From the Dust Jacket: “Written from the heart,” is how the Christian Science Monitor described Niall Williams and Christine’s journal, O Come Ye Back to Ireland. It was the young American/Irish couple’s account of abandoning New York to strike out for their ancestral homeland in search of a different kind of life. The reviews were wonderful and the book sold out repeatedly and was translated into several languages. Then a television crew appeared from America, followed by hundreds of letters and cards. An Irish reporter came by to see what all the fuss was about, then a script writer and a movie producer; a gift arrived from the Chicago Bears football team: And a steady stream of visitors—several hundred of them—would stop in the nearby village of Kilmihil asking for directions; they just wanted to meet Niall and Christine.

When Summer’s in the Meadow begins after that first year when, having settled into their new lives, Niall and Christine learn that they cannot have what they most wanted: a family. Bolstered by their concerned neighbors, they add themselves to the long waiting list for adoption. It is a trying process made all the harder by their having to prove solvency, not easy without a steady income, and by their having to meet with and be approved by the biological mother. By turns humorous and moving, this is a rare true story of two people reclaiming a heritage.

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About the Author: Niall Williams was born and raised in Dublin. He has an M.A. in American Literature from University College Dublin and a Certificate in Farming from the Irish Agricultural Advisory Board.

Christine Breen was born in New Jersey and grew up in suburban Westchester County, New York. She is a graduate of Boston College and was studying Irish Literature at U.C.D. when she met Niall. They were wed in 1981.

They worked in publishing in New York before deciding to become small farmers. They live now in the cottage in which Christine’s grandfather was born near the village of Kilmihil in County Clare.

Together they have written O Come Ye Back to Ireland and When Summer’s In the Meadow telling of their new lives.

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By the Same Author: The Pipes Are Calling: Our Jaunts Through Ireland (1989); The Luck of the Irish: Our Life in County Clare (1995); and Her Name Is Rose (A novel by Christine Breen) (2015, St. Martin’s Press).

From the Back Cover: Where does a couple turn when they discover they are unable to bear children of their own?

Ray and Rebecca Larson faced that question and found few answers available for the Christian couple. This book is the result of their experience and their desire to help others deal with the dilemma of infertility. Writing from the perspective of both husband and wife, the Larsons share their private struggles and personal victories.

Your heart will thrill to the message of hope and encouragement presented in this practical and heartwarming book.

When the Womb is Empty provides:

• the options available to childless couples

• the medical reasons for infertility

• a complete guide to agency adoption procedures

• guidelines for independent adoption

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About the Author: Ray and Rebecca Larson have pastored for over eleven years. Prior to their current senior pastorate, they birthed a singles ministry that grew to over 800 meeting weekly. The local church they have led for the past four years has also experienced remarkable growth and life. The Larsons travel nationwide sharing the principles for victorious living found in Jesus Christ. They are also the authors of several other books.

From the Dust Jacket: Stand-up comic and comedy writer Carol Leifer faced a critical dilemma and had only two options: either continue sharing her greatest childhood memory (seeing the Beatles at Shea Stadium in 1966) or lie about her age. But the choice soon became clear: “I see now that when you deny your age, you deny yourself, and when you lie about your age, you become your inauthentic twin. But most important, when you lie about your age, they win. (And of course by ‘they,’ I mean the terrorists).” Now, in this uproarious book, Leifer reveals all—her age, her outlook, her life philosophy—no holds barred.

• On technology: “I am overwhelmed by anything that involves a cord.”

• On motherhood: “Never put your baby’s length on a birth announcement. It’s a baby, not a marlin.”

• On collagen injections: “Your lips are not meant to be flotation devices for your face in case it capsizes.”

• On tattoos: “If you plan on having your lover’s name tattooed on your arm, always leave room before it for a possible ‘I Hate’ down the road.”

• On etiquette: “Never refer to a woman as ‘ma’am,’ even if she’s ninety years old. Nobody likes it.”

After years of stand-up and a wave of successful television shows, Carol Leifer finally (and hilariously) puts it all down on paper—the wise thoughts, witty stories, and wonderfully way-out observations guaranteed to have you nodding in agreement and laughing out loud in sheer delight.

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About the Author: Carol Leifer is an accomplished stand-up comedian and an Emmy-nominated writer and producer for her work on such television shows as Seinfeld, The Larry Sanders Show, Saturday Night Live, and the Academy Awards. She has starred in several of her own comedy specials, which have aired on HBO, Showtime, and Comedy Central. Her “big break” came when David Letterman unexpectedly showed up one night at the Comic Strip in New York City and caught Carol’s show. His visit led to her making twenty-five guest appearances on Late Night with David Letterman. Carol has also been seen on The Tonight Show, Real Time with Bill Maher, Late Night with Conan O’Brien, and The Oprah Winfrey Show. She starred in and created the WB sitcom Alright Already. She lives in Santa Monica with her partner, their adopted son, and their seven rescue dogs.

This book is an attempt by an adoptive mother, Julie Gustavson, to share with others the experience of bringing a foreign toddler into her home as her new son. The book is laid out in five sections; the first tells the story of the adoption from the viewpoint of the 4-1/2-year-old child Julie brought from Russia to California in 1994. It is written from her observations of her child during her initial visit to his orphanage and through his first months in America. The second section is photos taken during the adoption journey and the first year of his life in California. The third section is the adoption story from the adoptive mother’s viewpoint, revealing the ups and downs of the process of adopting from another country, in this case, Russia. The fourth section is a short update, with additional photos from Damir’s childhood through high school graduation shown in the final section. The author knows that she has given a Russian orphan a chance at a good life which he could not have enjoyed had he remained an orphan. She also knows, however, that she would have missed out on so much, had she not brought this young man into her heart, home and life. She only hopes that this true story will encourage other young(ish) adults to save the lives of children who are languishing in orphanages around the world, where funds are often so limited and the children are all but forgotten. The child in this story, Damir, was luckier than most; his orphanage was clean and he was well fed, and obviously cared for. Nonetheless, upon reaching adulthood, he would have been turned out with no future whatsoever, in a country that is still suffering so much turmoil. You, too, could change the life of a child, while enriching your own life unbelievably.

From the Back Cover: Adoption is a beautiful event, and building a family through adoption is a loving and selfless act. But the decision to adopt and the many stages that follow are often pock-marked with tears, distress, anger, and disappointment. While We Wait, written by a mother while she struggled through the process herself, is a hope-filled collection of reflections on the everyday, practical aspects of adoption but also offers a spiritual grounding for frustrated and stressed-out prospective parents. Topics addressed include:

• Adopting after Infertility

• The Paper Chase

• Extended Family

• The Unknown “Due Date”

• Rude Strangers

• Living in the Present

Heidi Schlumpf adopted her first child internationally, but While We Wait is an essential spiritual and practical resource for all adopting parents, including men, singles, families with biological or other adopted children, or those adopting domestically.

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About the Author: Heidi Schlumpf has been a religion writer for 20 years and currently is an associate professor of communication at Aurora University outside of Chicago. She and her husband, Edmund, have a son from Vietnam. They are expecting a second child from China.

From the Publisher: We each have our own unique life story which make us special. When you are adopted you have an extra layer of identity your birth family. This therapeutic workbook is designed to be used with adopted children aged 5-11, and offers a gentle way to explore this difficult subject.

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About the Author: Regina M. Kupecky, LSW, has worked in the adoption arena for more than thirty years as an adoption placement worker and therapist. She was named “Adoption Worker of the Year” in 1990 by the Ohio Department of Human Services. She is currently a therapist with Dr. Keck at the Attachment and Bonding Center of Ohio, where she works with children who have attachment disorders. She trains nationally and internationally on adoption issues, sibling issues, and attachment. Ms. Kupecky authored a resource guide, Siblings Are Family Too, which is available through the Three Rivers Adoption Council in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. She has coauthored a curriculum with Dr. Keck and Arleta James called Abroad and Back: Parenting and International Adoption and has written a curriculum on sibling issues titled My Brother, My Sister: Sibling Relations in Adoption and Foster Care.

From the Back Cover (revised edition): Thinking about adoption? You must have questions—hundreds of them, in fact. The Whole Life Adoption Book has the answers.

With the most current information, research, and parenting strategies, this book is a practical resource every adoptive family should own. And it’s now recommended reading by the National Council for Adoption (NCFA). You’ll understand the impact of adoption on birth children ad learn about the links to other resources for the journey ahead.

Every question you’ve considered—and some that you haven’t—will be answered in the pages of The Whole Life Adoption Book.

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About the Author: Jayne E. Schooler has a distinctive reputation among professionals and families concerned with child welfare. A foster and adoptive parent herself, she has been writing, speaking, training, and educating on state, national, and international levels for more than twenty years.

In his role as president and chief executive officer of the National Council for Adoption (NCFA), Thomas C. Atwood promotes the well-being of children, birth parents, and adoptive families by advocating for the positive option of adoption.

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By the Same Author: Searching for a Past: The Adopted Adult’s Unique Process of Finding Identity (1995); Telling the Truth to Your Adopted or Foster Child (with Betsy Keefer) (2000, Bergin & Garvey); Journeys After Adoption: Understanding Lifelong Issues (with Betsie L. Norris) (2002, Bergin & Garvey); 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).

From the Publisher: In The Whole Parent, parents are taken on a compelling, in-depth journey of discovery and healing that can help them improve their lives and the lives of their children. Wesselmann, an expert in parent-child counseling, contends that contrary to what most people believe, parental instincts are not born to us. Despite the best intentions and genuine love for their children, parents who grew up with inadequate nurturing find themselves trapped in a generational cycle of problematic parent-child relationships. The author shows how moms and dads struggle with shame and frustration as parental ghosts of the past affect their relationships with their children. This is an invaluable guidebook for parents who want to give their children a more solid emotional foundation than the one they received from their own parents. As the author asserts, there is nothing parents can do that will have more impact on their own lives, the lives of their children, and even the lives of their grandchildren than to break unhealthy patterns of relating. The Whole Parent courageously shows parents how to create a new, complete family legacy that will be passed down for generations. Includes a chapter specifically addressing “Special Issues Related to Adoptive Families.”

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By the Same Author: Integrative Parenting: Strategies for Raising Children Affected by Attachment Trauma (with Cathy Schweitzer & Stefanie Armstrong; 2014, W.W. Norton & Co.) and Integrative Team Treatment for Attachment Trauma in Children: Family Therapy and EMDR (with Cathy Schweitzer & Stefanie Armstrong; 2014, W.W. Norton & Co.).

Adopting a child can be exciting and scary at the same time, whether you are adopting an infant or a toddler. Adopting an older child has its own challenges. The first two years after being born are crucial to the rest of a child’s life. This book is to tell you our story and encourage you as a parent or parents who are raising a child with mental problems. Be more aggressive. We were not. We trusted the counselors and physicians to know how to help us. We knew what we were doing wasn’t solving our son’s issues, but not sure what we needed to do different or who else to go to.

From the Dust Jacket: Beyond the headlines, talk shows, and public perceptions lies the flesh-and-blood reality of adoption in all of its complexity. Every adopted child, no matter how well loved by adoptive parents, seeks some kind of answer to the question that is the title of this book.

While every adoption experience is unique, adoption counselor and author Barbara Burlingham-Brown presents a comprehensive selection of first-hand narratives by birthmothers who candidly reveal the intellectual, practical, and emotional motivations that led them to place a child for adoption. Though rich in the variety of stories presented, recurring themes emerge in the stories: that the child is never given up lightly, never without pain and remembrance and longing; and that adoption, although so often seen as a wonderful choice on the part of the adoptive parents, is an unparalleled act of love by the birthmother.

The book is intended for those intimately involved in the adoption triad—birthparents, adoptees, and adoptive parents—those trying to decide if adoption is right for their lives and those trying to deal with it if it is already a part. Because so many different situations are revealed and so many types of adoption involved—from agency, private, closed to semi-open and open—”Why Didn’t She Keep Me?” is also must reading for anyone who works with adoption—social workers, lawyers, clergy, doctors, etc.—who seeks a deeper understanding of the adoption experience. The stories of these 20 women will move you with their candor and their circumstances, their strength in the midst of making heart-wrenching decisions, and the healing and hope which follow this painful process of relinquishment. No two are alike ... not every one ends happily ... but all these accounts serve as very real-life lessons about choice, courage, sacrifice, and, most of all, love.

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About the Author: Barbara Burlingham-Brown received her Bachelor of Arts Degree from St. Mary’s College, Notre Dame, Indiana, and her Master of Science from Villanova University in Philadelphia. She is a professional Open Adoption Practitioner and Adoption Coordinator for a midwestern agency. ”Why Didn’t She Keep Me?” is her first book.

Barbara Burlingham-Brown has three children and lives in Buchanan, Michigan.

From the Back Cover: In South Africa, over 15 percent of all reported rapes are against children under age eleven; 26 percent are against children ages twelve through seventeen. In 2000, fifty-eight children a day were raped or the victim of rape attempts.

On December 2, 2001, in a ghetto porn theater in Johannesburg, a five-month-old girl was violated and defiled—gang-raped land left for dead. Within two weeks of the transgression, little Vyanna would find herself in the care of a new mother, Claudia J. Ford. This short book is a love letter: a record of the suffering and ongoing strength of one miraculous baby girl; of the bonding between a mother and daughter who found each other in the most heartrending of circumstances; of the celebration of tiny successes and enormous strides in the aftermath of a brutal crime.

Infant and child rape are an unfathomable offense, so much so that it hurts to talk about it, gives us chills to read about. Ford brings compassion and awareness to an atrocity that goes too often ignored or unreported. In the weaving together of journal entries, poems, epigrams, letters, and portions of scholarly papers, Ford sets out t leave a written testimony for her daughter and to lift the veil of secrecy as one step toward the prevention of such unspeakable assault. Sharing this story is an act of love, a project of faith, and, most of all, a declaration of the power of courage and hope.

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About the Author: Claudia J. Ford has thirty years’ experience in international development management and training, and has worked in most of the countries of Latin America, the Caribbean, the Middle East, South Asia, South East Asia, East and Southern Africa. Her specialties include health, family planning, HIV/AIDS, democratic institution building, and women’s empowerment.

Ford is currently conducting research on transformation and gender equity, household economics, gender, poverty, and community-based natural resource management. She is a senior lecturer at the University of the Witwatersrand. Ford is the founder and director of The Princess Trust, a South African charity that deals with the issue of infant rape and child sexual abuse. Ford lives with her family in Johannesburg, South Africa.

Will I Ever See You Again? presents an introduction to the process of attachment and bonding as it pertains to abused and neglected children who enter the foster care system. An understanding of attachment theory is especially important for people who work with or care for foster children because these children come into care with scars from abuse and neglect that affect their ability to trust and form emotional attachments to subsequent caregivers. Additionally, what happens to foster children after they are in the child welfare system further reduces the child’s chance of having a meaningful relationship in the future. This book reviews theories of attachment as they apply specifically to foster children, identifies factors in the foster care system that contribute to attachment problems in foster children, and offers suggestions for changes to improve the child’s chance of developing meaningful future relationships leading to the answer of “yes” when a foster child asks, “Will I ever see you again?”

From the Inside Front Cover: Lucy was born to a single mother who had been abused and neglected for most of her own childhood. Lucy’s mother struggled to cope right from the beginning and Lucy suffered much neglect during her early years. But despite concern from many neighbours and teachers, it wasn’t until Lucy reached the age of eight that she was finally taken into permanent foster care.

Withdrawn, refusing to eat, and three years behind with her schooling, it was thought that Lucy had suffered irreversible damage by the time she came to live with me at eleven years old. But deep down Lucy was just a child looking for someone to love her.

This is the story of my adopted daughter Lucy.

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About the Author: Bestselling author Cathy Glass, who writes under a pseudonym, has been a foster carer for more than twenty-five years. She has three children.

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By the Same Author: Damaged: The Heartbreaking True Story of a Forgotten Child (2006); Hidden: Betrayed, Exploited and Forgotten: How One Boy Overcame the Odds (2007); Cut: The True Story of an Abandoned, Abused Little Girl Who Was Desperate to be Part of a Family (2008); I Miss Mummy: The True Story of a Frightened Young Girl Who is Desperate to Go Home (2009); Saddest Girl in the World: The True Story of a Neglected and Isolated Little Girl Who Just Wanted to Be Loved (2009); The Night the Angels Came (2011); A Baby’s Cry (2012); Another Forgotten Child (2012); Please Don’t Take My Baby (2013); Daddy’s Little Princess (2014); and Saving Danny (2015), among many others.

Baby Mathew had half a heart, Hannah was in a detox facility for infants and baby Claire needed an HIV test. On the day these babies were born, no one seemed to care, but Mary was waiting for them—to her they were important. Will You Take This Baby? is about fourteen babies, their incredible strength, their will to live and one ordinary foster mom who learned how to get the best for the babies who had the least. From emergency rooms to ambulances, fire trucks and a medevac, it was a journey few would have chosen. Together they struggled through opiate withdrawals, fetal alcohol syndrome, birth defects and life-threatening communicable diseases. For thirty one years, Mary cared for infants in Washington state’s foster care system. Her journey evolved from one-on-one care to advocacy for critical care babies, ultimately through the doors of the Washington State Legislature. About the author: Mary Stillson Jones was born and raised in Ontario, Canada. She served in the U.S. Navy during the Vietnam War and has raised two children, Tara and Geoffrey. Since retiring as a foster parent, she remains active as a parent partner for Kitsap Mental Health and is on the board of directors for the YWCA. Mary continues to fight for foster children in the Washington State Legislature and is writing her second book.

The true story of what my husband and I went through to adopt children and become a family.

From the Back Cover: What can a 21st century seeker learn about life, love and spirituality from a 19th century French novel? Plenty!

Alfred J. Garrotto offers Victor Hugo’s flawed protagonist as a model for anyone in search of practical wisdom for everyday living. One of fiction’s most beloved characters, the former convict and lifelong fugitive represents humanity in both its brokenness and its potential for selfless—even saintly—living.

Reflection topics range from forgiveness and the primacy of conscience to the joys and sorrows of parenthood. Each Reflection explores a universal theme, including the daily call to spiritual and moral conversion and the life-lessons parents impart to their children. Questions at the end of each Reflection invite you to use the book as your personal wisdom journal.

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About the Author: The Wisdom of Les Miserables is Alfred J. Garrotto’s fourth book-length nonfiction work. It follows Christ in Our Lives, Christians and Prayer, and Christians Reconciling (Winston Press, St Paul, MN). Most recently he has focused on fiction, authoring five novels. In his capacity as lay minister in a large suburban parish, he coordinates adult faith formation, bereavement and lector ministries and is available for spiritual direction.

Born in Santa Monica, California, he now resides and writes in the San Francisco Bay Area where he is active in the Mount Diablo Branch of the California Writers Club.

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By the Same Author: Secrets of a Successful International Adoption: How to Proceed from Start to Finish (1998, Bridge Learning Publishing); Finding Isabella (2000, Genesis Press); Circles of Stone (2003, Hilliard & Harris Publishers); and Down a Narrow Alley (2010), among others.

From the Publisher: If parenthood were a function of biology, adoptive parents, for instance, ought not to be considered parents—which is absurd. Thus, it follows that biology cannot be an essential component of parenthood. Concomitantly, if parenthood were merely a function of law, all those who have parented children without being their legal parents would be stripped of their de facto parenthood ... If, then, parenthood is neither a function of biology nor simply law—what is it? What does being a parent truly mean?

Rooted in the author’s own experience as a father of three, The Wisdom of Parenthood is an insightful, original, and provocative philosophical meditation on the meaning, experience, and practice of parenthood both as a universally human phenomenon across history and, more specifically, in the age of assisted reproduction, in vitro fertilization, gestational surrogacy, “third-party production,” international adoption, and the transformation of the very notion of the nuclear family with the rise of same-sex and LGBT parenting.

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About the Author: Michael Eskin is the author of Yoga for the Mind: A New Ethic for Thinking and Being & Meridians of Thought (with Kathrin Stengel) and the award-winning The DNA of Prejudice: On the One and the Many—a philosophical roadmap for understanding, identifying, confronting and eradicating prejudice in all its forms. Educated at Concordia College, the University of Munich and Rutgers University, he is a former fellow of Sidney Sussex College, Cambridge, and has taught at the University of Cambridge and Columbia University. Michael Eskin has given workshops, lectured and published widely on literary, philosophical, ethical and cultural subjects. He lives in New York City.

From the Dust Jacket: In the summer of 1998, Jenny Bowen looked out her kitchen window onto her garden, and her life changed forever. Her three-year-old daughter Maya, whom she and her husband had adopted months earlier from an orphanage in China, had transformed from a vacant-eyed, sickly little girl into a joyous being thriving in an environment where she knew she was loved. Watching her daughter play, Bowen was overcome with the desire to help the orphaned children she couldn’t bring home. And that’s when Half the Sky Foundation was born.

Wish You Happy Forever tells the story of China’s momentous progress in its treatment of orphaned and abandoned children. When Bowen began Half the Sky in 1998 determined to bring a caring adult into the life of every orphaned child, it seemed impossible that China would allow a foreigner to work inside government orphanages, let alone try to bring meaningful change. Inevitably, the pathway to collaboration was fraught with challenges: Bowen had to find ways to lead her organization past closed doors and naysayers, bureaucratic roadblocks and reluctant government officials, as well as natural disasters and flustered board members to realize her vision for a loving, more nurturing approach to child welfare in China. But despite the oceans and ideas that divide us, in the end, all of us want only good for our children. Now the Chinese government not only trusts but partners with Half the Sky to make life better for the children in its care.

To this day, Bowen is the only Westerner working with the Chinese government to transform its entire child welfare system from the inside, and Half the Sky, with fifty-two children’s centers throughout the country, has helped more than a hundred thousand children. Bowen’s beautifully written memoir, Wish You Happy Forever, teaches us that saving a child’s life can transcend language and cultural barriers, and that, above all else, a determined dreamer with a loving presence speaks at the greatest volume.

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About the Author: Jenny Bowen, a former screenwriter and filmmaker, is the founder and CEO of Half the Sky Foundation, an organization dedicated to reimagining care for orphaned Chinese children. Bowen received the American Chamber of Commerce’s Women of Influence Entrepreneur of the Year Award in 2007 and the Skoll Award for Social Entrepreneurship in 2008.

From the Dust Jacket: “Families,” as Susan T. Viguers observes, “can be created in different ways.” For Susan and her husband, Ken, creating a family meant embarking on the tortuous road of adoption. With uncommon honesty, sensitivity, and eloquence, the author describes—from her husband’s perspective and her own—coming to grips with the emotional wrench of infertility, the evolution of the decision to adopt, the frustration of dealing with adoption agencies, and finally success in adopting ... when all that went before was made bearable, when Susan and Ken became “real parents.”

With Child is a thought-provoking analysis of the issues of identity raised by adoption, a moving celebration of parenting.

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About the Author: Susan T. Viguers lives in Philadelphia with her husband, Kenneth Arnold, and their two children, Nicholas and Ruth.

So you’re thinking about adopting a toddler or youngster from overseas. This workbook will help you prepare for one of the most challenging, yet rewarding experiences you will ever have—taking a child with life-experiences into your heart and your life to be a part of you forever. This is a child who has already attempted to attach to a parent figure, experienced pain and hopefully its relief, learned to recognize language, discovered his or her own body, and divided the world into friend or foe. With Eyes Wide Open will help you reconstruct the experiences that you’ve missed from your child’s first year(s).

Author Kristen A. Morton has entwined her experience as a birth mother with her love of writing. In the book With One Heart, she brings to life each emotional layer of the hearts and minds that are affected by open adoption. This booklet highlights the strong, ever-lasting, relationships that can develop from adoption. It is possible for adoptive mothers and birth mothers to share a happy and healthy relationship with time and trust. Morton brings you eight chapters revealing, brick by brick, how to build a beautiful relationship together.

From the Publisher: Without Justice recalls the events of our adoption fraud trial against a county adoption agency. The trial setting interweaves flashbacks and recollections about our troubled son whose life began when he was abandoned to die in a carport immediately following his birth. These memories recount his well-publicized problems that include his plots to murder his mother, his inclination toward self-mutilation, and his violent, troubled life. The book explores the present child welfare system and its motives to place even the most disturbed children in families ill equipped and unprepared to manage them. Without Justice discusses what happens to a family when such a child is placed in an adoptive home. It considers society’s inclination to ignore, defer treatment, and abandon these children.

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About the Author: Keith Kramer has an undergraduate degree in business, an M.B.A., and numerous post-graduate credits in economics and computer management information systems. As a certified public accountant, he has drafted numerous financial statements, including filings with the Securities Exchange Commission. He has prepared reports for and has testified in court as an expert witness. While a member of the Oregon Economic Development Council, he spoke before large audiences. In this capacity, he drafted many reports for public review. Keith published an article in PC Week magazine. While the director for the Small Business Development Center, he wrote a monthly article for the local newspaper.

Sharon Kramer has an undergraduate degree in business. Sharon was a manager in the hospitality industry and has considerable experience dealing with public relations. She served as a lobbyist in the State of California for the PTA. She actively campaigned for educational funding. Both Keith and Sharon appeared on national television shows discussing issues surrounding their son. They appeared on the CBS Evening News, The Maury Povich Show, and Inside Edition.

No condition of indigence or poverty justifies the abandonment of a child. As far as my own experience is concerned, I am sure that a child would rather die of starvation or know that his parents are in prison than learn that they did not abandon him. If genocide is a crime against humanity, the abandonment of a child is much more, calling into question the first ethical principle for our survival: a mother should not abandon her child. Animals do not do that, or do so only if the little ones are naturally self-sufficient by birth. It is an everlasting torture and I am sure that my son is wondering—in his own confusion—why he did not get in life what so many others were granted About the Author: First-time author Antony Lay is a firefighter in Italy. In his book Wolves and Little Wolves: A Story of an Adoption, he tells about his adopted son, while revisiting scenes of his own childhood. In the process, he discovers the differences between the real world of that time and the virtual world of today. Lay plans to write a second book telling of his adopted son’s journey to live with his natural mother in Romania. “I feel very fortunate to have had two parents who taught me to love and respect ‘Nature,’ even in its most violent form.” Publisher’s website: http://sbpra.com/AntonyLay

From the Dust Jacket: A powerful memoir of one woman’s family and the way in which tribal history informs her own past.

“I sat down to write a book about pain and ended up writing about love,” says award-winning Chicksaw poet and novelist Linda Hogan. In The Woman Who Watches Over the World, she recounts her American Indian identity, her difficult childhood as the daughter of an army sergeant, her love affair at the age of twelve with an older man, the legacy of alcoholism, and the troubled history of the two daughters she adopted. She reveals how historic and emotional pain are passed down through generations, and she blends personal history with stories of important Indian figures of the past such as Lozen, the woman who was the military strategist for Geronimo, and Ohiyesha, the Santee Sioux medical doctor who witnessed the massacre at Wounded Knee. Ultimately, Hogan sees herself and her people whole again, and in doing so gives us an illuminating story of personal and spiritual triumph.

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About the Author: Linda Hogan is a Chicksaw poet, novelist, essayist, and author of ten previous books. Seeing Through the Sun received an American Book Award from the Before Columbus Foundation; Mean Spirit won the Oklahoma Book Award as well as the Mountains and Plains Booksellers Award and was a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize; and Book of Medicine was a finalist for the National Book Critics Circle Award. Hogan has been the recipient of a NEA grant and a Minnesota Arts Board Grant, a Lannan Award, a Colorado Writer’s Fellowship, a Guggenheim Fellowship, and the Five Civilized Tribes Museum Playwriting Award. She lives in Colorado.

Finally, here is an enlightening and empowering book that defines motherhood from a feminist perspective and then explores the implications of that definition. Feminist authors examine some of women’s full, rich, and varied thoughts and experiences about motherhood. In contrast to the too often accepted male notions of what constitutes a “good” mother or a “normal” family, this important book presents a comprehensive and balanced view of motherhood—as women have observed and experienced it. The major issues surrounding motherhood today are closely examined—the pervasive problem of mother-blaming and mother-hating and solutions to overcome it; ageism, sexism, and motherhood; relationships between mothers and daughters; relationships between stepmothers and stepchildren; motherhood and sex roles within the family; adoption; infertility; and childlessness. Special insight is also provided into the concerns of women who are mothers—lesbians, women of color, mothers of biracial children, and adoptive mothers of children from different cultures. Woman-Defined Motherhood is must reading for women, including both mothers and daughters, for therapists and other professionals supporting women, and for anyone interested in mothering.

From the Dust Jacket: He was born Allan Stewart Konigsberg in the Bronx, and he grew up neurotic in Brooklyn. In his late teens his comic talents and show-business aspirations took him to Manhattan, where he wrote gag lines for Sid Caesar. So he didn’t become the doctor or lawyer of his parents’ dreams. He became Woody Allen instead.

Three decades of moviemaking, which include such celebrated films as Annie Hall, Manhattan, Bullets Over Broadway, and Deconstructing Harry, have since situated Woody Allen in the public imagination as the quintessential angst-ridden New Yorker, his ego as rumpled as his khakis, his libido beleaguered by romantic disappointments.

In this authoritative new biography of Woody Allen—the first since the tabloids headlined his rift with his long-term mistress Mia Farrow and his affair with her adopted daughter Soon-Yi—John Baxter maps the distance Allen has traveled to attain threefold success as screenwriter, film director, and movie star. He also explores that more shadowy region where the real Woody Allen, a self-confident, steely professional with a fashionable New York address, meets his nebbishy movie twin.

Shrewdly and effectively deconstructing Woody, John Baxter’s biography illuminates Allen’s preoccupation with sex and mortality, his personal quirks and obsessions, his manipulation of celebrity, his jittery avoidance of commitment, and his cinematic achievement as both the poet laureate and court jester of Manhattan’s intellectual elite.

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About the Author: John Baxter is the author of The Hollywood Exiles as well as biographies of Fellini, Bunuel, Steven Spielberg, and Stanley Kubrick. He lives in Paris.

From the Dust Jacket: What makes up a family? While many stories have been told about adoption and the adoption process, there has never been a story like this one. Here is the extraordinary, heartwarming odyssey of a family reinventing itself: a true story of the unique bonds of love forged among parents, children and siblings through international adoption.

In a little over one year the Conroy family—Maggie, Casey, and eight-year-old Meghan—went from one child to four, from one language to three, from likeness to extraordinary diversity. Along the way, the Conroys grappled with a series of legal and medical battles, even with an attempted coup that broke out while they were in the process of bringing a child home from the former Soviet Union. But from the bleak orphanages around the world to their home in California, the Conroys persevered, following a call to love that would see them through the difficult days and months ahead as they began to put their family together.

First there was Nadia, the painfully shy Russian child who had never been outside the orphanage, bravely setting off on a journey into a new life. Then, mere months later, there was Ana, a five-year-old Colombian girl authorities considered too old for adoption, but who instantly captured the Conroys’ hearts. And Alesia, a two-year-old orphan in Siberia who had severe malformations of her hands and feet.

One by one, these remarkable children became part of the Conroys’ lives—and each other’s. Step by step, they embraced their new world, a wonderous place full of things like sliding glass doors, Halloween, Santa Claus, gentleness, and joy. From the extraordinary bond that formed between these four very different sisters to the daunting health and learning difficulties faced by children who had never known anything but survival, A World of Love takes you into the very heart—and creation—of a family. At the same time, Maggie Francis Conroy chronicles the changes in her relationship with her husband—as well as among the children, themselves—as their new world of love took shape around them.

Uplifting, insightful, and beautifully told, A World of Love is living, breathing proof that while no two families are the same, we are all inextricably linked by our need for acceptance, support and love.

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About the Author: Maggie Francis Conroy holds a graduate degree in psychology from the College of Notre Dame and has worked extensively with children. With her husband, Casey, she owns and manages Conroy & Conroy, a training, communication, and design firm. They live with their four children in San Jose, California.

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By the Same Author: International Adoption Sourcebook: What You Should Know About Agencies, Countries, Policies and More (1998, Birch Lane Press).

From the Dust Jacket: A funny, book-obsessed kid, Josh Hanagarne was born to Mormon parents in rural Utah. He plotted escape to Piers Anthony’s magical land of Xanth, freaked himself out with Stephen King’s Pet Sematary, and fell feverishly in love with Fern from E.B. White’s Charlotte’s Web.

Large for his age, Josh was playing the role of Tree in his elementary school play when he suddenly started twitching uncontrollably. Turns out the tree had Tourette Syndrome.

By the time Josh turned twenty, his tics had become too drastic to ignore. Desperate for liberation, Josh tried all possible treatments: well-intentioned chiropractic massage from a future convict; antipsychotic drugs that left him in a fog; even Botox injected directly into his vocal cords to paralyze them, which left him voiceless for two years. The results were dismal.

As his tics worsened, the list of casualties grew: Josh’s relationship with his girlfriend, his Mormon mission, his college career, countless jobs, his sense of self, and—slowly but relentlessly—his faith.

It turned out to be weight lifting that provided the most lasting relief, as Josh learned to “throttle” his tics into submission in the weight room. Under guidance from an eccentric, autistic strongman—and former Air Force tech sergeant and prison guard in Iraq—Josh quickly went from lifting dumbbells and barbells to performing increasingly elaborate feats (like rolling up frying pans and bending spikes). What started as a hobby became an entire way of life—and an effective way of managing his disorder.

At an imposing 6'7" and literally incapable of sitting still, Josh is certainly not your average librarian. He is an aspiring strongman, bookish nerd, twitchy guy with Tourette Syndrome, devoted family man, and tearer of phone books. A tall, thin paradox in thick glasses. Funny and offbeat, The World’s Strongest Librarian traces this unlikely hero as he attempts to overcome his disability, navigate his wavering faith, find love, and create a life worth living.

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About the Author: Josh Hanagarne believes in curiosity, questions, strength, and that things are never so bad that they can’t improve. He is a librarian at the Salt Lake City Public Library. He lives with his wife, Janette, and their son, Max, in Salt Lake City, Utah.

From the Back Cover: Take a look at one family’s journey into adoption. Jason Rainey narrates his family’s two-year journey, including an unexpected eight month in-country waiting period. If you’ve ever felt “trapped” in a place in your life, compare emotional notes with the Raineys. The road may be bumpy, life may not be fair, and you won’t always enjoy the journey, but dreams DO come true!

Thinking of adopting? Are you an adoptive family and need encouragement? Do you know an adoptive family in your church and want to minister to them more? Within the pages of Woven Together there is deep insight, warmth, and valuable truth for Christians on the adoption journey. Woven Together is a compilation project by Funding Hope whereby 18 authors share and unpack God’s grace and goodness in adoption. Woven Together brings testimonies to life from adult adoptees to birth mothers, domestic and international adoption, special needs to embryo adoption, and each author speaks from their heart as they experienced God move in their family though the gift of adoption. As Christians, we know that God is all about adoption as He has adopted each of us through Jesus. Woven Together explores His love of adoption in testimonies. All authors have donated their writings. All profits will go directly to Funding Hope to provide adoption grants to Christians.