By the Same Author: Children of Open Adoption (with Kathleen Silber; 1990, Corona Publishing Co.) and How to Open an Adoption: A Guide for Parents and Birthparents of Minors (1997, R-Squared Press), among others.

About the Author: Mary Watkins, Ph.D., is a clinical psychologist, a core faculty member at the Pacifica Graduate Institute, Santa Barbara, and the author of Waking Dreams and Invisible Guests: The Development of Imagined Dialogues.

Susan Fischer, M.D., is a psychoanalyst and a clinical professor of psychiatry at the University of Chicago, a faculty member of the Chicago Institute for Psychoanalysis, and coauthor of To Do No Harm: DES and the Dilemmas of Modern Medicine.

Even when society, friends, the legal system, and the Pope himself swing toward acceptance of the once unacceptable, Michelle Theall still waits for the one blessing that has always mattered to her the most: her mother’s. Michelle grew up in the conservative Texas Bible Belt, bullied by her classmates and abandoned by her evangelical best friend before she’d ever even held a girl’s hand. She was often at odds with her volatile, overly dramatic, and depressed mother, who had strict ideas about how girls should act. Yet they both clung tightly to their devout Catholic faith—the unifying grace that all but shattered their relationship when Michelle finally admitted she was gay.

Years later at age forty-two, Michelle has made delicate peace with her mother and is living her life openly with her partner of ten years and their adopted son in the liberal haven of Boulder, Colorado. But when her four-year-old’s Catholic school decides to expel all children of gay parents, Michelle tiptoes into a controversy that exposes her to long-buried shame, which leads to a public battle with the Church and a private one with her parents. In the end she realizes that in order to be a good mother, she may have to be a bad daughter.

Michelle writes with wry wit and bald honesty about her life, seamlessly weaving her past and her present into a touching commentary on all the love, pain, and redemption that families inspire. Teaching the Cat to Sit makes us each reflect on our sense of humanity, our connection to religion, and our struggles to accept ourselves—and each other—as we are.

About the Author: Michelle Theall is an award-winning health, fitness, and travel writer and the founder of Women’s Adventure magazine. Her feature essay in 5280, the inspiration for her memoir, was nominated for a GLAAD Media Award. She lives with her partner, their son, and three dogs in Boulder, Colorado.

Suzanne Ramos has interviewed many of the outstanding authorities in the field of child-rearing to find out what they consider the best ways of dealing with these crises. Here in one book is the most upto-date advice available on

• what and what not to tell an adopted child

• times you mustn’t be separated from your child

• how to deal with frightening episodes in a child’s life, such as sexual molestation, witnessing a murder, the mental breakdown of a parent, when a parent goes to jail, or has lost a job

• preparing a child for coping with the death of a loved one

• school phobia, what it can lead to and why it should be treated early

• why divorce is always traumatic

• how to help the adolescent with his critical life choices (heterosexuality, leaving home, and career choice) ...

• and much, much more.

Though it deals with crises, this is a comfortable, reassuring book that encourages what the author calls “preventive parenting.” Based on the very latest research, it is intended to assist parents in dealing effectively with minor child-rearing problems before they become major ones; to help anticipate and avert crises before they erupt; and beyond this, to utilize the common stresses of life, and even the tragedies, in strengthening the child’s emotional growth.

About the Author: Suzanne Ramos, a former elementary-school teacher, has a master’s degree in education from Teachers College, Columbia, and has published articles on the problems of children in various magazines, She and her husband and their two young children live in New York City.

Compiler’s Note: See, particularly, Chapter 7: Let’s Adopt (pp. 69-78), consisting of the following: A positive means of adding to one’s family—How will other people react when they learn that we adopted a child?—Should I tell people that my child is adopted?—Should I tell my child that he is adopted?—Aren’t we just giving our child extra problems by telling him that he is adopted?—What about the question of honesty?—Both sides considered ...—If we do tell our child that he is adopted, when should we tell him?—Suppose our child finds out before we’ve told him—How will our child react to being told that he is adopted?—Are there problems to watch for in our relationship with our adopted child, and if so, what are they?—Are there special sibling-rivalry problems where there is an adopted child?

About the Author: Betsy Keefer is a Training Consultant for the Institute for Human Services in Columbus, Ohio, where she has been instrumental in the development of adoption training curriculum for professionals used nationwide. She has almost thirty years of experience in child welfare, adoption placement, post adoption services, and training.

Jayne E. Schooler, an affiliate trainer with the Institute for Human Services and Program Manager for the National Foster Parent Association, has over twenty years of experience in child welfare, first as a foster parent, then as adoptive parent, adoptive professional and educator. She is the author of The Whole Life Adoption Book (1993) and Searching for a Past (1995).

By the Same Author: The Whole Life Adoption Book: Realistic Advice for Building a Healthy Adoptive Family (1993, Piñon Press); Searching for a Past: The Adopted Adult’s Unique Process of Finding Identity (1995, Piñon Press); Journeys After Adoption: Understanding Lifelong Issues (with Betsie L. Norris) (2002); Mom, Dad... I’m Pregnant: When Your Daughter or Son Faces an Unplanned Pregnancy (2004, NavPress); and Wounded Children, Healing Homes: How Traumatized Children Impact Adoptive and Foster Families (with Betsy Keefer Smalley & Timothy J Callahan) (2010, NavPress).

About the Author: Brenda K. Uekert is a sociologist with decades of experience conducting applied research. She is the adoptive mother of a little girl from Ukraine. Brenda, her daughter, and three cats live in Williamsburg, Virginia.

Often those who are in ministry, in positions of leadership in the church, fail to respond to needs, or seem insensitive to them, simply because they have no idea what to say and what to do. We have celebrations and commemorations in the church for traditional holy days and for major transitions of life, and we ought to do this. But what takes the theology celebrated, taught, and lived on days like Christmas, Good Friday, or Easter and applies them to daily hardships experienced by members of the community?

If we are to be an effective community, serving as an extended family for one another, we cannot limit ourselves to talking about, celebrating, or even mourning just the expected things. We need to be able to connect with people who are mourning for any sort of loss.

In this book, you will learn how to reach out to people who are dealing with issues of reproductive loss and adoption in a way that can bring healing to individuals and to the community. It will speak strongly to pastors, but should also be helpful to church leaders, especially those in small groups. It will help build understanding and lay the groundwork for making these events of life a part of our continuing concern and our plan to bring wholeness and healing to our churches and to the world.

About the Author: Richard W. Voelz is an Assistant Professor of Preaching and Worship at Union Presbyterian Seminary in Richmond, VA. Rich is an ordained minister in the Christian Church (Disciples of Christ) with over 10 years of congregational ministry experience. A PhD graduate of Vanderbilt University’s program in Homiletics and Liturgics (’11), he is also the author of Youthful Preaching (Cascade, 2016) and a contributing editor of The Living Pulpit (Chalice, 2018).

About the Author: Sister Mary Ann LoGiudice is executive of Community Maternity Services—an agency for pregnant teenagers under the Catholic Charities of the Diocese of Albany, New York. She was one of the first nuns to adopt a child, not to mention that the child was HIV-positive. Sister Mary Ann is a member of the Sisters of Mercy and she lives in Albany, NY.

Paul Grondahl is a feature writer for the Albany Times Union in Albany, New York and author of Mayor Corning, A Political Biography. His features have received numerous local, state, and national journalism awards. He resides in Albany, NY with his wife and two young children.

So begins Diane Keaton’s unforgettable memoir about her mother and herself. In it you will meet the woman known to tens of millions as Annie Hall, but you will also meet, and fall in love with, her mother, the loving, complicated, always-thinking Dorothy Hall. To write about herself, Diane realized she had to write about her mother, too, and how their bond came to define both their lives. In a remarkable act of creation, Diane not only reveals herself to us, she also lets us meet in intimate detail her mother. Over the course of her life, Dorothy kept eighty-five journals—literally thousands of pages—in which she wrote about her marriage, her children, and, most probingly, herself. Dorothy also recorded memorable stories about Diane’s grandparents. Diane has sorted through these pages to paint an unflinching portrait of her mother—a woman restless with intellectual and creative energy, struggling to find an outlet for her talents—as well as her entire family, recounting a story that spans four generations and nearly a hundred years.

More than the autobiography of a legendary actress, Then Again is a book about a very American family with very American dreams. Diane will remind you of yourself, and her bonds with her family will remind you of your own relationships with those you love the most.

About the Author: Diane Keaton has starred in some of the most memorable movies of the past forty years, including the Godfather trilogy, Annie Hall, Manhattan, Reds, Baby Boom, The First Wives Club, and Something’s Gotta Give Her many awards include the Golden Globe and the Academy Award. Keaton lives with her daughter and son in Los Angeles.

By the Same Author: Let’s Just Say It Wasn’t Pretty (2014).

Compiler’s Note: Diane Keaton is an adoptive single mother.

There Are Babies to Adopt is a practical and proven-effective guidebook for would-be adoptive parents that answers questions like: How long a wait can you expect? How do you improve your chances of getting the baby you want? What does it really cost? From finding the right adoption agency to the pros and cons of international adoption to the subtleties of the Home Study, this is the indispensible adoption handbook, complete with state-by-state breakdowns of adoption laws, lawyers and agencies.

Researched and written by an adoptive parent, There Are Babies to Adopt is all you need to form a workable game plan for adoptive parenthood-and give yourself the best chance to have the baby you have longed for.

About the Author: Christine A. Adamec is the author of sixteen books, including many on adoption, such as Is Adoption For You?, The Adoption Option Complete Handbook, and The Encyclopedia of Adoption. She concentrates of self-help and medical trade and reference books.

When Haregewoin Teferra’s husband and twenty-three year-old daughter died within a few years of each other, her middle class life in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, was shattered. Bereft and with little to live for, Haregwoin became a recluse. Her self-imposed exile was interrupted when a priest delivered first one, then another, orphaned child into her care. To everyone’s surprise, the children thrived, and so did Haregewoin.

As word spread, children of all ages began to appear at the door of her modest, tin-walled compound: an infant handed over by his dying mother, an orphaned brother and sister whose grandfather was too poor to feed them, a baby left on the doorstep. Haregewoin’s home became known as the rare place where AIDS-stricken parents and grieving families could safely leave their children. Soon Haregewoin was caring for sixty children, running an unofficial orphanage and day school, and learning firsthand about her country’s and her continent’s greatest challenge: the AIDS pandemic that is leaving millions of children without parents to care for them.

There Is No Me Without You is the story of Haregewoin and her children: a story of struggle, but also of the triumph of saved lives and the renewed happiness of children welcomed by adoptive parents in Ethiopia, America, and around the world. It is the story of what one human being can do in a time of crisis. And at heart, it is a book about children and parents, wherever they may be, how ever they may find each other.

About the Author: Melissa Fay Greene, is the author of Praying for Sheetrock, The Temple Bombing, and Last Man Out. Two of her books have been finalists for the National Book Award, and New York University’s journalism department named Praying for Sheetrock one of the top 100 works of journalism in the twentieth century. She has written for The New Yorker, The Washington Post, The New York Times Magazine, the Atlantic Monthly, Good Housekeeping, Newsweek, Life, Readers Digest, Redbook, Salon.com, and others. She lives in Atlanta with her husband, Don Samuel, and their seven children, two of whom were adopted from Ethiopia.

By the Same Author: No Biking in the House Without a Helmet (2011, Farrar, Straus & Giroux), among others.

About the Author: Missionary-Evangelist Philip Cameron is a preacher, singer, author and founder of a far-reaching international ministry that has impacted nations such as his native Scotland, Romania, Moldova and beyond. In 1976, Philip married his hometown sweetheart, Chrissie, in Peterhead, Scotland and they now live in Montgomery, Alabama. They have four children: Philip, Melody, Andrew and Lauren.

But Marjorie wanted a second child, a sister for Lee Heh; four years later Holly (half American, half Vietnamese) came to Marjorie from a Saigon orphanage. Her fierce, inexplicable tantrums brought Marjorie to the edge of despair. To find the clues to the dark secrets of her children’s lives, her collaborator on this book, Ruth Gruber, flew to South Vietnam and South Korea to track down the truth of the children’s pasts and round out this moving story of the human spirit in triumph.

About the Author: Since completing the book, Marjorie Margolies has married Congressman Edward Mezvinsky of Iowa, and she and the children have moved to Washington, where she now lives and works.

Her collaborator, Ruth Gruber, a distinguished investigative reporter, specialist in the problems of refugees, and author of ten books, lives in New York with her husband and two children. She was for twenty years foreign correspondent of the New York Herald Tribune, and her articles have appeared in magazines and newspapers throughout the world.

About the Author: Rebecca Kahn is a freelance writer and journalist who lives in Johannesburg. She’s currently working on her M.A. in Journalism at Wits University.

It was a small note buried in the file of a deeply troubled eleven-year-old boy—a plea for a normal life the Miniters couldn’t ignore:

The Things I Want Most

A family

A fishing pole

A family

Rich and Sue Miniter knew becoming Mike’s new foster parents wouldn’t be easy. In his short life Mike had been a victim of severe abuse and neglect. Judged mildly retarded, continually medicated, he had lived in a dozen foster homes and institutions. Sullen and charming, obsequious and hostile, Mike hardly seemed the ideal candidate for placement. Having raised six children of their own to the brink of adulthood, the Miniters thought they knew everything about parenting. But were they ready to take on a child virtually everyone had given up on? Despite some reservations, the Miniters believed they’d heard in that simple note the true voice of a frightened child who wanted what all children want and need: someone to love who would love them in return.

And so they brought Mike home to the cozy country inn they’d restored and managed in rural upstate New York. There, over the next year, they would try to make Mike’s wish come true. But first they would have to work through the fear, anger, and distrust with which he’d learned to defend himself. We share the Miniters’ struggle to make Mike a part of their family: from the difficult adjustment with their older children to the red tape and bureaucracy of educational programs and child welfare agencies. Yet the biggest obstacle of all would be Mike himself, who would give them every reason to give up but one—the power of love.

Filled with moments of surprising humor and explosive violence, of deep despair and profound elation, The Things I Want Most is a personally candid and emotionally gripping memoir that defines the very meaning of family.

About the Author: Richard F. Miniter lives and works with his wife, Susan, a financial planner, in a country inn in upstate New York.

If So, Then You Need To Read This Before Finalizing Your Decision!

Hear True Stories About What Experts And People Who Have Adopted Have To Say About:

• How Much Time You Need To Set Aside For Adoption

• How It Works For Both You And The Child

• How To Make The Decision Much Less Confusing

• Various Perspectives About Adoption

• How To Physically & Emotionally Handle The Challenging Process Of Adoption

• How To Adapt To Being An Adoptive Parent

• And Much, Much More

About the Author: (pronounced “marine”) is half Puerto Rican, half Irish, and all American. Raised in the Midwest, he went to prep school on the East coast, college in Colorado, and law school in California, where he has spent that last twenty years. A media company executive by profession and an adventurer by nature, he has traveled to eleven countries and visited thirty-six of our fifty states. He has skydived in Arizona, water skied on the Caribbean, and rescued olive ridley sea turtles in Cost Rica.