing the technique’s efficacy with at least some non-speaking people with autism and by the development of independent typing—those who have weaned themselves from their facilitators’ support—Savarese and his wife tried FC with DJ. But first they taught him how to read, painstakingly introducing him to different modes of abstraction: photographs, picture symbols, sign language, and ultimately words. The result is a book that contains much of what DJ typed from age nine to twelve—a rare archive indeed—and concludes with a chapter composed entirely by him.

Follow along as DJ makes his first sign, enrolls in his neighborhood school, reconnects with the sister from whom he was separated, and begins to explore his experience of disability, poverty, abandonment, and sexual abuse (the latter through what researchers, concerned about facilitator influence, call “multiple naïve facilitators”). “Try to remember my life,” DJ declares on his talking computer, and remember he does in the most extraordinarily perceptive and lyrical way. Asking difficult questions about the meaning of family, the demise of social obligation, and the politics of neurological difference, Savarese argues for a reasonable commitment to human possibility and caring.

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About the Author: Poet, essayist, translator, and scholar, Ralph James Savarese teaches American literature and creative writing at Grinnell College. He is the winner of the Hennig Cohen Prize for an “outstanding contribution to Melville scholarship” from the Herman Melville Society. The first chapter of this book received a “notable essay” designation in the Best American Essays series of 2004.

From the Publisher: This book addresses key areas of challenges when raising children from difficult or “hard” places. Adopting a child brings so much love and promise into the lives of all concerned; however, sometimes the journey becomes something unexpected. Susan Evans Whitlock has two adopted sons and she shares their journey of the last 15+ years. She has a passion for mothers who find themselves on a road less traveled. At the core of this book is the knowledge that raising any child, especially adopted children, is less about the child and more about what mothers and fathers bring to the “party”! This book is designed to help you “unpack” those characteristics, habits, ways of thinking and expectations that may not be working for you in your parenting journey of your challenging child. Reactive Attachment Disorder (RAD), is often at the heart of the struggle. It takes more than love, it even takes more than knowledge and it certainly takes more than the how-to’s to be a good parent; it takes wisdom. Proverbs 24:14 says, “Know that wisdom is such to your soul; if you find it, there will be a future, and your hope will not be cut off.” This book, Recess For Mom, and the devotional, Companion to Recess for Mom: A Devotional Workbook, are both designed to bring hope and a fresh wind of encouragement into your sails. Take heart Mom!

From the Publisher: Recipes for Fostering explores the relationship between food and fostering through the stories of ten foster carers and their families. These carers share their favourite recipes as well as their experience of using shopping, cooking and eating together to build relationships with the children they look after.

In a series of powerful personal accounts the foster carers describe, in their own words, their motivation to foster and what it means to take on this role. Full colour photographs illustrate these carers’ homes and the food they like to prepare.

The ten featured foster care households represent a wide range of backgrounds and are involved in many different kinds of fostering. They are both local authority and independent fostering provider carers based in London, the West of England and the Midlands. What they have in common is the way in which they successfully use food as part of the process of building and continuing their relationships with children and young people.

From the Publisher: For many people who have never spent time in the state, Oklahoma conjures up a series of stereotypes: rugged cowboys, tipi-dwelling American Indians, uneducated farmers. When women are pictured at all, they seem frozen in time: as the bonneted pioneer woman stoically enduring hardship or the bedraggled, gaunt-faced mother familiar from Dust Bowl photographs. In Red Dirt Women, Susan Kates challenges these one-dimensional characterizations by exploring—and celebrating—the lives of contemporary Oklahoma women whose experiences are anything but predictable.

In essays both intensely personal and universal, Red Dirt Women reveals the author’s own heartaches and joys in becoming a parent through adoption, her love of regional treasures found in “junk” stores, and her deep appreciation of Miss Dorrie, her son’s unconventional preschool teacher. Through lively profiles, interviews, and sketches, we come to know pioneer queens from the Panhandle, rodeo riders, casino gamblers, roller-derby skaters, and the “Lady of Jade”—a former “boat person” from Vietnam who now owns a successful business in Oklahoma City.

As she illuminates the lives of these memorable Oklahoma women, Kates traces her own journey to Oklahoma with clarity and insight. Born and raised in Ohio, she confesses an initial apprehension about her adopted home, admitting that she felt “vulnerable on the open lands.” Yet her original unease develops into a deep affection for the landscape, history, culture, and people of Oklahoma.

The women we meet in Red Dirt Women are not politicians, governors’ wives, or celebrities—they are women of all ages and backgrounds who surround us every day and who are as diverse as Oklahoma itself.

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About the Author: Susan Kates is Associate Professor of English and Women’s Studies at the University of Oklahoma. She is the author of Activist Rhetorics and American Higher Education, 1885–1937.

Rilla Askew is a novelist, essayist, and short-story writer known for her award-winning historical fiction. Fire in Beulah, her novel about the 1921 Tulsa Race Massacre, received the American Book Award. Her Dust Bowl novel, Harpsong, received the Oklahoma Book Award, and her essay collection, Most American: Notes from a Wounded Place, was long-listed for a PEN America Literary Award. She is Associate Professor of English at the University of Oklahoma.

From the Publisher: Provides information about the rules and requirements of various federal agencies and tells how to file consumer complaints and obtain business advice.

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Compiler’s Note: See, particularly, Adoption (pp. 3-4); and Foster Parents (p. 119).

Thoughts and memories of our family are the cornerstone of who we are, what we aspire to become and what we hold true in our lives. One looks to scrapbooks and journals in order to relive these moments. Reflections of Love is a special journal tailored to suit the needs of parents who adopt children rather than giving birth, and yet allows them to express their hopes, dreams, fears and aspirations that are common to all parents. What an exciting moment in one’s life—when a family grows by the beautiful addition of a child. The preparations that are made for the child’s arrival, the first time you laid eyes on the precious child that will call you “Mom” or “Dad,” and a world of other “firsts” that will be coming your way will be celebrated in this keepsake journal. Parents will reflect on their childhood, transcribe the events of the present, and look to the promise of the future while building an incredible and loving life with their new son or daughter. This beautifully illustrated keepsake is the perfect journal for adoptive parents everywhere!

To Bonnie Walker, it was a dream birthed in the heart of a little country girl from Georgia. Her burning desire was to raise a big happy family of her own. But no one guessed just how big, how unique, and how far-reaching that family would be. She married her childhood sweetheart and gave birth to three beautiful daughters. She was happy and eager for more blessings when the dark storm clouds of life rolled in: four miscarriages followed, unending surgeries, no more biological babies. Her God-given vision suddenly seemed to have been mercifully ripped from her. But God’s plan wasn’t thwarted! Her barren womb wasn’t an obstacle. Instead, it became a vehicle that introduced her to the desperate, the broken and the helpless. After God’s gentle nudging, she adopted little ones that nobody wanted, children who had been abused, abandoned and neglected. With open arms, she and her husband embraced not just one, but eighteen children who needed a refuge, a permanent home. They both created Refuge Ranch and this is their story of what God can use average, faithful Christians to do for His Glory!

From the Back Cover: No writer captured the tragic absurdity of late-twentieth-century America better than John Gregory Dunne. Whether novels, screenplays, or nonfiction, his work was marked with a droll wit and a long view that illuminated buried aspects of public and private life in Hollywood and America at large.

Regards is a celebration of Dunne’s best nonfiction, from frank observations on the film industry, politics, sports, and popular culture to tender reflections on what it was like to raise an adopted daughter. The collection spans his entire career and includes essays from the last fifteen years of his life, never before collected.

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About the Author: John Gregory Dunne was born in 1932 and was the author of six novels and seven works of nonfiction. He collaborated with his wife, the writer Joan Didion, on many screenplays, including Panic in Needle Park and True Confessions. John Gregory Dunne died in December 2003.

Calvin Trillin, the author of twenty-three books, has been a staff writer at The New Yorker since 1963.

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By the Same Author: Quintana and Friends (1978, EP Dutton & Co.); Dutch Shea, Jr. (1982, Linden Press); and Playland (1994, Random House), among others.

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Compiler’s Note: See, particularly, “Quintana”; see also, “Buck”; “Critical”; and “Regards”.

From the Back Cover: Grandparents and other relatives who become related by adoption can play an invaluable role in the life of the adopted child. When a child enters a new family with its own established lifestyle and ways of doing things—all of which could be overwhelming and confusing—grandparents and other relatives can help to guide the new child through what may seem to be an incomprehensible maze of values, standards and behaviours. Older relatives are also usually the main. “storytellers” in the family and hold the collective memories. Listening to family stories can provide adopted children with a huge opportunity to familiarise themselves with their new relatives.

This handbook introduces grandparents-to-be and. other relatives to information about adoption today. It offers facts about the children needing adoption, processes and procedures and, most importantly, discusses how the wider family can support and be involved in building a family through adoption.

Quotes and snippets from family stories add an immediacy to this accessible and informative guide, which also includes a contribution from grandparents. If members of your family are considering adopting a child or children, this book is for you!

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About the Author: Hedi Argent is an independent adoption consultant, trainer and freelance writer.

She is the author of Find me a Family (Souvenir Press, 1984), Whatever Happened to Adam? (BAAF, 1998), the co-author of Taking Extra Care (BAAF, 1997) and the editor of Keeping the Doors Open (BAAF, 1988), See you Soon (BAAF, 1995), Staying Connected (BAAF, 2002) and Models of Adoption Support (BAAF, 2003). She is a grandmother of three children.

Kate Cairns is a social worker and teacher. She is also the author of Surviving Paedophilia (Treatham Books, 1999) and Attachment, Trauma and Resilience (BAAF, 2001), as well as several articles. Joyce and Eric Stanway are her parents.

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By the Same Author: Keeping the Doors Open: A Review of Post-Adoption Services (1988); See You Soon: Contact with Children Looked After by Local Authorities (1995); Taking Extra Care: Respite, Shared and Permanent Care for Children with Disabilities (with Ailie Kerrane; 1997); Whatever Happened to Adam?: Stories of Disabled People Who Were Adopted or Fostered (1998); Staying Connected: Managing Contact Arrangements in Adoption (2002); Models of Adoption Support: What Works and What Doesn’t (2003); What Happens in Court? (with Mary Lane; 2004); What Is Contact?: A Guide for Children (2004); Life Story Work: What It Is and What It Means: A Guide for Children and Young People (with Shaila Shah; 2006); Dealing with Disruption (with Jeffrey Coleman; 2006); Ten Top Tips for Placing Children (2006); Kinship Care: What it is and What it Means (2007); Josh and Jaz Have Three Mums (2007); Ten Top Tips for Placing Siblings (2008); Ten Top Tips on Supporting Kinship Placements (2009); Adopting a Brother Or Sister (2010); Where are My Brothers and Sisters?: A Guide for Young Fostered and Adopted Children (2011); Being a Foster Family: What it Means and How it Feels: A Guide for Young Children (2011); Why Can’t I Be Good? (2014); and Ten Top Tips for Placing Disabled Children (2015), among others.

As an adoptive parent there are many days when the relentless grind of parenting can wear you down. Relentless Life is a compilation of observations, inspirations and challenges on this incredible journey. As you read this book take comfort in the fact that many others are on this relentless journey of adoption—take time to step back, reflect, readjust and redefine how you want your life to be. With a chapter for each week of the year, this book will give you a chance to get off that roller coaster and look around at what is there—those ordinary moments in life can in fact be extraordinary when seen with different eyes.

Have you ever loved with everything you had, and it wasn’t enough? Carrie O’Toole experienced the pain and suffering of infertility, miscarriage, and international adoption that went painfully awry. Nothing could have prepared her for the decade-long journey of trying to love her little boy, who struggled to trust and connect after leaving the only home he’d ever known, a Vietnamese orphanage. Although this situation may be unique to Carrie, everyone can relate to the pain of love and loss, heartbreak and grief, trying to make life work when every effort fails. Relinquished: When Love Means Letting Go will take you through the emotional journey and struggle to find answers to the question many people face at some point—What if my love is not enough? What if the only way for healing to occur is for me to let go?

About the Author: As a ten-year-old boy inspired by fellow Ohioan, Neil Armstrong, when he landed on the moon in 1969, Scott dreamed of someday becoming part of something larger than himself. Ten years later, through a series of serendipitous life events, Scott Phillips embarked on a career with NASA’s groundbreaking Space Shuttle Program. He was the last team member to exit the first External Tank prior to its maiden flight on April 12, 1981, and saved the Remove Before Flight ribbon as a memento. What followed was an extraordinary thirty-three-year adventure, encompassing the entire span of the program—from the depths of tragedy to the exclusive never-before-seen photos and first-hand stories. Remove Before Flight takes the reader on a historical and personal journey that will enlighten and entertain. Inspired by his work at the Marshall Space Flight Center, Scott began creating one-of-a-kind hardwood models to reflect and honor the excellence and legacy of the Shuttle Program. He is an artist, space historian and archivist, songwriter, and motivational speaker. He lives in Harvest, Alabama, with his wife, Dianne, and [their adopted] sons, Christian and Tyler.

From the Back Cover: With lawyers’ hourly fees soaring into the triple digits, more and more Americans are wondering if there might be some alternative to seeking an attorney when they face legal problems. In a wide variety of cases, in fact, the answer is yes, there is a money-saving alternative: representing yourself. Many of the tasks which lawyers perform are routine. A person who has the time can, for example, manage his or her own house settlement, file for a simple divorce, or draft a will. This book tells how.

Of course, many problems do require a lawyer’s assistance. Representing Yourself will tell you how to decide if you need a lawyer and, if you do, what questions to ask to insure that you are being adequately represented. This is the book to read before you think of hiring a lawyer.

Representing Yourself is uniquely pragmatic—a plain-language consumer’s guide to the law from the commonplace to the complex, with easy-to-follow chapters on:

Landlord-Tenant Relations • Buying and Selling a House • Defective Products • Debtors’ and Creditors’ Rights and Obligations • Marriage and Divorce • Adoption and Guardianship • Changing Names • Wills and Probate • Employees’ Rights • Starting a Business • Small Claims • Traffic Violations • The Freedom of Information and Privacy Acts • And more!

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About the Author: Kenneth Lasson is a professor of law at the University of Baltimore. His previous books include Your Rights and the Draft, The Workers, and Private Lives of Public Servants.

The Public Citizen Litigation Group, the public-interest law firm founded by Ralph Nader in 1972, has been working since its inception to make legal services more available and more affordable to the average consumer.

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Compiler’s Note: See, particularly, Chapter 7: Adoption and Guardianship (pp. 71-79).

From the Dust Jacket: In moving and refreshingly candid prose, Rescuing Julia Twice tells Traster’s foreign-adoption story, from dealing with the bleak landscape and inscrutable adoption handlers in Siberia, to her feelings of inexperience and ambivalence at being a new mother in her early forties, to her growing realization over months then years that something was “not quite right” with her daughter, Julia, who remained cold and emotionally detached. Why wouldn’t she look her parents in the eye or accept their embraces? Why didn’t she cry when she got hurt? Why didn’t she make friends at school? Traster describes how uncertainty turned to despair as she blamed herself and her mothering skills for her daughter’s troublesome behavioral issues, until she came to understand that Julia suffered from reactive attachment disorder, a serious condition associated with infants and young children who have been neglected, abused, or orphaned in infancy.

Hoping to help lift the veil of secrecy and shame that too often surrounds parents struggling with attachment issues, Traster describes how with work, commitment, and acceptance, she and her husband have been able to close the gulf between them and their daughter to form a loving bond, and concludes by providing practical advice, strategies, and resources for parents and caregivers.

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About the Author: Tina Traster is an award-winning journalist whose work has appeared in scores of newspapers, magazines, and literary journals including the New York Times, New York Post, Time Out New York, the Daily Beast, Huffington Post, Family Circle, Parade, Audubon, and many more. She lives in Valley Cottage, New York.

Melissa Fay Greene is the award-winning author of five books of nonfiction, including There Is No Me Without You, about the HIV/AIDS African orphan crisis, and No Biking in the House Without a Helmet, about raising her family. She and her husband are the parents of nine children: four by birth and five by adoption.

From the Back Cover: Linny Lee had one childhood dream: Be the mom of a large adoptive family lovingly gathered from around the world. She and her husband are currently in the process of bringing home their thirteenth (a precious son in a wheelchair). Linny writes at: PlaceCalledSimplicity.com where she shares God’s relentless love for the orphan, the privilege of parenting special needs treasures and always the joys of having a large family. Linny and her family make their home in the gorgeous desert of Arizona.

After thinking for many years how I could make a difference, I am elated to finish my first project and begin working to assist emancipated foster youth acquire a more suitable standard of living. Over the years I developed a passion for helping the less fortunate, the underserved, the weary and exhausted. At one time, I was the less fortunate, part of the underserved, and I felt weary and exhausted after some of the choices I made; until I met someone who encouraged me to do something different with my life. My friend encouraged me to dream! He provided me with the strength and courage to stand for what is right and “do” something about the injustice I witnessed. His advice, love, hugs, and shoulder to cry on always kept me feeling secure and confident. My decision to write this book was sparked by the young people which crossed my path and allowed me to take a tiny peak into their lives. In addition to the people who have the passion and desire to make a difference in the lives of our troubled youth. All of us can do something to encourage or inspire someone, whether we become foster parents, volunteer in our community, mentor a youth, spend time with the elderly or spend time in the classroom. Each act of kindness will propel our future in the right direction. By you making the decision to purchase this book, you have made a conscience decision to improve the outcomes for current and former foster youth. You are extraordinary and exceptional and I want to personally thank you for taking action to help today’s abused, neglected and abandoned children. Your efforts do not go unrecognized. We appreciate every act of kindness, every encouraging word, every listening ear, and every understanding heart. As you read through this book and obtain the necessary information to assist you in caring for traumatized children, we appreciate your thoughts, comments, and concerns. Please log onto our website: http://www.finding-solutions.org and send us your thoughts, comments, and or questions. It is important that we keep the line of communication open and you provide us with feedback that can assist in furthering our mission, as well as, you feeling comfortable delivering services to our most valuable resources.

This book should be a supplement to training classes as it offers advice regarding adoption and foster care from a foster/adoptive parent with forty years of experience. It tells “The Rest of the Story” of foster care and after the adoption is complete.

A five-year-old abandoned boy finds his “forever family,” creating what social workers call “one of the best matches we’ve ever seen.” This lively, loving, little boy, whose humorous antics and joyfulness bring delight to his parents and older brother and sister, is tragically diagnosed three years later with a heartbreaking condition. His new family watches helplessly as he spirals downward, but eventually discover that their unrelenting faith could lead to a miracle and a medical breakthrough. Can their family stand together as they persevere to battle the nightmare surrounding their youngest member? Heart wrenching, humorous, and inspiring, this is the story of an ordinary family who learns the amazing lesson of “When you step out on faith, then you find miracles.”

Reunions in Spring: Meditations for a Holiday Table: Adoption Search and Families is based on civilization’s oldest adoption memoir: the book of Exodus. It enjoys a lively retelling every spring through the literary genre of the “haggadah” used exclusively to retell the stories of Moses, his adoptive Egyptian mother and his Hebrew birth family. Bring memoirs, journaling and the celebrations of spring to a richer level through this haggadah and its treasures of modern adoption triad psychology and the Passover oral tradition.

When Alison gave up her son for adoption in 1972, she left him with a teddy and a card. The adoptive parents picked up this smiling, happy baby, named him Andre, and got on with their lives. But it wasn’t to be quite that simple. Alison grieved for him. Alison’s mother grieved for her first and last grandson. Andre grieved for them. This is the story of the search for the healing of the wounds, the reunions, and the story of despair and love. Rewriting the Script is an adoptive father’s personal story about the son he and his wife adopted in 1973 in a closed situation, and how they attempted to open it when their son was eleven years old. Theirs is a journey of loss, grief and despair and the attempt to transcend it. The accidental deaths of two friends reopened the wound and plunged him into profound adolescent despair.

Riding on Angels Wings is based on a real-life experience on infertility, adoption and an unexpected miracle. It will show you a heart wrenching peak of the struggle that couples face while going through infertility. Victor and Cynthia Burris lived in absolute turmoil, unbearable heartache, and soul wrenching depression for many years. Infertility almost crushed their souls, wrecked their marriage, and killed their inspiration for living. There was a constant struggle to save their marriage, their future, and to gather their courage to finally start to look for their children and bring them home. They had images of their children that lived only in their dreams; they never thought the children would actually become their reality. As Cynthia experiences her “Spiritual and Physical pregnancies,” she will discuss her feelings on her separate voyages. She will take you into the complete process of their International Korean Adoption; she will share with you the emotions, she and her husband felt while going through the process, take you with her to Korea, and show you a glimpse of the wonderful life after she arrives home with Sammy. Riding on Angels Wings is intended for couples who are struggling and trying to cope with infertility and are considering adoption. This beautiful book is designed for couples who want to look at a couples perspective who have gone through the infertility “roller-coaster” and has successfully adopted through and International Korean Program. You will be able to witness two beautiful pregnancies, one beautiful family, for which both of the children rode on “Angels Wings” all the way home. Riding on Angels Wings will help give you the inspiration, the strength to help you make changes in your life, and the courage to start your own incredible journey, may you be blessed. About the Author: Cynthia Burris wrote Riding on Angels Wings, with absolute love, devotion and unceasing dedication. She found the willpower to overcome the worst heartache any mother or parent could have, the nightmare of not being able to conceive but could feel, hear, and see her children in only her dreams. She searched the stars, discovered and followed paths of wild geese for direction for faith, climbed piles documents, crossed the Pacific Ocean and reached the foreign shore of Seoul, South Korea to find her son, spiritual serenity, and physical healing. Once spiritually healed, she healed physically and was then finally able to conceive her second son. Cynthia now has one vision that will carry her through the rest of her life. She will spread the knowledge she has gained from her own two miracles so that others will gain the inspiration and dedication to start their own voyage. She speaks for the children who are still too little to speak and prays for infertile couples to open their hearts so that they can conceive spiritually. Cynthia had accomplished many things in her life. She served in the air force on active duty and later joined the army national guard for a total of 13 years of service. She received a B.S. degree in Business Management from Linfield College in McMinnville, OR. Cynthia loves to write, sew and travel. She lives in Springfield, OR, with her husband Victor and their two beautiful children Sammy and Andrew, the miracles of their lives.

From the Publisher: Risk and Promise is designed to help prospective international adoption parents better understand the risk factors as well as the protective factors a child from overseas is presenting, support the parents through the decision-making process, and guide them during the period of transition in their lives as their new child moves into their family. The premise of Risk and Promise is that the success of any adoption, both international and domestic, is a function of not only the capabilities and needs of the child, but also the expectations, characteristics, and lifestyle of the adoptive family members. It is important that prospective adoptive families assess their tolerance for uncertainty, for the potential challenges that the child may bring, and the parents ability (financial and otherwise) to modify their lifestyle in order to accommodate the demands of a child who may be quite challenging. Along these lines, a secondary objective of this book is to enlighten prospective adoptive parents regarding the extent of what may be required of them if, indeed, they are to fulfill the commitment that they are making in taking on the responsibility for a child whose needs will unfold over time.

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About the Author: Ira J. Chasnoff, M.D., is President of the Children’s Research Triangle and a Professor of Clinical Pediatrics at the University of Illinois College of Medicine in Chicago. He is one of the nation’s leading researchers in the field of child development and prenatal and postnatal trauma. Dr. Chasnoff has published six books that explore biological and environmental factors that affect the ultimate development of young children and present practical strategies for helping children reach their full potential at home and in the classroom.

Linda Schwartz, Ph.D., is a Licensed Clinical Psychologist with a specialization in Child and Family Psychology. She is the Clinical Director at the Child Study Center in Chicago, where clinicians provide medical, developmental and psychological evaluations, as well as therapy, for at risk children, most of whom are adopted or in the foster care system.

Cheryl Pratt, Ph.D., is a Pediatric Clinical Nurse Specialist, Developmental Psychologist, and an Infant Mental Health Specialist. Her work focuses on children at risk from early abandonment and trauma with a specialization in attachment and maternal/infant interaction. Her research interests include the study of parent-child relationships in dyads experiencing perinatal vulnerability, substance abuse, and other pediatric chronic and acute illnesses. Currently Dr. Pratt works at the Child Study Center in Chicago, IL, as the Coordinator for the infant/toddler team and oversees clinical training programs.

Gwendolyn J. Neuberger, M.D., is a board-certified pediatrician at Children’s Research Triangle, specializing in pre-adoption assessments for international adoption. Dr. Neuberger received her medical degree and served a pediatric residency at Emory University School of Medicine in Atlanta, GA.

From the Back Cover: Today they live beside the river with their children. They speak to the children of dreaming and believing, and they tell them every day that dreams do come true! They are a family made from dreaming, and it shows.

... and they came into the ark two by two...

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About the Author: Searching out her spiritual roots has been at the heart of Judith Dahl’s life. Born and raised in Phoenix, Arizona, she attended Roman Catholic schools for twelve years. Shortly after high school, she entered a Benedictine convent in Duluth, Minnesota. After graduating summa cum laude from Metropolitan State College in Denver, Colorado with a degree in human services, Judy completed her masters of divinity from the Iliff School of Theology in Denver, Colorado.

Judy now serves as an ordained minister in the Universal Fellowship of Metropolitan Community Churches and is the District Coordinator for the southwestern region.

Along with her life’s work, Judy finds deep fulfillment in “making home." She is a gourmet cook who also loves to sew, garden, to do interior design and photography, and create stained glass art. Placing great value on friendships and family, Terryl and Judy have found a still greater treasure with the arrival of their two children. Judy lives in Laguna Niguel, California where her dream for family has found a home and her spiritual search continues.

A fine artist most of her life, Carol Jeanotilla spent eighteen years in a nursing career before being catapulted back to design school during a mid-life crisis. She graduated with honors in March 1987 from the Colorado Institute of Art.

Carol is now a designer and the Art Director for Unison Marketing and Communications, an advertising agency specializing in healthcare clients. She also freelances design, illustration, and packaging from her Aurora, Colorado studio. Her special talent is visual interpretation of the written word.

Carol was born in Indiana, grew up in Delaware, spent a stint in Maine, and now gratefully calls Colorado home. Eight of her twelve years in Colorado have been spent lovingly with her partner, Kathryn. After several years as “mountain women,’ the pair now is carrying out long-range career goals. Carol and her sixteen-year-old son, Eric, a budding writer, hope to collaborate on a book someday.

“I didn’t know if I could be a mother. I wasn’t sure if I even wanted to be a mother. Nothing in my upbringing seemed to support motherhood.” So begins Corinne Chateau’s odyssey to claim the mother in herself and embark upon an unexpected journey that will lead her to a child in the distant Republic of Georgia. The Road to Cali is about not giving up. It is the story of a rescue—of both a child and oneself.

Aaron and Ann were happy in Philadelphia, newly married, working together to run a summer camp, and surrounded by loving relatives and friends. They were ready to take the exciting step of having a child, but the twists and turns of the next few years brought incredible challenges and a loss of hope. The decision to adopt a girl from China was one grown out of a feeling of despair, but the story of the next eighteen months was nothing short of joyous. Follow the last leg of the trip as Aaron brings us along on his journey to become a father. Through Beijing, Nanjing, Gaoyou City and Guangzhou, the couple and their daughter, Lily Jianyun, start to become a true family. “Jian Yun,” (Lily’s given name in China) means “Robust Cloud,” and you see how fitting the name will be for this truly hearty and heavenly little girl.

What does it mean to live an abundant life? Some might say living abundantly means living comfortably, having the family you always dreamed of, receiving accolades from your peers, in short—living a life that is commonly accepted by many as blessed. But what if having an abundant life is more than the “good life”? Can we actually be blessed in the midst of serious disappointments and setbacks? In Rock-Bottom Blessings, Karen Beattie makes the case that true abundance is found in the transformation that happens when we experience God’s presence during periods of grief, loss, and disappointment. With the help of her friends and her newfound Catholic faith, she learns to trust that God’s plan is better than hers. Beattie began to see life’s challenges as gifts to be accepted like all other gifts: with reverence and gratitude. Beattie’s story makes abundantly clear: it is the suffering, death, and resurrection of Christ (the paschal mystery) that can inspire us not only to find blessings in every season of our lives, but to be utterly transformed by God’s riches.

Introduction: Not all infertile couples decide to try to form a family by adoption. When they do, it becomes important to understand the psychological impact of the infertility upon the couple and their relationship with each other, and upon their motivation for adoption and their expectations of and attitudes to the adopted child. The implications of infertility are thought to be of great importance in adoption, yet we remain largely in the dark concerning them.

The material for this book was drawn from a longitudinal study, “Risk Factors in Adoption,” which was funded by the Scottish Home and Health Department (Brebner, 1982). In this book we examine in some detail the impact of infertility upon couples wishing to adopt, and consider the implications for adoption practice.

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About the Author: Cecilia M. Brebner, BSc, MB, ChB, DCH is Associate Specialist in Child and Family Psychiatry at the Royal Hospital for Sick Children in Glasgow.

John D. Sharp, MA, MSc, PhD, ABPS, is Director of the Department of Clinical Child Psychology at the Royal Hospital for Sick Children in Glasgow.

Frederick H. Stone, MB, ChB, FRCP, FRC Psych, is Professor of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry at the University of Glasgow and Consultant in Child and Family Psychiatry at the Royal Hospital for Sick Children in Glasgow.