Megan is adopted, but she and her parents keep in touch with her birth mother, Kendra. Every year, Kendra decorates the tree she planted when Megan was born and takes a picture of it to send to Megan. Megan cherishes this Birthday Tree, for it ties her and Kendra together. But one day Kendra writes that she is getting married and moving to a different town. Will she forget Megan, without the tree to remind her? Open adoption, where the birth parents and adoptive family can stay connected, is now the prevalent form of adoption in this country. Laurie Lears’s warm and tender story shows how open adoption works and can benefit everyone involved. Bill Farnsworth’s rich paintings express Megan’s deep emotions. The story is accompanied by a note about open adoption written by the director of one agency’s adoption services.

From the Dust Jacket: Karen decided early that she wanted nothing further to do with the father of her child, and that abortion was not the choice for her. She investigated “open adoption”—a procedure that allowed her to choose the couple who would parent her child.

Mary Stephenson’s story does not stop with the introduction of the adopting couple, nor with the handing over of the baby (a girl named Livia). In the nine months that follow, before the final adoption procedure, the adjustments of everyone concerned with this new life are described: Karen and her parents and siblings, and her grandparents too, and all the generations of the adopting family.

Karen’s heartache as she gives up her baby is balanced by the joy of the new parents; their love and concern for the birthmother of their baby is a strong factor in Karen’s ability to cope with her emotions. (There is a foreword by the adopting family.)

The author concludes, “Today, birthmothers need not suffer the guilt that traumatized earlier generations when they ‘gave their babies away to strangers.’ In an open adoption there are no strangers, only friends.”

Karen was 17, the third of four children in an average American family. When it became apparent that she was pregnant, her family moved quickly beyond the “How could this happen?” stage. Painfully, they learned to give their daughter space and time to handle her crisis in her own way. This is the story of what happened, told with wrenching honesty by Karen’s mother.

From the Dust Jacket: In today’s rapidly changing world, how do we define family? What is it, exactly, that makes a family work?

Rebecca Walker has always been fascinated with other people’s families. Growing up, she studied her friend’s lives, trying to discern why their homes stayed together while hers did not. After the birth of her son years later, she set off on a mission to finally find the answer. What she found was neither traditional nor nuclear. In an ever-changing social and political climate—with sanctioned gay marriage, skyrocketing infertility and adoption rates, and an increasing number of multiracial and blended families—Walker’s search revealed a new American family, and another, and another, each held together by its own set of values and intentions.

In One Big Happy Family, Walker has brought together some of today’s most prominent writers to illustrate the deepening complexity and proliferating variety of the modern family. In eighteen essays, writers share their unique family arrangements and priorities, documenting the pressures, issues, and realities of contemporary domestic life. Jenny Block and her husband negotiate the ups and downs of a polyamorous marriage, in which she has another partner but her husband does not. Dan Savage and his gay partner adopt a son, and leave the door open to the boy’s homeless mother, while struggling to withhold judgment about her lifestyle. ZZ Packer comes to terms with people’s assumptions that she is her son’s nanny because he has his father’s light skin.

Antonio Caya donates his sperm to a single friend desperate for a child. Min Jin Lee develops an unexpectedly powerful bond with her son’s hired caregiver. Neal Pollack and his wife transcend the constructs of househusband and housewife, sharing the responsibility for household duties. Rebecca Barry ends up in couples therapy ... with her sister. Rebecca Walker and her impressive team of writers unabashedly celebrate love in all its diversity and complexity, in what is sure to become a definitive text on the modern American family.

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About the Author: Named by Time magazine as one of the most influential leaders of her generation, Rebecca Walker has received numerous awards and accolades for her writing and activism. In addition to the bestselling memoir Black, White, and Jewish: Autobiography of a Shifting Self, she is the author of Baby Love: Choosing Motherhood After a Lifetime of Ambivalence. Walker is also the editor of the anthologies To Be Real: Telling the Truth and Changing the Face of Feminism, a standard text in gender studies courses around the world, and What Makes a Man: 22 Writers Imagine the Future.

Amy Anderson grew up with five brothers and four sisters in a crowded house, where she learned how to answer random questions about international adoption and cook dinner for twelve using ingredients from the Canned Food Outlet. She is the cofounder and coeditor of mamazine.com, and lives in California with her husband, three children, and an endlessly rotating clan of extended family, including cousins.

Antonio Caya is a pseudonym for a very happy donor who wishes to remain anonymous to protect the feelings of all involved, both young and old.

Dawn Friedman is the owner of openbookstrategies.com, a Web 2.0 marketing company for writers. Her essays have appeared in Parenting, WonderTime, Brain Child, Bitch, Adoptive Families, Utne Reader, and Salon. Her blog about open adoption, www.thiswomanswork.com, was featured in Time magazine. She is currently working on a memoir about her life with Madison.

Dan Savage is the award-winning author of the internationally syndicated sex-advice column “Savage Love” and the editor of The Stranger, Seattle’s weekly newspaper. His writing has appeared in the New York Times Magazine, the op-ed pages of the New York Times, Rolling Stone, The Onion, and other publications. This essay is excerpted from his book The Commitment: Love, Sex, Marriage and My Family.

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Compiler’s Note: See, particularly, Chapter 3: “The Enemy Within” by Dan Savage; Chapter 5: “Counting on Cousins” by Amy Anderson; Chapter 8: “Daddy Donoring” by Antonio Caya; and Chapter 14: “Sharing Madison” by Dawn Friedman.

From the Dust Jacket: This is the true story of an adoption in which the birth and the adoptive parents not only met but formed a complex relationship—one that illuminates the psychological challenges and rewards of what is now called open adoption.

Like many couples, Dan and Lee Stone reached the decision to adopt a child after several years of infertility, and much thought about the nature of adoption. Through a lawyer specializing in open adoption, they were brought together with a twenty-year-old college student who was unmarried and seven months pregnant. Peggy Bass chose the Stones to be the future parents of her child after considering the letters of several couples describing themselves and why they wanted to adopt. The Stones and Peggy Bass were thus launched on what is still considered a perilous experiment by those who favor the conventional form of adoption.

In fact, closed adoptions—in which the identities and all the details about the birth and the adoptive parents are known only to the officials involved in the adoptions—are becoming rare. But as Lincoln Caplan shows—in chapters interwoven with the absorbing account of the Stones’ and Peggy Bass’s developing relationship—the debate is intense within the adoptive world over whether and how much the birth and the adoptive couples should learn about one another. Mr. Caplan explains the changing social values and assumptions about the nature of family that shape the debate, and the psychological and anthropological studies that fuel it—studies which look at the impact of adoption on the child and investigate how significant a role genetic endowment plays in determining temperament and achievement.

Mr. Caplan’s dramatic true account of the bond formed by Lee and Dan Stone and Peggy Bass, the social and psychological pressures with which they contended through the birth of Rebecca, and the surprising aftermath, provides extraordinary insights into those questions faced by every adoptive parent, birth mother, and adoptee, as well as anyone who works in the field of adoption.

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About the Author: Lincoln Caplan, a Staff writer for The New Yorker, is the author of The Tenth Justice and The Insanity Defense. He has also written for The New Republic, The Washington Post, and The New York Times, among other publications. He lives in Washington, D.C.

Darrick C. Rizzo lives his life inspired by his son that he put up for adoption when he was a freshman in college. Basketball, cross country and track athlete willing to give it all up to raise his first born, but all of a sudden, after five months of an unplanned pregnancy, his girlfriend brings up the words... Open Adoption... The Open Adoption: A Birth Father’s Journey is highly recommended to all that are involved in any capacity of an adoption, especially the adoptive parents. Dedication, motivation, perseverance and faith in God have led him to share his experience as a birth father and the broken promises to both him and his son.

From the Back Cover: In OPEN Adoption:

• Birthparents choose adoptive parents for their babies

• Adoptive parents may stay in contact with their child’s birthparents

• Adoption agencies and independent adoption services facilitate openness and honesty among everyone in the adoption triangle.

Out Go the Secrets ~ In Comes the Honesty ~ And Everyone May Win

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About the Author: Jeanne Warren Lindsay has worked closely with hundreds of teenagers during the past fifteen years. She is resource specialist/teacher for the Teen Mother Program, ABC Unified School District, Cerritos, California. Lindsay started the Program in 1972 as a choice for pregnant teenagers who do not wish to remain in the regular classroom during pregnancy.

Ms. Lindsay has advanced degrees in home economics and anthropology. She is a member of the Board of Directors of the National Organization on Adolescent Pregnancy and Parenthood, and editor of the NOAPP Network. She frequently gives presentations on adoption, the culture of school-age parents, teenage marriage, educating pregnant and parenting teens, and other topics.

Other books by Ms. Lindsay include Pregnant Too Soon: Adoption Is an Option, Teens Parenting: The Challenge of Babies and Toddlers, Teenage Marriage: Coping with Reality, Teens Look at Marriage: Rainbows, Roles and Reality, and Do I Have a Daddy? A Story About a Single-Parent Child.

She and Bob have been married for 35 years. Their five children include Pati, cross-country driver and owner/operator of an 18-wheeler truck; Erin, a political activist; Steve, printing company owner/operator; Eric, businessman; and Mike, an attorney. Bob and Jeanne have three lovely daughters-in-law, Kathi, Kim, and Tammy, one grandson, Travis, and are expecting more grandchildren.

This text discusses open adoption and related issues about attachment, the formation of personal identity and the meaning of permanence in child care. It highlights assumptions about the nature of the family and beliefs about the role of the state in family matters. The book is a challenge to some of the practices in the recruitment and preparation of those who would adopt to the process of planning, decision-making and the placement of children who are adopted, and to the role of agencies in post adoption support services. The work considers the relationship of the law to practice in open adoption and changes in practice that may facilitate more openness. It includes six different family interviews concerning the experience of openness of all parties to adoption, comparing these interviews to interviews conducted six years previously. This book should be of interest to social workers, guardians ad litem and family law practitioners.

From the Back Cover (paperback edition): The exploding popularity of open adoption today underscores what adopting parents, birthparents, and many adoption experts now maintain: Open adoption is the healthiest, most humane, and fastest method available. It’s better for the birthmother, because she (not lawyers or social workers) decides the future of her child. It’s better for children, because they’re raised without the shroud of secrecy and stigma that accompanies most closed adoptions. And it’s better for adopting parents, because it dramatically shortens the time it takes to obtain a baby, from an average of seven years to under one year.

As director of one of the country’s leading open adoption agencies and founder of the first nationwide network of open adoption organizations, Bruce Rappaport has facilitated thousands of successful open adoptions and acquired an intimate understanding of the most common and heartfelt concerns of parents seeking to adopt a baby. Interweaving personal stories and real-life experiences of adopting parents, birthparents, and adopted children, he answers the questions clients most frequently ask:

• What is an open adoption? How does it differ from traditional adoption?

• Will I ever feel like a real parent if my child’s biological mother knows I’m raising her child? Will she interfere?

• What if the birthmother changes her mind after the adoption?

• How long will it take to get a child?

Documenting answers with extensive personal experience and research, Dr. Rappaport paints a reassuring yet realistic picture of the open adoption process. The result is a highly informative, deeply moving book that will help many people realize the greatest joy life can offer.

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About the Author: Bruce M. Rappaport, Ph.D., is founder and Executive Director of the Independent Adoption Center in Pleasant Hill, California, and founder of the National Federation for Open Adoption Education. A nationally known expert on open adoption, he has worked in education, counseling, infertility, and adoption for more than twenty years and has been interviewed on these subjects by “Nightline,” CNN, “The Today Show,” The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, and elsewhere. Dr. Rappaport lives in Oakland, California, with his daughter.

From the Back Cover: More and more adoptions each year in the United States are involving either direct or indirect contact between birth and adoptive parents and their adopted children. The Open Adoption Experience helps all those considering this kind of adoption, as well as those already involved with an open adoption, to understand, negotiate, and nurture their relationship as it grows and changes along with the child.

Nationally recognized adoption experts Lois Ruskai Melina and Sharon Kaplan Roszia help demystify open adoption, describing with vivid examples all stages of the relationship—from the initial preparation for open adoption, to placement and the adjustments of the first year, through the challenges of adolescence. The Open Adoption Experience also offers a detailed discussion of the many advantages of open adoption as well as the common problems, helping adoptive and birth parents to know what to expect as the relationship unfolds and how other families have coped with the unexpected.

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About the Author: Lois Ruskai Melina is the author of Raising Adopted Children and Making Sense of Adoption and is the publisher of Adopted Child, an international newsletter on adoption. She lectures across the country and lives in Moscow, Idaho, with her husband and their two children by adoption.

Sharon Roszia is founder of Parenting Resources and coauthor of Cooperative Adoption. She has worked in the field of adoption for thirty years and performs open adoption trainings for social workers and birth parents. The mother of grown children by birth, adoption, and through long-term foster care, she lives in Tustin, California.

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By the Same Author: Raising Adopted Children: A Manual For Adoptive Parents (1986, Solstice Press); Adoption: An Annotated Bibliography and Guide (1987, Routledge); and Making Sense of Adoption: A Parent’s Guide (1989, solstice Press).

The world of adoption has changed dramatically over the past twenty years. No longer do biological parents have to say goodbye to their child forever. They now have more options when deciding the type of adoption to pursue, such as open adoption. Open adoption creates the opportunity for a special relationship between the biological parents, the adoptive parents, and the child. Open Adoption, Open Heart is an inspiring and true story, which takes the reader deeper into the feelings and emotions experienced by adoptive parents. As you read this incredible story, you will experience the joys, difficulties, and amazing victories facing adoptive couples. Russell and his wife, Jammie, invite you to share in their inspiring and heart-warming journey.

Open Arms is a true adoption story that tells of when Russell and Jammie felt called to adoption for a second time. Not only does it start a whole new chapter in the Elkins family’s story, but it also continues the ongoing journey of the relationships built during their first adoption, told in the first installment of the series, Open Adoption, Open Heart. The Elkinses are living proof of the beauty in open adoption, building intimate and powerful relationships with their children’s biological parents. You will experience all of the joys, difficulties, and victories of adoptive parents as you read this incredible story.

From the Publisher: Prior to 1990, fewer than 5% of domestic infant adoptions were open. In 2012, 90% or more of adoption agencies are recommending open adoption. Yet these agencies do not often or adequately prepare either adopting parents or birth parents for the road ahead of them! The adult parties in open adoptions are left floundering. There are many resources on why to do open adoption, but what about how?

Open adoption isn’t just something parents do when they exchange photos, send emails, share a visit. It’s a lifestyle that may feel intrusive at times, be difficult or inconvenient at other times. Tensions can arise even in the best of circumstances. But knowing how to handle these situations and how to continue to make arrangements work for the child involved is paramount.

This book offers readers the tools and the insight to do just that. It covers common open-adoption situations and how real families have navigated typical issues successfully. Like all useful parenting books, it provides parents with the tools to come to answers on their own, and answers questions that might not yet have come up.

Through their own stories and those of other families of open adoption, Lori and Crystal review the secrets to success, the pitfalls and challenges, the joys and triumphs. By putting the adopted child at the center, families can come to enjoy the benefits of open adoption and mitigate the challenges that may arise.

More than a how-to, this book shares a mindset, a heartset, that can be learned and internalized, so parents can choose to act out of love and honesty throughout their child’s growing up years, helping that child to grow up whole.

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About the Author: Lori Holden was named a Top 10 “Must-Read Mom” by Parenting magazine and was honored at the annual BlogHer Conference. Her articles have appeared in Parenting magazine, Conceive magazine, and Adoptive Families magazine.

Crystal Hass has taught about open adoption with Lori Holden at Colorado Free University at as adoption agencies.

Adoption Training for Parents and Professionals. All adoptive families must answer these important questions: How open should we be with our child about his birth parents? Should our child be have any contact with her birth parents? In this course you will gain a good foundation so that you will be prepared to address these issues. Visit our website at www.AdoptionTrainingOnline.com for information about Certified Training for The Hague International Adoption requirements and Continuing Education Credits for Professionals.

From the Publisher: Since the mid-1970s, adoption practices in the United States have changed dramatically, and the confidentiality maintained in the past is no longer the norm. The trend is toward openness in adoption in which either mediated (through an adoption agency) or direct contact occurs between the adoptive family and birth parent(s). Some adoption professionals argue that openness is harmful and experimental while others argue that the secrecy of confidential adoptions has been harmful to all parties involved. Who’s right? In Openness in Adoption, this question is addressed via a nationwide study of 720 individuals (190 adoptive fathers, 190 adoptive mothers, 171 adopted children, and 169 birth mothers) that was conducted over a five-year period. The book begins by presenting the issues and debates surrounding open adoptions and then examines them from the perspective of the adopted children, adoptive parents, and birth mothers. The volume concludes with implications for adoption practice, public policy, and future research. A groundbreaking volume, Openness in Adoption provides a wealth of information to professionals and practitioners in the fields of family studies, sociology, developmental psychology, social work, clinical psychology, and social psychology.

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About the Author: Harold D. Grotevant is Professor of Family Social Science and Adjunct Professor of Child Psychology at the University of Minnesota. He completed his B.A. in psychology at the University of Texas at Austin (1970) and his Ph.D. at the University of Minnesota (1977). His publications focus on relationships in adoptive families and on the development of children and adolescents within their families, especially with regard to identity formation. He is a Fellow of the American Psychological Association and received the Excellence in Research Award from the College of Human Ecology, University of Minnesota, in 1994.

He has been active in research since the mid-1970s. In the early 1980s, he and Ruth McRoy began their fruitful collaboration, which continues today. Their current project (reported in this volume) examines the consequences of confidential, mediated, and open adoptions for adopted children, their adoptive parents, and their birthparents. They are conducting a longitudinal follow-up of their sample of 190 adoptive families and 169 birthmothers, with funding from the William T. Grant Foundation, the Hogg Foundation for Mental Health, and the Federal Office of Population Affairs. Grotevant’s current research also concerns the role of narratives in the regulation of emotion across generations in families.

Ruth G. McRoy holds the Ruby Lee Piester Centennial Professorship in Services to Children and Families and is the Director of the Center for Social Work Research at the School of Social Work at the University of Texas (U.T.) at Austin. She also holds a joint appointment in the University of Texas Center for African and African American Studies. A teacher of undergraduate and graduate students specializing in practice with children and families, she won the Lora Lee Pederson Teaching Excellence Award in 1984, and in 1990 she was selected as the recipient of the Texas Excellence Teaching Award.

She received her B.A. degree in psychology and sociology and her master’s degree in social work from the University of Kansas in Lawrence. She received her Ph.D. in social work from the University of Texas at Austin (1981). Prior to joining the U.T. faculty in 1981, she taught at the University of Kansas School of Social Welfare in Lawrence and at Prairie View AXM University in Prairie View, Texas.

She has been involved in adoptions practice for many years. In the 1970s, she worked as an adoptions and birthparent counselor at the Kansas Children’s Service League in Wichita and as the Project Coordinator of the Black Adoption Program and Services in Kansas City. She later was a Technical Assistance Specialist for the Region VI Adoption Resource Center at U.T. at Austin. Currently, she provides consultation on a variety of adoptions practice issues and serves on the boards of several adoption and foster care programs in the Austin area. Her other research interests include intercountry adoptions and transracial adoptions; cross-cultural relationships; racial identity development; and African American adoptions, special needs adoptions, and family preservation.

From the Publisher: In recent years there has been a growing trend towards increased communication among members of the adoption triad. Although many adoption agencies are moving towards increased information sharing, there is little research evidence available concerning the consequences of this practice. This unique study investigates the consequences of openness in adoption, as practiced by several adoption agencies. Seventeen adoptive families and their corresponding birth parents were interviewed. The effects of the open adoption procedures on family life and attitudes were assessed. Included are a review of the literature on openness in adoption; a review of relevant theoretical perspectives; a discussion of agency practices; and a description of strengths and weaknesses of current research methods.

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About the Author: Ruth G. McRoy, Ph.D., is an Associate Professor of Social Work at the University of Texas at Austin. She coauthored the book, Transracial and Inracial Adoptees: The Adolescent Years, has published numerous articles, and has made presentations throughout the country on such topics as transracial adoptions, postadoption services, racial identity development, and open adoptions.

Harold D. Grotevant, Ph.D., is Professor of Home Economics and Psychology and Head of the Division of Child Development and Family Relationships at the University of Texas at Austin. His research focuses on identity formation, family communication processes, relationships in normal and troubled adoptive families, and the consequences of openness in adoptions. He has published over 60 articles and has presented his work at national and international conferences.

Kerry L. White, M.A., is the Head Teacher at Hyde Park Baptist Child Development Center in Austin, Texas. While completing her master’s degree in Child Development, she served as Research Associate to Ruth G. McRoy and Harold D. Grotevant.

This book offers profound insight into such issues as how parents can create a truly intimate relationship with their adopted children, the ethics and philosophy of open adoption, and how we should respond when birth parents reappear in our children’s life. It also addresses some of adoptive parents’ most heartfelt questions and concerns about their children. Painful Lessons, Loving Bonds illuminates the heart of open adoption.

Pugnose is a sweet little mouse who tells us his open adoption story. Pugnose tells us how he has a handsome nose like his birth father and big ears like his birth mother and how happy he is to be part of two special families. This is the perfect book for children who are in an open adoption.

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

From the Publisher: Robbie’s Trail through Open Adoption is an engaging story written specifically for children who will have some birth-parent contact after the adoption. The Robbie Rabbit stories (and their supplemental materials) are designed specifically for foster parents, adoptive parents and/or caseworkers who want to: (1) Help a foster child and/or an adoption-eligible child adjust better to tough changes in life; (2) Promote communication between the child and the important people in his life; and (3) Gain insight into a child’s feelings and interpretation of the world around him. Although each story can be read without the supplemental activity book and adult guide, children are best served when you have all three books. The adult guide and activity book both relate back to the companion story, and are used together to help children with issues such as control, grief and loss, feelings, communication and self-identity.

An insightful and clearly written work on adoption. Contributors are from varied backgrounds—birth parents, adoptees, adoptive parents and social workers. They look at the key issues for today’s adoption practice:
• What access to information should there be?
• What contact?
• Why was the process so secret?
• What effect has openness had?
• What are the lessons for IVF families?
IVF raises the same issues of “where did I come from” and “what happened to my child” as adoption—and IVF programmes are run on the basis of no contact between IVF child and natural parent. Accordingly adoption “experts” anticipate the same problems with IVF children as with adoption and the last two chapters of the book deal with IVF.

From the Back Cover: For generations, adoption has been practiced behind a shroud of secrecy. Aimed primarily at serving infertile couples who sought to “acquire” children, the institution of adoption used birthfamilies as resources for adoptive families and dishonored children by treating them as property to be owned.

In this beautifully written, highly spiritual book, adoption worker James Gritter shows us that adoption can be so much more. With a primary emphasis on benefiting adoptees, open adoption serves children first by reversing the traditional hierarchy, treating adoptive families as resources for birthfamilies. Adoptive parents, birthparents, and adoptees come together in a spirit of extended family that helps the participants overcome the fear, pain, shame, and loss of adoption with honor, respect, and reverence.

Drawing on the profound insights of contemporary thinkers in the fields of adoption, theology, philosophy, and literature, Gritter guides the reader along a spiritual journey that explores the candor, commitment, community, and cooperation that define successful open adoptions.

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About the Author: James L. Gritter, M.S.W., is a child welfare supervisor and open adoption practitioner with Catholic Human Services, Inc., Traverse City, Michigan. He is the editor of Adoption Without Fear (San Antonio, TX: Corona, 1989). He and his wife live in Williamsburg, Michigan, with their three daughters.

From the Dust Jacket: My wife, Carey, answered the phone on the first ring.

“Hi, honey,” I said, sipping my coffee. “It’s just me.”

“Dion, listen to me. We’ve been chosen.”

I drew a blank. “What do you mean?”

Then it hit me like a thousand volts of electricity right to my heart. “Oh my God! Carey, we’ve been chosen by a birth mother?”

“Yes! Yes! Yes! Yes! Our social worker called and told me a birth mother read and loved our profile. She’s an eighteen-year-old girl, and Dion, she’s due in three weeks! She wants to meet us as soon as she can!”

With that news, the Howells began the rollercoaster ride of their lives.

The Story of David is the story of Dion and Carey Howells, a couple desperate for a child. It is also the story of Nancy, a teenager who became pregnant from a date rape and knew she couldn’t keep her baby, but also knew that she wanted to maintain some contact with him throughout his life. And ultimately, it is the story of David, an adopted child who will never have to ask the question “Where did I come from?” Who will never wonder who his “real” mother is, and how he came to be the son of Carey and Dion Howells.

When Dion and Carey met Nancy, a bond formed among the three, a bond that ultimately helped all of them get through the difficult times ahead: when, after David’s birth, Nancy almost changed her mind about the adoption; when she went into a devastating postpartum depression; and when she went to see David for the first time after his birth. All along, despite advice to the contrary, Dion, Carey, Nancy, and David worked together to form a new kind of family—one where love is unlimited and David will always know who he is, where he came from, and where he belongs.

This extraordinarily moving account combines the two most emotional crises for any would-be parent—the search for a child to love and a young woman’s need to relinquish her own child to better his life. It is at once a family’s inspiring personal story, an unforgettable human drama, and a compelling argument for open adoption.

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About the Author: Dion Howells is a police officer in Cleveland, where he lives with his wife, Carey, and their son, David. After adopting David, he became a strong advocate for open adoption.

Karen Wilson Pritchard is a journalist who has written extensively for Cahners Publishing and CMP, Inc. She lives in a suburb of Cleveland with her husband, adopted son, daughter, triplet sons, and newborn baby boy.

Adoption is not the same as it used to be. In the past, there was no continued contact between the adopted child and biological parents after placement. In recent times, however, adoption commonly means that contact continues, which means that relationships need to develop and be nurtured. 10 Adoption Essentials is a book containing what everyone should know about developing these relationships to ensure a healthy, beneficial, and lasting bond with everyone involved.

From the Back Cover: Since 1982, the Independent Adoption Center has successfully placed over 4,000 newborns with families across the United States. As a non-profit organization, the IAC is committed to providing both birthparents and adoptive parents with the most comprehensive counseling support available as families are created through OPEN ADOPTION. The mission of the IAC is to provide open adoption placement and counseling to birth and adoptive families to ensure that every child grows up feeling loved and supported.

Each family that is created or expanded through open adoption has their own, unique story. Preparation time, wait time, the length of the match between adoptive and birthparents, the hospital experience, and ongoing contact between the birth and adoptive families are different for everyone. In an effort to educate the general population and prospective birth and adoptive parents, we have compiled True Stories of Open Adoption from past clients and staff members who agreed to share their stories of how their families came to be. The reader will be touched by these moving stories while learning about the depth of these distinctive relationships.

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About the Author: Guylaine Hubbard-Brosmer is the national research director, home study supervisor and an adoption coordinator at the Los Angeles branch of the Independent Adoption Center (IAC). She has held other positions during her tenure at the IAC where she has been on staff since 2005. She has worked with hundreds of families during their adoption process and supervises a large, successful independent home study program. In addition, she has given numerous talks at conferences about agency adoption, open adoption and trans-racial adoption.

Dr. Hubbard-Brosmer has dedicated her career to family-building. She worked in the infertility field for 15 years following the completion of her Ph.D. in endocrinology from University of California at Berkeley. A career change led her to earn a M.S.W. from California State University Long Beach, where her thesis project was A Study of Trans-racial Adoptive Parenting and the Needs of Multicultural Families.

Ann Wrixon is the executive director of the Independent Adoption Center (IAC). She succeeded JAC founder, Dr. Bruce Rappaport, when he retired in August 2006. During her tenure, the IAC has more than doubled the number of families for whom it provides services. IAC is a licensed adoption agency in California, Texas, Indiana, Georgia, North Carolina, Florida, New York and Connecticut.

Ms. Wrixon has spent her career managing non-profit organizations dedicated to improving education and child welfare. She has published widely on those subjects as well as adoption-related topics including open adoption, LGBT adoption, interstate adoption, and much more. Ms. Wrixon has a B.A. from Rutgers University, a M.B.A. from San Francisco State University and a M.S.W. from California State University East Bay.

From the Publisher: The four booklets in The Open Adoption Pocket Book Series are designed to give prospective birth parents and adoptive parents a concise introduction to the many different issues in open adoption. What is Open Adoption? defines the differences between openness in adoption and open adoption, describes the benefits of open adoption, and explains how to fully embrace the relationships that open adoption creates.

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About the Author: Brenda Romanchik is the birth mother of a 15-year-old son, Matthew, whom she placed in an open adoption at birth. She is the author of a number of open adoption books and publications as well as the owner of R-Squared Press, a publishing company dedicated to bringing the public resources for open adoption. Brenda is a firm believer that for open adoptions to work, those involved need practical information on how to handle the relationships open adoptions create. She also believes that birth parents and adoptive parents need ongoing support. With this in mind, in 1994, Brenda organized the first Lifegiver’s Festival in Traverse City, Michigan with Jim Gritter, the author of The Spirit of Open Adoption. Since that time she has facilitated seven national Lifegiver’s Festivals in Higgins Lake, MI, and is taking it “on the road” to other locations all over the country. She is also involved in organizing The Open Adoption Families Conference, held every even year. She is also a participant in a number of national and regional adoption conferences.

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 Back Cover: How does a mother begin to describe the loss of her child ... a loss as irrevocable as death, except that there is no funeral, no comfort ... and the child continues to live and grow elsewhere?

Within Me, Without Me is a collection of personal stories by mothers who have given up children for adoption. Based on research spanning 40 years, it illustrates at first hand the effects of loss and separation, the agony of secrecy, the life-long yearning for information and, for some, reunion and eventual joy.

Written by Sue Wells, whose own experience as a birth mother has enabled others to speak out, many for the first time, this courageous and profoundly moving book challenges the need for secrecy and illustrates the healthy relationships that can develop in open adoption.

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About the Author: Sue Wells is a birth mother and lives in Bristol. She was born in Dunedin, New Zealand in 1947 and studied anthropology at the University of Otago. At 21 she travelled overland to the UK, where she now works as a social worker, counsellor and writer. She is a trustee and member of the Natural Parents Support Group. Sue is married to a psychotherapist and has three daughters. Her purpose in writing this book is to highlight the benefits of openness in adoption by showing the damage that secrecy can cause. However, her birth daughter has requested anonymity and Sue Wells has therefore chosen not to identify her own story.

From the Back Cover: Adoption does not end after the event is legalized, or the baby or youth is brought home. Adoption is a lifelong process. Whether examining the issues raised by children who are now reaching their middle years, or teens adopted at a later age, older adoptees have specific conflicts and normative crises needing special attention.

Working With Older Adoptees addresses these concerns straightforwardly with helpful insights and interventions by some of today’s leading adoption professionals:

Hean-Pierre Bourguignon and Kenneth Watson examine the reasons and preparation for interventions, Karen Tilbor looks at the influence of developmental stages and crises, Foster Cline overviews post-placement services and intrusive therapies, Joan McNamara details her work with teen and parent groups, Deborah Silverstein and Sharon Kaplan discuss core issues in adoption, Judith Schaffer and Ron Kral talk about brief therapy, Claudia Jewett candidly tells about her individual therapy and mentor modelling approaches, Lauren Frey focuses on crisis interventions, and Loren Coleman reviews the adoptees’ search.

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About the Author: Loren Coleman, M.S.W., Simmons College, B.A., Southern Illinois University, maintains a private clinical and consultation practice in Portland, Maine, and is a Research Associate at the Human Services Development Institute, University of Southern Maine. Mr. Coleman has been the Project Director of USM’s two most recently federally funded adoption grants. He has been working with adolescents and their families for over two decades, and has been involved with adoption issues affecting birthparents, adoptees and adoptive parents since 1972. Mr. Coleman is the author or coauthor of Suicide Clusters (Faber and Faber, 1987), Unattended Children (USM, 1987), and Gay and Lesbian Foster Parents (USM, 1988); and is producer/director of the videos, SOS-Teen Suicides and Runaways: Coded Cries for Help (USM 1986) and Adoption-A Lifelong Process (USM 1987). In addition to his human services work, Mr. Coleman is an internationally known researcher and writer on cryptozoological topics, having authored four nonfiction books on the subject.

Karen Tilbor, M.S. Ed., Wheelock College, is a Research Assistant at the Human Services Development Institute. She has been field coordinator for the training and demonstration project on Mental Health Services of Older Adopted Children, Executive Producer of the videotape, Adoption - A Lifelong Process (1987) and coordinator of the second state-wide conference on child sexual abuse at Bethel, Maine. Her current projects include organizing state-wide training for child welfare supervisors in Maine and helping develop services pertaining to adoption of older children in three states. Her background in teaching and educational administration includes 4½ years as Education Director of a pre-school and after-school day care program in New York City.

Helaine Hornby, M.A., University of Southern Maine, is Director both of HSDV’s Child and Family Policy Unit and the National Child Welfare Resource Center for Administration and Management, which conducts research and provides technical assistance to states on child welfare policy and management. Ms. Hornby has directed numerous state and federally funded research and technical assistance projects in child welfare. She is co-author of Learning from Adoption Disruption Insights for Practice (USM, 1986) and author of “Why Adoptions Disrupt and What Agencies Can Do To Prevent It,” Children Today, July-August 1986.

Carol Boggis, M.S., Colorado State University, is a consulting editor, audiovisual specialist and owner of cjb productions in Portland, Maine. She has edited numerous publications by HSDI and other human service agencies on such topics as adoption disruption, adolescent suicide prevention, unattended children, and elderly home care. Ms. Boggis has also authored many technical and popular articles and conference papers.