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An inspirational story of a single woman’s experience of adopting her first child. About the Author: Sharon Brani is a licensed professional counselor and coach, an educator, published freelance writer, and speaker. She has written over 300 articles, stories, and devotionals in a variety of inspirational publications. Most important of all, Sharon is the mother of two amazing daughters whom she adopted. You can find more on her website at heartprintscoaching.com. |
Parenting calls us to grow in ways we never would have thought possible and every day we are learning more and more about what we don’t know and about what we had no idea to expect. One of the most powerful areas of that growth is in the need to learn to love our children unconditionally. Unkiditional Love presents the wisdom and of two folks who learned through experience and training about the trials, joys and demands of parenting. Tom Russo, a single dad of two girls shares with humor, humility, and profound wisdom his experiences of being a single dad of two girls. His unkiditional love of his daughters continues to grow as do the number of experiences of parenting from adoption, diapers, teenage dating and so much more. Dorothy A. Martin-Neville makes a clear point, more than once, that without faith and a sense of humor parenting is impossible. Learning to laugh at yourself and not take you or each experience so seriously that your guilt or self-judgment reigns is definite proof you have made it through to other side and can now relax with adult children. Parenting is not easy and yet it can fill you in ways nothing else does. Learn to see it from a perspective that says dads make great parents, and are gifts beyond words to their kids, boys or girls. Moms too often forget that they are not meant to be forgotten in this process and are encouraged n to find a way to celebrate their life not just their parenting, helping everyone in the household win. |
The calling of a mother is ordained by God. In his debut book, Rev. S. Musa Korfeh presents with simplicity and clarity the calling of women to motherhood. He shares the stories of the women that impacted the life of Moses; how they all played the role of a mother in his life, and how he went on to fulfill his God-given purpose. This is an excellent book to help women learn the biblical truth of the gift of motherhood, overcoming the challenges, and the gift of nurturing embedded in every woman by God Himself. The author’s plea is for women to be Mothers to the children that God brings into their lives, biological or not. Unleashing the Mother in You will help you: • Identify what motherhood really is. • The call of motherhood. • The mission of a godly woman. • Recognize the beauty of adoption. • And the wisdom of motherhood. |
An Unlikely, ‘Ordinary’ Family is a crash course in courage, hope, wisdom, joy, and humility. Meet Michael and Barbara Brill, and their children Ellen and Kevin, who together as an “ordinary” family, triumph over their physical and mental disabilities and the expectation of failure. Reading this inspiring book, you’ll be encouraged to grab life and make it work for you, and never make another excuse. |
What happens when love is not enough? The answer lies in this true story of one family’s journey through the world of foster care and adoption within the United States. It is a personal account, encompassing both heartbreak and joy, while realistically embracing the intrinsic challenges of parenting the “hard to place” child. The long-term effects of neglect and abandonment, along with the issues of Reactive Attachment Disorder, sexual abuse, mental illness, and false allegations, are discussed in the context of the family’s four biological, five adopted and nine foster children. From a prospective parent’s standpoint, this book dispels unrealistic and idealized expectations, yet from a Christian standpoint, it offers spiritual insight into understanding, acceptance and finally, forgiveness. Creatively written, this is a story that needs to be told, for although tragic in nature, it raises the awareness of the reader to the inherent risks and rewards of adoption. About the Author: Deborah Hannah has spent more than a decade, along with husband Joe, fostering and adopting children within the United States. A graduate of Saint Louis University with a degree in child psychology and further a graduate of the Center for Biblical Counseling and member of the American Association of Christian Counselors, Deborah writes with authority on the emotional and spiritual needs of today’s hard to place children. Her years of experience working alongside the County Department of Human Services and the Family Court System, along with her membership in the Foster Parent Association, allows her the ability to share the inside experiences of foster and adoptive parents. Her experiences as a mother of four biological, five adopted, and nine foster children allows her a unique prospective on the heartbreaks of the children placed within the system, as well as on the tragedies of the families, in which they are placed. |
From the Back Cover:
As unmarried parents, you face many unique legal, financial, and child-rearing challenges that married couples do not. How do I explain this situation to my child? Can I leave the paternity or maternity section blank on a birth certificate? How much do I need to tell my child's teacher? Award-winning author and attorney Brette McWhorter Sember provides real-life scenarios and resources to help guide you through the myriad issues that face unmarried singles and couples today. This firstof-its-kind parenting manual covers these and other important topics:
About the Author: Brette McWhorter Sember, J.D., is an award-winning author, mother of two, former attorney, and freelancer whose writing career began eight years ago when she left her law practice to stay home after the birth of her second child. The recipient of the Mothers at Home 1999 Media Award, she has written more than twenty books, including The Everything® Guide to Pregnancy Over 35, How to Parent with Your Ex, and Gay and Lesbian Parenting Choices. Her freelance work has appeared in more than 130 publications, including American Baby, Child, ePregnancy, Writer's Digest, Personal Journaling, Divorce Magazine, Home Business Journal, Pregnancy, and Conceive. She lives in Clarence, NY. Philip S. Hall, Ph.D., is a licensed psychologist and licensed school psychologist, and ts the principal author of two nonfiction books on children, Educating Oppositional and Defiant Children and the upcoming Parenting Your Defiant Child. He holds a Ph.D. in psychology from the University of Montana. Dr. Hall currently specializes in working with behaviorally challenged children and adults on American Indian Reservations and for various Plains States school systems. He lives in Spearfish, SD. By the Same Author: The Complete Adoption and Fertility Legal Guide (2004, Sphinx Publishing); The Infertility Answer Book: The Complete Guide to Your Family-Building Choices with Fertility and other Assisted Reproduction Technologies (2005, Sphinx Publishing); Gay and Lesbian Parenting Choices: From Adopting or Using a Surrogate to Choosing the Perfect Father (2006, Career Press); The Adoption Answer Book (2007, Sphinx Publishing); and The Everything Parent’s Guide to Raising Your Adopted Child: A Complete Handbook to Welcoming Your Adopted Child Into Your Heart and Home (with Corrie Lynn Player & Mary C Owen; 2008). |
From the Back Cover:
Like millions of adults, you’ve perhaps considered adopting a child. But the process seems so daunting you hardly know where to begin. Should you adopt within the country or internationally? Through an agency, foster care system, or independently? Should the adoption be “open” or “closed”? For every step of the process, you need as much knowledge and guidance as you can get your hands on. You want the inside scoop. The Unofficial Guide™ to Adopting a Child is designed to give savvy consumers like you a foolproof appraisal of everything from knowing where to start the search to dealing with problems you might encounter after adoption. In this book you’ll get unbiased recommendations that are not influenced by any company, product, or organization. The Unofficial Guide™ to Adopting a Child is intensively inspected by The Unofficial Panel of Experts: Leo J. Farley’s an adoption official with the Massachusetts Department of Social Services; Mary Gambon’s the same department’s director of foster care and adoption services; Linda Lach’s an attorney specializing in adoption; and AnnaMarie Merrill sits on the executive board of International Concerns for Children. These specialists ensure that you are armed with the most up-to-date insider information on the subject of adoption and are told exactly what “the Official establishment” doesn’t want you to know. Vital Information on choosing the right adoption choice for you Insider Secrets on adopting if you’re single, lesbian, or gay Money-Saving Techniques for dealing with adoption and legal fees Time-Saving Tips on cutting through red tape and speeding the adoption process The Latest Trends in building a nontraditional family Handy Checklists and Charts on keeping track of adoption paperwork About the Author: Andrea DellaVecchio, M.A., M.Ed., is the coordinator of the Vermont Adoptive Parent Support Network. She is currently involved with several projects in her home state of Vermont dedicated to giving voice to parents of challenging adopted children and to teaching the community how to help these children. Ms. DellaVecchio is also a member of the Court Improvement Project of the Vermont State Initiative on Protecting Abused and Neglected Children. In conjunction with Casey Family Services, a post-adoption program, she has developed an educational curriculum to help teachers who work with children with Reactive Attachment Disorder and is participating in training workshops statewide. She has worked with the Federation of Families for Mental Health to develop a video for the secondary caregivers of adopted children with attachment issues. A 20-year veteran of teaching middle-school English in the United States, Ms. DellaVecchio spent two years teaching English to educators in Asia. She is the author of numerous articles for a variety of professional journals and newspapers such as Glens Falls Business Journal and the Saratogian. She and her husband, Tony, are the parents of two daughters who were adopted. Compiler’s Note: This bibliography was included in this extensive reference book in the “Recommended Reading List” appendix under the heading “Finding books about adoption.” |
From the Back Cover:
This is not just another book about adoptive parenting. This is the real stuff: dynamic, messy, baffling adoptive parenting, rooted in domestic life. This book offers savvy, compassionate advice on how to be “good enough” in the face of both day-to-day and more bewildering challenges—how to respond to “red mist” meltdowns, crippling anxieties about new routines and, most importantly, how to meet the intimidating challenge of being strong enough to protect and nurture your child. Full of affecting and hilarious stories drawn from life in the Donovan household, The Unofficial Guide to Adoptive Parenting offers parents a refreshing counterblast to stuffy parenting manuals—read it, weep, laugh and learn. About the Author: Sally Donovan and her husband Rob adopted two children from local authority care in 2002. Sally is a writer, blogger and communicator on adoption. In 2013 she was awarded the British Society of Magazine Editors Business Columnist of the Year and in 2014 she won the Professional Publishing Association Business Media Columnist of the year for her regular columns in Community Care magazine. She now sits on a UK Government advisory group tasked with improving post-adoption support. She is also author of the classic memoir No Matter What: An Adoptive Family Story of Hope, Love and Healing, published by Jessica Kingsley Publishers. |
From the Dust Jacket:
The first independent investigation of Woody Allen, our era’s most celebrated, distinctive, and confounding filmmaker, reveals the controversial private life behind the icon. Until now, there has been little scrutiny of that life. The reason: Woody viewed biographers as the Ebola plague, dangerous, uncontrollable contagions that might squish his public persona into mousse. Allen’s prolific achievements are all but unparalleled in cinematic history. To fans, his films have always represented an ongoing autobiography, through which he has bared his self-deprecating overanalytical soul to the world. It was not until 1992, when his stormy private life turned into sensational headlines, that the cracks in the familiar persona appeared. The lines separating art and fact, myth and reality, public and private life, became increasingly blurred. Marion Meade has tracked down scores of people in Allen’s life who have never before spoken to an Allen biographer: boyhood pals; Brooklyn neighbors and teachers; colleagues Buddy Hackett and Mel Brooks from his early career as a television writer and stand-up comic; actors Maureen Stapleton, Max von Sydow, and Bob Hope; director Sydney Pollack; and the film reviewers who have followed his career for decades—Vincent Canby, Roger Ebert, Stanley Kauffmann, Andrew Sarris, and John Simon. She also details the numerous examples of art imitating life in Allen’s films, particularly the extraordinary saga behind his marriage to the adopted daughter of his long-time lover, Mia Farrow. In reconstructing Allen’s life, Meade explores the cult of celebrity in America—how it is our own infatuation with the rich and famous that has made it possible for this supremely talented man to shrewdly manipulate both the media and the movie-going public. About the Author: Marion Meade is the author of Dorothy Parker: What Fresh Hell Is This? “Finally, this biography restores Parker to her true stature,” raved the Chicago Tribune. She has also written biographies of Buster Keaton, Eleanor of Aquitaine, Madame Butterfly, and Victoria Woodhull, as well as two novels. A graduate of Northwestern University and the Columbia Graduate School of Journalism, Meade has contributed articles to The New York Times, The Village Voice, and Ms. magazine. She lives in New York City. |
Rick Silanskas awoke early on the morning of December 23, 2002, his life had changed forever. A vivid dream he had just had became the driving force in his life. In his dream he saw a small girl in need of his help. He was so convinced of her existence that he began searching for her. His heart told him that the girl lived in Russia so he contacted an adoption agency specializing in international adoptions and told them of his dream. He even provided them with a sketch of the little girl drawn by an artist friend. Rick and his wife, Stephanie, later learned that at the very moment Rick had that dream, the child’s birth mother was signing away her parental rights from the bed of her Russian hospital room. Unshakable is the amazing true story of Rick’s relentless search to find the scared little girl he saw in his dream and the faith that sustained him along the journey. |
Untold Stories: Life, Love, and Reproduction is a collection of stories of ordinary people talking intimately and honestly about their reproductive experiences including abortion, egg donation, adoption, LGBT parenting, remaining child free, and much more. This unique collection is a project of The Sea Change Program, a nonprofit committed to upholding the dignity and humanity of all people as they move through their reproductive lives. Untold Stories: Life, Love, and Reproduction presents a wide range of reproductive experiences that are rarely explored together in one place. The authors share their most vulnerable experiences with emotional honesty, self-awareness and sometimes humor. The multiple perspectives in this book challenges stereotypes about people whose reproductive decisions and experiences fall outside of the dominant story of pregnancy and parenting. Intimate and accessible, Untold Stories: Life, Love, and Reproduction invites you to join in a circle of sharing that is safe and affirming. By reading and discussing these stories about reproductive experiences, you will be part of ending shame and isolation while helping to expand a more inclusive and compassionate understanding of family ... and don’t be surprised if you find that you, too, finally have the courage to share your own untold story. |
Celebrities like Angelina Jolie and Madonna may have brought adoption into the spotlight, but adoption remains something people do not talk about openly. That silence leads to most people entering the adoption process unprepared for the gamut of emotions and struggles they will encounter. In Unveiling the Adoption Process, readers will join seven families on their adoption journeys. Nobody’s experience is identical, but they all share knowledge of the unexpected bumps along the way. There are emotional highs and lows, process changes and stressors, and reactions from others to handle, but in the end, these families all achieve the ultimate triumph—the addition of a beloved child to their family. Author Rhonda Miller will prepare prospective adoptive parents for the road ahead with detailed information and insight from those who know it firsthand. Join her as she candidly and realistically unveils the adoption process. |
Vanilla Mommy is a unique non-fiction story about how a young, single white woman adopts a five-year-old African American girl from the Los Angeles County Department of Children’s Services. This transracial family discovers how to live in two worlds, black and white. Everything from nappy hair to ashy skin is new to Bradie as she joins a black Baptist church to help her daughter learn about God and her heritage at the same time. While her daughter Amanda goes through culture shock and begins to deal with her turbulent past, Bradie learns to “Go Deep” both spiritually and in the new black world she gradually becomes a part of. |
From the Dust Jacket:
Everything conspires against the single, childless man. Each new living thing in the world each day says: You are alone, and not getting younger. At the age of thirty-seven, the journalist and novelist Jesse Green found his life dramatically changing when he met and fell in love with a man who had recently adopted a baby boy. Having long since made peace with his choice not to be a parent, Green now faced the shock and the responsibility of a fatherhood he had never imagined. The Velveteen Father is his candid, heartfelt, and often hilarious account of the formation and flourishing of a family. In intimate, graceful prose, Green describes his partner’s journey from the hedonistic eighties to the realization that he wanted to have a child; his own concurrent journey to find a way to become an adult without having a child; and their journey together to become good parents in a society whose reactions to unconventional families can be both funny and frightening. In the classic bedtime story, a velveteen rabbit is made real at last by a child’s true love. The Velveteen Father is a moving record of the transformative effect parenthood can have on people who least expect to become parents, of how we are repeatedly made anew by the love of children who need us. But this transformation is not just the province of parents, Green writes; only by addressing, in some way, the generations that come before and after us can we face the task of becoming real. The Velveteen Father will therefore interest anyone who has considered—or would consider—having a child. About the Author: Jesse Green is a much-anthologized, award-winning journalist and a regular contributor to The New York Times Magazine; his articles have also appeared in The New Yorker, New York, The Washington Post, Premiere, GQ, Philadelphia, Mirabella, and Out. His novel, O Beautiful, was called “one of the best first novels of the year” by Entertainment Weekly. He lives in New York City. Compiler’s Note: The author has written about his experiences as an adoptive father elsewhere: a pre-publication excerpt from The Velveteen Father was included in Wanting a Child: Twenty-Two Writers on Their Difficult But Mostly Successful Quests for Parenthood in a High-Tech Age (1998, Farrar Straus & Giroux) under the title “Finalizing Luke”; and a stand-alone essay called “The Day That Hallmark Forgot” appeared in A Love Like No Other: Stories from Adoptive Parents (2005, Riverhead Hardcover). |
From the Publisher:
Written from the heart, A Very Special Child will touch a very special place in your heart. This warm and loving story explains to an adopted child how very special they are. About the Author: Debra Shiveley Welch began writing at the tender age of nine, and by age 11, her poems and short essays were gaining attention from her teachers and the local newspaper, The Columbus Dispatch. At age 25, Ms. Welch authored a newspaper column in The Baltimore Eagle Gazette titled “Poetry Problems,” and later became the creator, author and writer for the family newsletter “The Parent Connection” published by the League Against Drug Abuse, writer for Ohio Safety and Hygiene’s employee newsletter “Employee Reflections” and freelance for various church publications. By the Same Author: Son of My Soul (2007, Saga Books). Related Title: Just Chris by Christopher Shiveley Welch (2008, Saga Books). |
The eleven writers featured here, in Purple Clover’s inaugural collection of personal essays, are the Lena Dunhams of our generation—a little older, possibly a little wiser, certainly more experienced and generally less inclined to parade around naked. The essays—taken from our site’s popular Voices series—covers everything from finding love in midlife to the joys and heartbreak of adoption to a longtime married couple navigating the shoals of their new stay-at-home status to a bold journey of sexual reawakening. Collectively, they reflect the emotional truth of how we live today. Compiler’s Note: See, particularly, “The Joy and Sorrow of Adoption” by Caryn Ostrow. |
The Whitehouse family were immigrants who harbored the ABC of family secrets: A—Asperger’s autistic son; B—baby girl adopted at birth; and C—clairvoyance from European lineage. These family secrets unraveled after the death of Patrick, the oldest son. Michael was bullied, mentally tortured, and worse—in efforts to swindle his inheritance. Diana, once abandoned in an orphanage for adoption, relentlessly tries to save her mentally handicapped brother by cracking “the family code of silence.” The impending chaos forces her to use an undeniable clairvoyance she was told to hide since childhood. Living two journeys in one lifetime, Baby Sister examines their vulnerabilities. The evasive quest for “happily ever after” lies just beyond their reach. About the Author: Betsy MacDonald, a psychiatric RN, worked as a Mental Health Director lecturing the public and health agencies. She was Director of Nursing, counseling and evaluating children in schools. Betsy’s formative years were spent in Clinton, Connecticut. She now resides with her family in Florida. |
From the Back Cover:
“I kept thinking God was challenging us, asking us if we’d just pass by. Or would we be like the Good Samaritan who did something about the person in need right in front of him?” A little boy who needed a home. An infant girl who needed a mother’s love. A toddler trapped in the insecurity of foster care. A tiny girl without a family. Kelly and John Rosati never expected to adopt four children from the U.S. foster care system. But God’s plan for the turned out to be more extraordinary than they could have dreamed. As you follow Kelly and John on their amazing journey through the child welfare system, you’ll be inspired by the story of how God brought their family together. And you’ll be challenged by the desperate needs of children still waiting for families. Joining with her husband, John, to tell their story, Kelly Rosati, vice president of Community Outreach and coordinator of Focus on the Family’s Wait No More® program, takes you behind the scenes to share her inspiration and passion for the project. The Rosati family’s story is one of hope amid challenges, beauty from ashes, and faith that sustains. It’s a beautiful picture of what family truly means. |
From the Dust Jacket:
The inspiring true story of a four-year-old Chinese orphan who convinces her adoptive American family to return to China to rescue the little boy she couldn’t forget. Adopted by an American family at age four, Jaclyn traveled to her new home with a great burden. Her new family had to leave behind a little boy who had been under her charge at the Chinese orphanage where Jaclyn fought the odds against abandonment, institutionalization, and hunger—not for herself, but on behalf of this even smaller child, whom she regarded as her responsibility. Jaclyn’s saga spans oceans and cultures. The Waiting Child is an extraordinary story of human resilience in the face of profound loss and suffering—and a testament to the ability of a loving heart to prevail over great adversity. Jaclyn’s unshakable determination to bring to her new life the child she had cared for in the institution, the one she believed with all her heart was “her baby,” will change all assumptions made about the human spirit. In the end, this moving story affirms everything that is good and hopeful in life, when, after a two-year effort, the little boy is brought to this country as the adopted son of Jaclyn’s American aunt and uncle. About the Author: Cindy Champnella is very active in the adoption community and is a passionate advocate for and speaker on adoption issues. She and her family live in Farmington Hills, Michigan. By the Same Author: The Twelve Gifts of Life: Finding Extraordinary Meaning in Ordinary Moments (2012, Ambassador Books). |
From the Dust Jacket:
Today, as many as one out of every six couples dreaming of starting a family is finding that the dream is unexpectedly denied. For couples facing the painful and difficult issues of infertility, the quest to have a child can become desperate and debilitating, affecting almost every aspect of their lives. Waiting for Baby is the very personal and moving story of one couple’s struggle to have a child. Married for the first time in her late thirties and faced with the tyranny of the biological clock, Mary Earle Chase and her husband felt helpless and obsessed, willing to try almost anything—from acupuncture, to fertility drugs, to consultations with psychics—to get pregnant. The book traces the course of their treatment, providing basic information about the medical interventions most infertile couples undergo. It also illuminates, through their own experience as well as those of other couples, the emotional traumas of infertility and how couples cope with their pain, disappointment, and loss. The story of how the Chases resolved their dilemma through adoption provides an intimate insight into the decision to adopt and the joyous opportunities adoption represents for childless couples. Beyond the personal perspective, Waiting for Baby offers up-to-date information, advice, and encouragement for couples who face the difficult decisions involved in trying to have a child—either through medical technology or through adoption. Drawing on the experience of other couples and professionals in the field, Mary Chase threads a path through the maze of medical, emotional, and financial choices to help would-be parents ease the impact on their self-esteem, their careers, and their relationships with family, friends, and each other. For those interested in adopting, she examines the new issues surrounding adoption today and offers a positive approach to pursuing it successfully. The basic premise of the book is that if you truly want to be a parent, you can have a family. Upbeat and inspiring, Waiting for Baby encourages couples to be responsible and aggressive in seeking medical treatment and/or in finding a baby to adopt. Written with humor and compassion, it provides a fresh perspective on a painful problem and offers hope to millions of couples that their dream of becoming parents will come true. About the Author: Mary Earle Chase is an author and writer/producer for film and video. She lives in Mill Valley, California, with her husband, Bill, and son, Alexander. |
Waiting for Lucinda is a book that takes the reader on a journey through international adoption. Written with passion, honesty, humor, and love, author Amy Shore describes the ups and downs of adopting a child from Guatemala. The truths and the fictions, the myths and the realities, the highs and the lows: this is how adoption really is. From hope to heartache, anger and determination, the will to believe when all else fails, bureaucratic red tape, an interesting cast of international characters, and the agony of the wait—come along on this incredible, heartwarming journey to meet Lucinda. |
After months trying to conceive a child, Jodie Peyton was told by doctors that her dream was not possible. With great persistence, she and her husband desperately searched for an answer. Their journey took them over five thousand miles across the world to Russia, where they discovered her dream through adoption. Waiting for Me is a personal and honest account of the pain and emotional suffering that many couples face with infertility and the adoption process. It is a remarkable story of the presence of a higher power that will inspire readers to have faith, and follow their dreams, no matter what they may be. |
From the Back Cover:
Waiting for the Call takes readers from the foothills of the Appalachians—where Jacqueline Taylor was brought up in a strict evangelical household—to contemporary Chicago, where she and her lesbian partner are raising a family. In a voice by turns comic and loving, Taylor recounts the amazing journey that took her in profoundly different directions from those she or her parents could have ever envisioned. Taylor’s father was a Southern Baptist preacher, and she struggled to deal with his strictures as well as her mother’s manic-depressive episodes. After leaving for college, Taylor finds herself questioning her faith and identity, questions that continue to mount when—after two divorces, a doctoral degree, and her first kiss with a woman—she discovers her own lesbianism and begins a most untraditional family that grows to include two adopted children from Peru. Even as she celebrates and cherishes this new family, Taylor insists on the possibility of maintaining a loving connection to her religious roots. While she and her partner search for the best way to explain adoption to their children and answer the inevitable question, “Which one is your mom?” they also seek out a church that will unite their love of family and their faith. Told in the great storytelling tradition of the American South, full of deep feeling and wry humor, Waiting for the Call engagingly demonstrates how one woman bridged the gulf between faith and sexual identity without abandoning her principles. About the Author: Jacqueline Taylor is Dean of the College of Communication and Professor of Communication at DePaul University. |
From the Publisher:
Share family photographs, record personal history, and document the adoption process with fill-in pages and journaling springboards with inclusive language to fit diverse adopting scenarios, including single-parent, alternative family or older child. Adopting couples can each fill out a journal of their very own. About the Author: Now a stay at home mom, Kirsten Davis considers Waiting for You a true culmination of her personal and professional journeys. Davis lives in Carmel, Indiana with her husband and daughter and is currently “expecting” child #2. |
The demand for foster carers and adopters for children in the United Kingdom is well in excess of 10,000 families, and rising. In order to undertake the rewarding task of giving a home to children who, for one reason or another, cannot live with their parents suitable alternative families must be found. To be approved for this undertaking applicants have to undergo a long and complex procedure which can often take 6 months or more to complete. Many do not achieve their goal, or become disillusioned by the process. Want to Foster takes you through the process stage by stage. It tells you how to prepare yourself for your assessment and shows you how to present your skills and attributes in the best possible way. It is written in a jargon-free style by an experienced assessor. There is no easy path to becoming approved, but your chances of success can be improved by understanding what will be required of you in order to become a successful substitute parent and be able to give a child a better chance in life. Want to Foster can help assessors in their task of gathering the information they require to complete their reports. Applicants will have had the opportunity to prepare themselves in advance of visits and have a clearer understanding of what is being asked in order to present a true picture of their capabilities. |
In her debut memoir, Ellen Woods draws the reader into her progression from an inquisitive Indiana girlhood to the aches and astonishments of adulthood in Berkeley. Through twenty-eight stories, readers are introduced to memorable characters—family, friends, teachers and strangers woven into her life, often with unexpected circumstances. Readers are pulled into the depths of the present moment, and find themselves sharing the author’s spiritual and political context. As Woods traces the importance of her meditation practice, we see how silence soothes her and faith emerges through life’s stunning transitions. With the cautious wisdom of almost seven decades, she focuses on integrating events of the past and redeeming lost connections. Warriors in Transition is incisive, provocative and astute, unflinchingly honest in its revelation of a personal journey rooted in social realities of times past and present. |
From the Back Cover:
This book chronicles in detail the life experiences of several adoptive families who have participated in a support group for adoptive families. it contains a compilation of information and advice for other adoptive families and professionals who are touched by adoption. “We cannot fully express how even small victories were celebrated by the group as a whole. The group members have become friends who call just to check on one another. They are available to each other in times of trouble and in times of joy. As the years went by the members began to develop a concern for families who needed and did not have a support group to help them. The members believe that all adoptive parents should have the opportunity to share in such a rewarding experience.” “it is important to seek knowledge and assistance when problems are first suspected, before they start school, perhaps even before adoption.” “You will need to understand that your child will have pain that you cannot fully appreciate or eliminate.” “Your children will need love, commitment, and the teaching of values; but that is not enough. You must learn all the information about their child’s history and raise the child you have, not the child you wish him or her to be. You must accept that your child may have dreams and a reality that does not fit your dreams.” “Think of your family as a car, with you as the engine. You need to keep refueling. Too many of us don’t look for help until we are running on fumes. It’s important to take time to nurture yourself and for couples to nurture each other.” About the Author: Ellen Wristen is an adoptive parent and an attorney who has learned much about the difficulties adoptive children can have in achieving their educational needs. She contributes a practical guide to obtaining educational services. Dr. Alan Dupre-Clark has been a counselor for adoptive families for many years and has assisted in writing the training manuals we use for adoptive families. He leads the parent groups, does all of our assessments, and has developed treatment modalities for adopted children. Dr. Richard Mague is a counselor for families and children who brings a fresh approach for assessment and treatment to our objectives. He works with families in crisis and co-leads the newer parent support group. Rosemary Haggerty put her own book on hold to review, edit, give suggestions, and write the introduction to the adoptive family stories. She made many trips across town for meetings and called all of the families to obtain information for the survey section. The short descriptions of each family in the survey section were compiled and written by Rosemary. |
From the Dust Jacket:
When she is first called to the hospital, Joan Ryan thinks it means only a few stitches and a wasted afternoon. Instead she spends months rather than hours with her son in the hospital and in rehab, watching him fight to survive a traumatic brain injury. Joan retraces the tumultuous, complicated relationship that delivers mother and son to this moment when, through his brush with death and his painful rehabilitation, they are challenged to redefine who they are and what they mean to each other. Never easy to parent, her son had spent most of his sixteen years lurching from one setback to the next, struggling to overcome learning disabilities and ADHD. Joan’s grim determination to solve the puzzle of his odd and often defiant behavior left her confounded and exasperated. She became so controlling and judgmental, so focused on trying to fix him, that she became more his relentless reformer than his loving mother. When her son wakes from his coma, Joan gets a second chance at motherhood. She rejoices at his first word, his first step, his first spoon of food, his first attempt to write. She gets to be his mother all over again and for the first time recognizes what an amazing, heroic young man he is. The Water Giver is the universal story of a mother coming to terms with her limitations and learning that the best way to help her child is simply to love him. About the Author: Joan Ryan, is an award-winning journalist and author. She was a pioneer in sports journalism, becoming one of the first female sports columnists in the country. Her first book, Little Girls in Pretty Boxes: The Making and Breaking of Elite Gymnasts and Figure Skaters, was named one of the Top 100 Sports Books of All Time by Sports Illustrated. Joan lives in Marin County, north of San Francisco, with her husband, Fox sportscaster Barry Tompkins, their eighteen-year-old son, Ryan, and their dog, Bill. |
From the Dust Jacket:
Harry Bell and his wife Peggy had been married for six years and had no children. In the eyes of their neighbors, they were the smart young couple with nothing to worry about except a cocker spaniel. No need to worry about baby sitters or sticky little hands on the living room upholstery. But the Bells wanted a child desperately. This is the story of how they set about adopting one. It turned out to be a little girl, Barbara, two and a half years old, who looked rather like Harry when he was a child. This is a loving and detailed account of the Bells’ new life and times with Barbara, of the actual red-tape of adoption, and of the difficulties and rewards of personal adjustment—including the spaniel’s. Any couple who have ever thought of adopting a child will find here a close-up preview of an experience that could be their own; and anyone who loves children will find it a heart-warming story. About the Author: Harry Bell is thirty-five years old and an advertising agency executive. He and Peggy live in Los Angeles with their adopted daughter Barbara, who is now five. The idea of writing a book about adoption was certainly not in Harry Bell’s mind when he and his wife Peggy [were in] Bermuda [on] vacation in 1949, because they hadn’t even thought of adopting a child then. But when they got Barbara a year and a half later, things changed ... fast. And what started out as a Saturday Evening Post article [in the August 16, 1952 issue] recounting how Barbara became a part of the Bell family has now wound up as a book. It is the first literary attempt by the author. |
Easy-to-read, realistic story of family’s struggles and triumphs while searching for services for a sexually abused, alcohol exposed, attachment disorder, emotionally disturbed, adopted child. We Adopted a Dusty Miller is a spellbinding and unusually frank narration of the roller-coaster ride parents experience when they love a difficult child and are not successful in finding help. A strong marriage, a supportive family, a sense of humor, a persistent attitude, and the ability, finally, to let go of a heartbreaking situation combine to reveal a picture of the difficult journey many parents endure. Phyllis Bosley tells in rapid succession the experiences and feelings that are common to parents of children suffering from Reactive Attachment Disorder, and/or Fetal Alcohol Syndrome/Effect. The book describes the behavior usually present in children who are in need of therapeutic care. It provides an argument for the development of wrap-around services for these children and their families, demonstrating the need for community understanding and support. It offers a clear picture of the depth of disturbance that may be present in a child who, to outsiders, seems very charming. Having survived the experience with marriage intact, the Bosleys resolved to offer friendship and encouragement to other families traveling this difficult path in the hope that their daughter’s story will not be repeated. |
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