From the Publisher: At six weeks of age, Izidor Ruckel was one of 41 children infected with polio when given injections at a Romanian hospital. He was also one of only two who survived. When his parents noticed something wrong with his leg, they took him to a hospital in Sighetu Marmatiei, eight hours away; they never returned. When Izidor turned three, the hospital transferred him to the town’s Institute for Unsalvageables—an orphanage for children with supposedly irreparable mental or physical handicaps. After Romanians revolted and executed dictator Nicolae Ceausescu in 1989, the international news media beamed horrific images of the former Soviet bloc country’s 100,000 institutionalized children across the world. Like thousands of American families, Danny and Marlys Ruckel were moved to action by the images. In 1991, they adopted the then-11-year-old Izidor, who became one of the estimated 2,600 Romanian children who found new homes in America. After the Ruckels brought Izidor to America, the effects of his abandonment and maltreatment became manifest.

From the Back Cover: Discovered inside a brown paper bag left on a toilet seat in a Rochester, New York, bar-and-grill washroom, newborn A.K. Driggs made headlines from the start. Adopted by a loving couple, she continued making waves on her extraordinary life journey—animal communicator, musical prodigy, bisexual lover, phone-sex superstar, recording artist. ... Welcome to the colorful world of A.K. Driggs. From abandonment and betrayal to unconditional love and trust, Abandoned in Search of Rainbows chronicles Driggs's incredible life. Her provocative, often sizzling, candor lets us experience the whole spectrum of emotions as Driggs searches for a meaningful life. By finally finding her place in the world—personally and professionally, romantically and sexually, musically and spiritually—Driggs illuminates a magical path for each of us to follow to get there too. As she says in her song, “I Found the Rainbow”:

In perfect harmony/my answers are clear.
With my eyes finally open/And now I can see.
For I found the rainbow/And the rainbow is ... ME

From the Back Cover: Erin was adopted at the age of four months by a loving couple. This book presents realistic factual information on the topic. An account of her own search for roots and identity can be found in Candle in the Mirror.

The facts speak for themselves and illustrate how the adopted person, adoptive families and biological connections all have to adapt to the changes adoption introduces to their life. How individuals cope with such adaptation can be assisted with fulsome knowledge on the potential for ramifications in each member of the adoption triad.

There is a useful section for those people who may be connected to any member of the adoption triad as to how they can gain understanding and empathy. This is particularly relevant to partners and spouses of an adopted person who may feel at a loss as to how they can help.

Search and reunion are scenes from our shared humanity not the blissfully happy outcomes fed to us by the media. Such scenarios can include rejection.

A useful read for anyone not only those within the world of adoption.

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About the Author: Erin Altrama was born in Scotland in 1956. Her biological mother was aged 23 at the time and came from Ireland. She was then adopted by a Catholic couple and spent her childhood in Edinburgh. She still lives in Scotland with her husband, and is the mother of two grown children.

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By the Same Author: When a Heart Has No Ears (2012), Candle in the Mirror (2012), and Iníon (2014).

From the Dust Jacket: When the young Russian actress found the American father she had never known, it seemed like the happy ending to a Hollywood scenario. THE LOVE THAT CONQUERED THE KREMLIN and ADMIRAL MEETS LOVE CHILD blazed the headlines in thousands of newspapers around the world. But the full story, as Victoria Fyodorova tells it, is far more complex.

It began in Moscow during World War Il when naval officer Jackson Yate met Zoya Fyodorova, one of Russia’s most beloved movie stars, and they fell in love. Their brief affair ended abruptly when Jack was summarily expelled from the country. Soon afterward Zoya learned she was pregnant, and when her baby was born, she named her Wictoria for V-E Day, the day on which she was conceived.

Before Victoria was a year old, Zoya was arrested and imprisoned for treason. For eight years she was held in Vladimir, Russia’s most infamous prison. Her sister, exiled to a remote village, raised Victoria as her own. Victoria’s early years were overwhelmingly lonely ones, for the family was ill-treated and ostracized as enemies of the people.

Upon Stalin’s death Zoya was freed and reunited with Victoria. She resumed her career, and Victoria, following in her footsteps, studied acting. But for years, what she desperately wanted more than anything else was to find her father, the American father of her fantasies. When Jackson Tate was finally located, events were sect into motion that would ultimately lead to the headline-making meeting in America of the admiral and his daughter.

Victoria Fyodorova and Haskel Frankel tell this remarkable story of love and courage, a story that is all the more moving and dramatic because it is true.

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About the Author: Victoria Fyodorova remained in America as the wife of an airline pilot, and they live in Stamford, Connecticut, with their small son. She is now a model, currently the beauty image for Alexandra de Markoff Cosmetics.

Haskel Frankel, a former magazine editor, collaborated with Milton Berle on Berle’s autobiography. He lives in Westbrook, Connecticut.

From the Publisher: For fifty years, the author searched letters, memoirs, and state agency information to find her birth parents.

She was in foster care for two years and was adopted at age seven. It wasn’t until she had children of her own that she was inspired to seek out her own parentage.

You will want to read this book about the joys and struggles that come with being an adopted child, and the qualities of love and trust every foster parent should possess.

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About the Author: Sandra Kanak grew up as an adopted child in Texas, where she resides today. She is married and has three children. She is a housewife and grandmother, and her hobbies include quilting, yard work, and reading.

Adopted: Not Special, Not Chosen is a story about the trauma, the shame and the pain of adoption; the things that adopted children don’t talk about. As I grew up, I was always anxious to read anything about adoption. I wanted to know if what I felt was what other adopted children felt. I wanted a book to validate the pain I felt. I never found that book, so now I am writing it myself in the hope that any other adopted child, or indeed, given the “advances” in genetic engineering, any child who has not been born of the woman who conceived and bore him or her, as a result of her ovum joining with the sperm of the man who is the child’s acknowledged father, might read it and know that someone else understands the wondering and longing to know, the feeling of being abandoned, the feeling of being different, and the self-doubt, that is his or her legacy. It is important, and normal, for people to want to know their background and where they are from. — Calum By the Same Author: Lottie.

This is a true account of my life as an adoptee, and how I coped as a child, a teenager growing up and today as a father. I have not shied away from the truth and have been as honest as possible. This is not a miserable memoir and hope that people in my situation can relate and benefit from this, and that it will also be an insight for people from all walks of life.

From the Publisher: Adopted at Age four tracks the life of a four-year-old who had been shunted around foster homes for the first four years of his life. In and out of the orphanage every time returning in poorer health. He is finally adopted by a childless couple, although poor by most standards who became loving parents with great values and standards that set his life in the right direction. From there it traces his acceptance and rejection by certain members of his newly acquired extended family and his development through elementary school, high school and ultimately into the job market with all the twists and turns along the way. Searching for his original identity at birth culminates in a brick wall ending ... to be resolved much later in life. He eventually is recruited into the Banking Industry as a Management Trainee and has many interesting experiences in the Consumer Loans Department of many local Branches. Because of his past experience as a Collector he at one time becomes the Bank’s roving collection/repo person and some of the situations he relives are both entertaining and worth a chuckle.

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About the Author: Brian L. Coventry currently resides in Western Quebec, Canada. Now a retired Bank Manager and having worked in the Financial Services Industry for over 40 years he has many experiences with the best and the worst of mankind. Through his works he would like to share his many experiences, the laughter, the pain and the joy of life that some of us can identify with. Brian and his wife Barb of 41 years and their adopted son Ian love music, books, fishing, hunting and good food. Brian loves to try out new recipes and add his own touches to existing ones. When he’s not cooking. he’s fishing, hunting, playing the guitar and of course, writing novels.

The long search for my birth mother, Caroline, started when I was twenty-four. I waited until both of my adoptive parents had died. I wanted to go to St. James Orphanage in Omaha, Nebraska, and inquire about my birth parents. Since childhood I had dreamed of knowing my heritage and I thought it urgent to learn what I could. This desire eventually led me on a thirty-eight-year journey. The following story explains why it took so long to finally open the closed book that contained all the dirty little secrets.

Abstract of a review of the book from the American Journal of Orthopsychiatry (1941, Vol. 11, No. 2) by V. Sloane: The author, herself an adopted child, adoptive mother, and actively engaged in adoptive legislation, is in a unique position to speak authoritatively on the subject from every angle. She gives an account of personal life experiences from the time she was taken from her dying mother, at age five, to be adopted by two maiden ladies. Many valuable points for potential foster parents and social workers are emphasized: a child must be told he is adopted as soon as he is consciously able to understand; the importance of psychological suitability of child and parents is often overlooked in adoption now as years ago; bereaved mothers often apply for a child simply as a panacea for their grief.

From the Publisher: Fifteen Israeli women adopted as infants share their narratives, commencing from earliest childhood and up to the point when they themselves become mothers. Their life stories confront social, psychological and philosophical approaches to defining concepts such as “belongingness,” “blood relations,” “choice,” “abandonment,” and “shame.” Moving through the life cycle model, the reader is brought to a reexamination of social and legal dilemmas: how can the adopted woman’s right to receive information about her source family be ensured while simultaneously maintaining the right to privacy of a biological mother who refuses to meet the daughter she gave up for adoption? Should the adopted woman be entitled to review the complete adoption file, which in essence enables her to track her biological mother of her own accord without need of formal intervention? Both these questions become critical in more complex situations when medical or genetic information might be required that is not in the adoption file, or when the biological father’s details are unknown. In both cases, the biological mother is the only source of possible assistance. On the other hand, if the biological mother refuses to meet her daughter, the daughter might be prevented her basic right to knowledge of a medical/genetic nature, or to locate her biological father. Milestones along the adopted woman’s life are traced: the author explores experiences of inclusiveness and rejection at earliest infanthood, the adolescent’s need for authentic information, and the process of accessing and opening the adoption file. The author delves into the comparative experience of familiarization with the biological family while remaining loyal to the adoptive family, and addresses perceptions of motherhood when these adopted women become mothers. Descriptions provided by the women are balanced against theories in current research and professional literature on adoption.

From the Back Cover: As a child, Michael Watson asked, “Who is my mother?” The following twenty years he asked, “Who am I?” While narrating his quest to find the missing link to his past, Watson discovers that life’s obstacles are also direct sources for human potential. His colorfully detailed journey led him to answer that one’s true mother can be found in all who give nurture ad love. Eloquently written, this book overflows with wisdom and insight, while inviting the reader to peer inside the mind of an adoptee.

In honor of all mothers, Watson has masterfully included the most treasured letters of love from his nationwide contest, Why Mom Deserves a Diamond™.

A timeless story of learning and love. If adoption touches your life—this book is for you.
DISCOVER HOW TO:
• Believe in yourself.
• Face your fears.
• Turn struggles into strengths.
• See beauty in all things.
• Follow your spark.

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About the Author: Michael Watson earned a Bachelor of Science in Business Administration from Indiana University and is an advocate of adoption reform. His story has been featured in the Los Angeles Times and in other major newspapers and magazines. He lives in Orange County, California, and is the president and GIA gemologist of a fine jewelry company.

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By the Same Author: In Search of Mom: Journey of an Adoptee (1998).

It is during war time that Naomi is adopted by an elderly couple living in the South Wales valleys. She remains unaware of her adoption until her teenage years, only then finding out by accident. The discovery shatters her secure world and she feels that a deliberate effort has been made to conceal her past. Her adopted parents pass away and she is subsequently left to fend for herself, falling prey to many men who use and abuse her as she desperately searches for an identity for herself. Despite many hardships in life she retains a deep longing to find her natural parents, and begins a long and harrowing adoption search in the hope she will find them.

From the Back Cover: In a September 11 memoir unlike any you’ve read, this thrilling, psychological adventure follows the ups and downs of bipolar, and examines relationships biological and adopted.

Laura had always been Miss Perfect—but she just couldn’t do it anymore.

They say not to make more than one big change in your life at a time, but with a break up, a job change, a move across the country, and the separation of her adoptive parents, when Laura gets the opportunity to reunite with her birth mom—she is not passing it up!

After a beloved uncle dies in the Twin Towers, the tension that has been building explodes. While everyone proudly believes she’s fulfilling her dream to dance, Laura insanely thinks she’s a spy for the Illuminati who unwittingly perpetrated 9/11.

Will she learn to exist between the highs and lows, ultimately discovering her own Adopted Reality?

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About the Author: Laura Dennis was born in New Jersey and raised in Maryland, but she learned how to be a (sane) person In California, where she lost her mind and found it again in 2001. A professionally trained dancer, Laura gave up aches and pains and bloody feet in 2004 to become a stylish sales director for a biotech startup. Then with two children under the age of three, in 2010 she and her husband sought to simplify their lifestyle and escaped to his hometown, Belgrade. While the children learned Serbian in their cozy preschool, Laura recovered from sleep deprivation and wrote Adopted Reality.

Joseph Peterson sets the bar in trouncing tough challenges and leading a life well lived as he unveils his life story in The Adopted Son: Perseverance To Achieve Success. The Adopted Son describes Peterson’s life, from the time he was born and subsequently adopted, through to seventy years of developing successful businesses and raising a family. Readers will discover Peterson’s indomitable spirit and constant perseverance as he pulled himself through one educational level and then through another, to build a valuable reservoir of knowledge—all this despite a troubled life at home. He tenaciously demonstrated the same golden quality in his purposeful ascent up the corporate ladder. As he slowly unfolds his motivating life experiences, Peterson builds up encouragement for the reader in between the threads that seam together his incredible life experiences. He describes God’s constant, positive influences in fortifying his perseverance to achieve success. Filled with lessons on work and on life, The Adopted Son moves the heart even as it encourages reaching for success.

William Wirt was the longest-serving Attorney General in U.S. History (1817-1828). He appeared in such landmark Supreme Court cases as McCullough vs. Maryland, the Dartmouth College Case and the “New York Steamboat Case.” Wirt prosecuted Aaron Burr for treason and twice represented the Cherokee Indian Tribe. A protege of Thomas Jefferson, James Madison and James Monroe, Wirt was also well known as an author (first biographer of Patrick Henry) and orator (1826 eulogy of Jefferson and John Adams.) I found him to be a fascinating and often overlooked historical figure. — Gregory K. Glassner

This book is about a boy who lived with his biological parents until he was seven years old. He was taken away from them along with his two younger brothers by the Welfare Department for child neglect. He lived in seven different foster homes and was adopted twice by the time he was ten years old. His second adopted parents were abusive toward him both physically and mentally. This book will tell about his experiences and the effect it had on him throughout his life.

From the Dust Cover: At the age of thirty-eight, Katrina Maxtone-Graham embarked on a quest to unravel the mysteries that had plagued her life, mysteries she had thought could never be solved: Who were my natural parents? Where did I spend the first three years of my life? What happened? Why?

An Adopted Woman is the dramatic story of one woman’s determination to know the truth. In a painful struggle and against steep odds, Katrina pressed her claim for answers—whatever those answers might be.

The struggle began in April 1973, when Katrina discovered that an adoption agency in New York was holding a secret file on her. Before that moment, her origins and early childhood were a vacuum. Now, with access to that secret file, Katrina could become a whole person. But access was denied.

The adoption agency did not want Katrina to find her natural mother, nor the “brother” in an adoptive household that “did not work out,” nor the “large motherly person” who had been her foster mother. The adoption establishment believes in secrecy.

Katrina persevered, challenging the adoption agency in court and researching old documents. What she was seeking was what others already possess: a place in the human community.

An Adopted Woman describes how adoptees and their adoptive, foster, and natural parents are all victims of a system that claims to “protect” them but in fact holds them powerless.

An Adopted Woman offers a new respect and appreciation for family, friendship, and kindness.

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About the Author: Katrina Maxtone-Graham is the author also of Pregnant By Mistake: The Stories of Seventeen Women. She lives in New York City with her four children.

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By the Same Author: Pregnant By Mistake: The Stories of Seventeen Women (1973, Liveright).

At the age of 43, during my divorce and a child custody battle, I found out I had been adopted. Shock and disbelief changed to a gradual urge to seek out my natural parents. Years later, I eventually found my mother “hidden in a fairy-tale castle in the forest.” That’s what it seemed at the time. This then led to a sister, three brothers, a father, and an even larger family of cousins and their offspring. The next thirty years were a mixture of joy, relief, happiness, and fun whilst forging a new life for myself. Later, I experienced sadness, despair, and tragedy whilst helping to alleviate my birth mother’s mental illness and caring for and losing four parents. I uncovered a dramatic 1930s love affair and 700 years of family genealogy with high-ranking seventeenth-century officials from the Church of England. I also discovered more about my birth father, a World War II RAF fighter pilot who nearly ended up being shot, escaping from Stalag Luft III, who owned a leading sock manufacturing company in the United Kingdom, run by the family since 1882. On the family tree, I found Victor Borge, the famous concert pianist and stand-up comedian. Finding my new family has been a very happy, rewarding, and interesting part of my life.

Adopted Abused and Still Standing is a book of empowerment, strength, and inspiration for all those that need reassurance that they can make it. It expresses ways to handle life standing without violence. There are so many other positive realms to deal with situations that are wrong, unjust and not fair. Many are thrown in jail due to them not being able to stand through trials and tribulations. Violence is not the way out because it leads to death, enemies and imprisonment. Once we learn to give it to God you will feel the strength to stand stronger and longer each time.

This is a story of a Chinese family: of an American woman who became the mother; of a father who was not always a father; of a favorite son who lost his identity; of a daughter not recognized as daughter; and of a concubine. It is also the story of the author’s own early years in Peking and a lifestyle of rare privilege brought to an abrupt end by World War II. Adopted at infancy by her own uncle and aunt, the author retains ties to her birth family. As the members of both families, adoptive and biological, move in and out of her life, each adds new and intriguing pages to her story.

From the Publisher: Adoptee: A Childhood of Torment is the true story of an adopted child, abused, beaten, taunted and humiliated.

This book reveals a very different side of the Catholic Ursuline Order of Sisters and of one of the largest Catholic churches in the Cleveland Diocese, St. Charles Catholic Church during the 1960s. Unlike the priests of the Catholic Church, the abuse of the Ursuline Sisters was not sexual but physical, mental and verbal. The author, Joseph M. Sabol, spent the first years of his life in abusive foster homes and was eventually adopted through the Catholic Charities of Cleveland Ohio.

This book delves into his search for and discovery of his biological parents. His biological mother was a victim of statutory rape, by a married 28-year-old man, yet she refused to sign away her parental rights, forcing them to put Joseph in foster care. The constant taunting of some of the kids who lived on Dorothy Avenue in Parma, Ohio, eventually caused extremely violent reactions from Joseph. His propensity for violence forced an evaluation at the Cleveland Clinic for mental illness.

His adoptive parents, John and Tilly Sabol, lovingly took Joseph in to their home and adopted him. The struggles of raising a severely abused child proved out to be a challenging task which the Sabols refused to give up on. Joseph’s adoptive mother, Tilly, demanded accountability from the nuns who added to the already abused child to the point of a physical confrontation. The values of a good Christian family and tough discipline eventually broke the cycle of violence.

Joseph went on to graduate from high school, and then Penn State University with two degrees in Business as well as a Graduate Degree in Medicine from the Biosystems Institute for Respiratory Therapy in Phoenix, AZ. He is Board Certified by the American Medical Society. Joseph no longer practices Respiratory Therapy but enjoyed a hobby of breeding some of the best lines of Doberman Pinschers in the world. During that time, he wrote over 100 articles for E-Zine Articles and attained Platinum Expert Author status on June 4, 2008.

Joseph still lives in Parma with his wife and Doberman Pinscher. To contact author, please call 440-845-2122 or e-mail Picman6500@aol.com.

From the Publisher: Thirty adoptee authors provide support, encouragement and understanding to other adoptees in facing the complexities of being adopted, embarking on search and reunion, fighting for equal access to identifying information, navigating complex family relationships with the latest technology, and surviving it all with a sense of humor.

Adoptee Trauma reveals the subconscious emotional trauma that many adoptees experience due to adoption. The explanations and therapy necessary to help them understand their complex personalities and core issues of adoption are clearly and simply set out through therapeutic steps in this book.

Those who are adopted and those who have been in relationships with adoptees will recognize that adoptees have difficulties in intimate relationships. In this book, Teri, who is an adoptee and psychotherapist, talks about several of the issues that adoptees struggle with and how they get in the way in relationships. She also covers how to heal these issues, what recovery looks like, and how to work with the partner to move past these issues to have a healthier and more enjoyable time together. Teri also discusses how the partner might help the adoptee with some of the struggles.

What if there was someone who you could blow off to ... and the world would not end ... you would not be flung into hell ... you would not be smothered with sermons about how horrible your attitude is, or how your condition is “not so bad ... look at the millions who are worse off than you”. What if there is a person it is safe to cry the pent up tears of ... a month ... a year ... five years ... fifteen ... twenty years ... at your own pace... What if there is a person who perfectly understands the anger behind your tears ... the pressure of hatred ... at yourself and others ... and even toward HIM... What if there is a person who, after hearing you out, until you are exhausted, have spent every emotion, and do not even have the emotional energy to hold on to anger, rebellion, hatred, and bitterness ... let alone “want” to forgive ... or hear about “forgiveness” ...He is silent?

Discussion of extended metaphor, fables and stories to enhance the individual’s perception of his/her adoption experience.

Author’s Description: This book is a product or “spin-off” of a essay paper I did in English Composition 101 which I received an A+ and was given the suggestion to write a book so that I may be able to reach other adoptees and for self-therapy to deal with my issues. I started writing this book back in 1995, and I stopped because I didn’t want to disrespect my adoptive mother in any way. So after her death I continued with the book and finished it in February of 2009. My premise behind this book is to reach other adoptees be it young or old who have not dealt with their adoptive issues or don’t know how to get started in getting therapy or to just talk to someone who understands you and won’t pass judgment. I hope that whoever reads this book will get something out of it and that I’ve made a difference in someone else’s life. God Bless.

True stories of synchronicity in adoptions from infant placement to adult reunion. Discusses changes in adoption from secrecy to open adoption. Infant placements, foster care, international and older child adoptions are included. Reasons are given for changes in adoption practice over four decades.