From the Publisher: John Houghton and his wife—middle-class, highly educated, well-traveled—learned that they could not have children of their own. Instead they adopted three siblings, two boys and a girl, who were looking for “a forever family,” as the adoption agencies put it. What followed is all too common in adoptive families, but it is rarely talked about in public and has never been described with such transparent honesty as it is in the pages of this remarkable book.

From the start, the children were difficult, but the scale of their problems only gradually became clear as the years went by. Strange fears and tantrums were accompanied by much more disturbing kinds of behaviour; the violence and rejection that the children had suffered were visited on their adoptive parents unpredictably and explosively.

This is a story of desperate wanting, of anger and frustrated love. It is written with a kind of plain clarity that is both restrained and emotionally powerful. There is no triumphant victory over pain and loss, but there is, in the end, something like hope—a testament to the difference that two decent people can make by sustaining their commitment to an impossible situation.

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About the Author: John Houghton is the pseudonym of a distinguished writer.

What is it like to adopt an older child, a child who can remember birth parents, earlier life experiences and former home(s)? This book is the personal story of one family and their four children, ranging in age from four to nine at the time of adoption. Despite the parents’ preparation and good intentions, the children’s first months at home were far worse than expected. At times the parents wondered whether it would work out. But it did. Forever Parents is the story of people learning to live with and love one another through the creation of a family.

The number of older-child adoptions is on the rise. In fact, of the nearly 8,700 international adoptions that took place last year, more than half were between the ages of one and four, and nearly a quarter were between the ages of five and 12. This new image of adoption—due in large part to the 2008 ratification of the Hague Adoption Convention—presents new challenges for families looking to expand or start a family. From Half to Whole is a raw and honest look at the trials and tribulations of one family’s struggle to adopt and raise two young boys from Poland who came to America not only with a few stuffed toys in their backpacks but also the trauma of their past. Sharing her personal diary entries, Regina Radomski reveals her compelling yet tumultuous journey to acclimate her adopted children to their new environment and the solace she found in family, friends, and valuable resources she discovered along the way. Inside you’ll find...
• Meaningful insights from licensed clinical social worker Barbara Jean Keane.
• Personal letters from Radomski’s husband, adopted children, and her biological child candidly describing their feelings throughout the last eight years.
• Heartfelt advice from Radomski on what she’s learned—and what she would have done differently.
• Eight key rules to successfully parent the adopted child.
• Resources she recommends to help you through the adoption process.
• And much more! From Half to Whole is a complete perspective on the battle scars of adoption, the love that grows from bonding together, the pride of seeing your accomplishments, and the humor that springs forth from the unexpected.

Author and adoptive mother Ann Sullivan shares her story of the struggles, challenges and successes she faced as she raised a daughter adopted from Russia at age 11. It is the story of failure and progress, of heartbreak and laughter, and of mistakes made and lessons learned. When her daughter’s therapist encouraged Sullivan to write a book about her experiences and hard-won victories, she set out to not only share her experiences, but to offer hope to other adoptive parents. She shares her challenges and successes as she helps her daughter come to terms with her traumatic past, and she offers the lessons she and other adoptive parents have learned along the way. By the Same Author: Adoption and Privatization: An Issue Brief (1998, CWLA Press).

From the Publisher: How does one go about opening one’s heart to an abused six-year-old boy who speaks not one word of English? What do menopause and kudzu have in common? Where do we turn for that extra dose of courage, or an extra dollop of humor to help us through the day? Gweilo Moments, a collection of interlocking essays by Robin Minietta, is a thoughtful—and, provocative—meditation on lives that unfold against the backdrop of Hong Kong. Both poignant and laugh-out-loud funny, Minietta’s debut book showcases a strong, clear intelligent woman’s voice. About the Author: Robin Minietta, a journalist by training, worked for over a decade as a reporter and producer for public television in the United States. She has won numerous awards for her broadcast work, including an Emmy. Her essays have been published in literary and academic journals in the U.S. Minietta lives in Hong Kong with her husband and three children.

When my husband and I adopted three-year-old Tyler from Ukraine in 1992, the orphanage director told us, “He just needs to be loved,” but Tyler needed much more than love. The product of neglect and abuse, he was a wounded little soul who fought every attempt to be integrated into our family, afraid to trust human relationships. During his first years in America, Tyler was diagnosed with PDD (an autism spectrum disorder), and Tourette Syndrome, leaving my family overwhelmed and ill-prepared to handle such an emotionally fragile little boy. He Just Needs to Be Loved chronicles Tyler’s journey from a troubled child to a confident, happy, young man with endless possibilities.

Healing Emotional Wounds: A Story of Overcoming the Long Hard Road to Recovery from Abuse and Abandonment is a compelling chronicle of metamorphosis that gives testament to the power of love, encouragement, and resolve over the desperate circumstances of abuse, neglect, and abandonment. This unvarnished story recounts the tumultuous road to recovery of two six-year-olds adopted from Ukraine and takes the reader through a mosaic of emotions from anger and frustration to laughter and bewilderment.

From the Publisher: When a child or youth is placed for adoption, it is a time of joy and excitement and it presents the child with the opportunity to experience what it is like to truly belong to a loving, stable family. However, for many adoptees, the first few months in a new adoptive placement are also a time of confusion and even more change in a lifetime of loss, unpredictability, and unanswered questions. Help! I’ve Been Adopted! will answer many of the questions that new (and long time placed) adoptees have about their lives. This book presents issues such as “Why do birth parents give up or lose their children?”; “What is attachment and how does it affect my life?”; “How do adoptive parents get matched to a child?”; “Who makes all the decisions about a child’s life?”; and more. This book is full of helpful suggestions to promote discussion between the adoptive parents and the child, and it will help social workers and counselors gain a new perspective on how to support the early stages of an adoption placement.

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Brenda McCreight, Ph.D., is an author, speaker, and therapist as well as the mother of 14. Brenda entered the adoption world as the young adoptive mom of a 14-month-old boy with undetermined “special needs.” Those special needs were later diagnosed as fetal alcohol spectrum disorder, but at the time, so little was known about it that her family couldn’t even get a diagnosis, let alone find any resources. Fortunately, as a family therapist, she was able to access the scientific research. She read what little she could find, and then she began putting on workshops for other parents and professionals so that they could learn to recognize the symptoms and create ways to help their children who carried the diagnosis that would soon become so common in the adoption field.

Over the next 30 years, she adopted 12 more children and kept on top of the newest research on neuroscience so that she could provide effective counseling, parent coaching, and training. So far, she’s written four books about adoption: Recognizing and Managing Fetal Alcohol Syndrome/Effects, Parenting Your Older Adopted Child, Eden: The Story of an Older Child Adoption, and her most recent book Help! I’ve Been Adopted. Brenda is the author of numerous magazine articles on adoption and has been given the Adoption Activist Award in 2003 by the North American Council on Adoptable Children. Brenda also enjoys writing fiction. She currently has several on Kindle including Cleah: The Lost Fury Chronicles, Good Enough: A Shay James Mystery, and Regards..., a book of short stories.

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By the Same Author: Parenting Your Adopted Older Child: How to Overcome the Unique Challenges and Raise a Happy and Healthy Child (2002, New Harbinger Publications), among others.

From the Dust Jacket: Perhaps you know a child who has suffered the terrifying experience of losing a parent to death. Perhaps you are in the middle of a divorce, caught up in your own worries and pain yet concerned about the effect it is having on your children. Perhaps you have just moved to a new city and have noticed alarming changes in your children’s behavior. Or perhaps you are coping with a long separation from your children because of hospitalization or military service.

In any of these situations, the children involved need your help. With few resources to turn to when a loved one is lost, they fear for their own survival. They feel sadness, anger, guilt, shame, despair—yet they may lack the words to describe their feelings. They restrain feelings they fear are improper; and when these emotions do escape, adults may misinterpret their behavior as destructive naughtiness. Confused about the past and unwilling to face the future, such children may founder. Losses that follow, however trivial, will compound their troubles. If their feelings are not resolved, their emotional distress will manifest itself in adolescence and adulthood—as depression, anxiety, alcoholism, or suicidal tendencies.

How can concerned adults help? From years of work with hundreds of bereaved children, child and family therapist Claudia Jewett has developed the simple techniques described in Helping Children Cope with Separation and Loss—techniques that any adult can use to help children through their grief. From the agonizing moment when an adult must tell a child what has happened, through the shock and denial, then anger and depression, that follow, Jewett describes the stages of mourning and the behavior that can be expected of grieving children at each stage. Using case histories and sample dialogues between helper and child, she explains how to help children to come to a timely resolution of their grief.

Nearly half of all children born today will spend a significant portion of their lives in single-parent families. Whether you are caretaker or teacher, counselor or friend, your understanding and support will be needed as they try to cope with the experience of separation. The adult who helps a grieving child performs a difficult task, but one that is crucial to the child’s well-being. Helping Children Cope with Separation and Loss makes that task clearer and easier.

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By the Same Author: Adopting the Older Child (1978).

From the Back Cover: This book is about people who have little or no conscience. It is about pathological liars, con men, back stabbers, the crooks of the business world and worse: psychopathic killers. They all come disguised as likeable, energetic people with the uncanny ability to gain our trust ... and then just as rapidly double-cross us.

They are the Trust Bandits of the ’80s. They start their process of stealing, lying, and criminal behavior early...as unattached children. America is producing thousands of these children without a conscience each year and its citizens are scared about the future.

• Where do these people without a conscience come from?

• How can we recognize them before they victimize us?

• What can working mothers and fathers do to prevent their children from becoming unattached aid thus at high risk for later criminal behavior?

• How can we protect ourselves from dating or marrying a Trust Bandit who will later steal our money and our hearts?

And there is more. This book is filled with valuable information about selecting a good day care centeror provider, how to design a low risk divorce visitation schedule, as well as suggestions for reforms that should be made in the schools and judicial system.

If you haven’t become a victim already then the chances are great that you or a loved one will cross paths with someone who will cause incredible pain. If you don’t know about the psychopathic personality then you are at high risk.

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About the Author: Dr. Ken Magid has two master’s degrees from the University of Southern Florida and a doctorate from the University of Denver and is a licensed clinical psychologist and chief of psychological services at Golden Medical Clinic in Golden, Colorado. He is also the co-director of the Behavioral Science Department for Family Practice Physicians at the Saint Joseph Hospital in Denver, Colorado, where he teaches psychology to physicians. Ken also teaches courses at Metropolitan State College and is a regular columnist for the Rocky Mountain News. His work has been featured on NBC’s Today Show and Hour Magazine and in Woman’s Day Magazine, Working Woman, News America Syndicate, New York Daily News, London Daily Express, and many other publications. He has three sons, Aaron, Justin and Kesson.

Carole A. McKelvey is a journalist with more than twenty years experience as a reporter and editor on newspapers and magazines on the West Coast and in Colorado. She is currently Sunday Magazine Editor at the Rocky Mountain News in Denver, Colorado. Carole has won numerous state and national writing and editing awards including Best Story of the year from the Colorado Press Association and Sweepstakes Winner of the Year from Colorado Press Women. She has consistently won National Federation of Press Women first place honors. Her work has appeared in numerous publications nationally, and on Hour Magazine. She and her husband George have one son, Ian.

This guide describes ways to deal with issues that arise when adopting older children. Written by experts in the field, Quick Easy Guides share little-known trade secrets and helpful hints to get you moving in the right direction. Quick Easy Guides gives you books you can judge by the cover. Our books are short, sweet and cheap. You can see for yourself.

From the Back Cover: “Congratulations on your adoption!” Faith, age 8, and Hunter, age 11, aren’t so sure that congratulations are in order; having parents and a new family is complicated. Their new moms, Helen and Toni Green, are also finding adoption to be a challenge. Everyone seems to be above their heads this time.

Help comes in unexpected form; four ancestors from the various branches of Faith and Hunter’s family show up to teach, encourage and cheer this family—from its bewildered beginnings to feeling truly attached to one another by love. Funny, tender and wise, this quartet has much to say about the nature of all families, and about the special needs, challenges and joys of older child adoption.

This is a read-aloud story for families formed through adoption. Special parent chapters at the end are there to help get families talking and to deepen the parents’ knowledge and understanding of older child adoption.

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About the Author: Serena Patterson, Ph.D., is a clinical psychologist with over 30 years experience working with and teaching about children and families. Her lifelong passion for children whose first families could not raise them began as a volunteer at Buckhorn Children’s Center in Buckhorn, Kentucky. It continued through her Ph.D. at Simon Fraser University in British Columbia, Canada, teaching future social workers at North Island College on Vancouver Island, counselling families, and finally, becoming a mother through adoption.

From the Dust Jacket: Writer and star of My Big Fat Greek Wedding, Nia Vardalos firmly believed she was supposed to be a mom, but Mother Nature and modern medicine had put her in a headlock. So she made a choice that shocked friends, family, and even herself: with only fourteen hours’ notice, she adopted a preschooler.

Instant Mom is Vardalos’s hilarious and poignant true chronicle of trying to become a mother while fielding nosy “frenemies” and Hollywood reporters asking, “Any baby news?” With her signature wit and candor, she describes her and husband Ian Gomez’s bumpy road to parenting, how they found their daughter, and what happened next. Vardalos includes a comprehensive how-to-adopt section and explores innovative ways to conquer the challenges all new moms face, from sleep to personal grooming. She learns that whether via biology, relationship, or adoption—motherhood comes in many forms.

In Instant Mom, Vardalos shares the terrifying joys of parenthood and for the first time reveals her stubborn optimism and perseverance on her trek to finally becoming a mom, instantly.

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About the Author: Nia Vardalos is the Academy Award and Golden Globe nominated actress and writer of My Big Fat Greek Wedding. An alumnus of The Second City comedy theater, she also starred in and wrote Connie and Carla and I Hate Valentine’s Day, starred in My Life In Ruins, and co-wrote Larry Crowne with Tom Hanks. Born and raised in Canada, Vardalos now resides in Los Angeles with her husband, their daughter, and many pets and is currently working on balancing her acting and writing career with motherhood and adoption advocacy.

“How can we prepare for being immediate parents of our new son? How will we communicate with him when we speak two different languages? What will we do if he has a tantrum?” These are just a few of the issues new adoptive couples face when their new child is from another country. International Adoption of a Preschool Child: 100 Parenting Tips for Your Child’s First Year provides practical ideas, from preparing for the child’s homecoming, to celebrations of holidays and birthdays in his new country. The child’s responses to grief and loss are explored, as well as ways to provide love and comfort. The author includes suggestions on learning about and preserving the child’s culture, and a section on self-care for new parents. She also emphasizes the importance of support for the parents because of the challenges of immediate parenthood.

From the Back Cover: Journey for Julie is unique, in that the reader is able to follow along with the author as she travels through China to adopt her daughter. The reader is invited to witness the miracle of adoption and discover how God uses trials and setbacks to bring spiritual growth, even half way around the world. The author hopes to answer the question many adoptive families have. “What happens once you get there?” Experience the thrill of finally arriving in China, the heartbreak of being stranded in Beijing, the ecstasy of Gotcha Day and the adventures of coming home to a new family.

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About the Author: Stephanie Sydes graduated from the University of North Carolina at Wilmington with a Bachelor’s Degree in Social Work. She later completed her Master’s Degree in Counseling. She married Chris and worked in the social work field until the birth of their son in 2003. In 2007 Chris and Stephanie welcomed their daughter home from China. They live in the coastal community of Hampstead, NC.

Once Scott Roos embraced his wife Nancy’s vision to adopt an older child in need, the couple embarked on a roller coaster ride of international adoption. While the process was challenging and downright discouraging at times, they persevered with strength derived from heart-sourced guidance to overcome many obstacles, doubts, and fears. The joyous outcome, Katya, provided a gift of love and inspiration to their three biological children, extended family, friends, teachers, and strangers who Katya touched along her incredible journey. From a probable dead-end in a rural Russian orphanage, to a hopeful life in an American family, Katya’s Comet exposes the emotions, people, places, cultures, and logistics that the couple encountered along the way. While Katya’s Comet provides useful insights and references for international adoption, in a broader sense, it motivates you to seek a selfless vision with the promise of experiencing the ripples of joy that inevitably result when you drop your proverbial stone into the enormous pond of human need. Scott’s firsthand experience uniquely qualifies him to share this touching story. His down-to-earth writing style and heartfelt open sharing is positively engaging. About the Author: Scott Roos wrote Katya’s Comet with wisdom and conviction, gained from his family’s real-life adoption. An accomplished product designer, Scott tempers his career with Dahn yoga and growing political activism focused on creating a sustainable future. Scott lives in Glenview, IL, with his wife Nancy and their four children.

Kim was three years old in 1950, when the North Koreans invaded her native village. After an exploding bomb took her sight and facing starvation, her desperate father threw Kim and her sister into a river. Only her mother’s screams forced him to attempt a rescue. He saved Kim but her sister drowned. After being placed in a Missionary Orphanage for the blind, Kim was noticed by a missionary who recommended her to an American Adoption Agency. Kim was adopted by the Wickes family of Indiana.

From the Back Cover: A mother and a daughter tell their story. They share their struggle; the mother to connect with a distant and cocaine-addicted daughter and the daughter to believe she deserves the love offered.

You will gain insight into the pain of a traumatic childhood, Attention Deficit Disorder and the world of drugs and street life. You will learn some creative solutions for connecting in difficult relationships. Sound guidance in the form of fourteen lessons is provided for changing relationship dynamics. For those entering the “real world” after jail or recovery, transitional information and direction are offered. Most of all you will be shown how to turn hope into loving action. We can all grow and learn from relationships.

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About the Author: Patricia Morgan began life in rural Ontario where she met and married her teen sweetheart, Les Morgan. After careers as an Early Childhood Educator and parent Education Facilitator, Patricia returned to school in 1984 to completed a masters degree in Humanistic and Clinical Psychology. She has worked as a family therapist, career counsellor and consultant to parents of acting out teenagers. In 1999 she became a Certified Integrative Body Psychotherapist and has a counselling practice in Calgary, Alberta.

Patricia has created and delivered dozens of courses and workshops dealing with parent education, family dynamics, women’s issues, self esteem and the value of a light hearted lifestyle. She is increasingly being invited to conferences as a keynote or seminar speaker.

As an accidental writer she is grateful for the gifts that have come from revealing the story of her relationship with her daughter, Kelly. Patricia is also mother to Benjamin and Katie and grandmother to Kelly’s two children, James and Danielle. Patricia is vibrantly alive and happily connected to her loved ones ... most days.

Kelly Morgan has been in addiction recovery for over five years participating in a number of programs. Since her Attention Deficit Disorder diagnosis she has become informed and better skilled at managing it. She now works at balancing being a student at the University of Windsor with being a single parent mom to her two children, James and Danielle.

She has also become a supportive source to others who are entering the recovery process or who are beginning to make healthy changes in their lives. While there are some days she still struggles with life challenges, Kelly most often celebrates her new accomplishments and blessings.

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By the Same Author: Adoption and the Care of Children: The British and American Experience (1998, Institute of Economic Affairs) and Adoption: The Continuing Debate (1999, Institute of Economic Affairs).

Marie was a severely handicapped five-year-old and Michelle was an ordinary teenager when they first met. Michelle Daly soon became the youngest single woman in Britain to obtain legal guardianship of somebody else’s child. Now, over forty years later, Michelle tells their story—a challenge to all who read it and a celebration of great achievement—in an unsentimental, honest and thought-provoking voice.

From the Back Cover: Families are many different things. Some children live with divorced or lone parents, other are adopted, live in care or even become young carers.

In this book eight young people talk about their family situations. Fact panels provide further information on the issues. The book includes details of organisations that can be contacted by young people who are experiencing family problems themselves.

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Compiler’s Note: See, particularly, “Care and adoption”: James was put into care aged four after very difficult early years and his feelings are shut down. He was adopted at the age of eight and, with his adoptive parents, has learned how to feel and care. (pp. 22-25).

This book is a collection of stories of struggle. It begins with a child’s adoption at age five but goes on to tell of the many struggles in school, with peers, on the streets, in rehab programs, and beyond. This could be the very real experience of any child or struggling adolescent and their family in today’s world. The second half of this book offers a resource guide that could be useful to parents as well as counselors, teachers, and outreach workers.

From the Dust Jacket: Peter Likins has, by most accounts, a successful life. But his personal accomplishments are only the backdrop for the real story—the story of his family, whose trials and triumphs hold lessons for many American families in the 21st century.

This poignant but ultimately empowering memoir tells the story of Peter Likins, his wife Patricia, and the six children they adopted in the 1960s, building a family beset by challenges that ultimately strengthened all bonds. With issues such as interracial adoption, mental illness, drug addiction, unwed pregnancy, and homosexuality entwined in their lives, the Likins[es’] tale isn’t just a family memoir—it’s a story of the American experience, a memoir with a message. With circumstances of race, age, and health making all of their children virtually unadoptable by 1960s standards, Pat and Pete never strayed from the belief that loyalty and love could build a strong family.

Both Pete and Pat have served as teachers, and Pete’s long academic career—holding positions as a professor, dean, provost, and then president—illuminates more than just his personal success. Pete’s professional attainments produce a context for his family story, wherein high achievements in educational, athletic, and financial terms coexist with the joys and sorrows of this exceptional family.

A frank, open account of the difficulties his family faced, this is a brave story, told with unflinching honesty and remarkable compassion. A New American Family is a wonderful narrative of the genesis of a family and a journey to the deepest parts of a father’s heart.

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About the Author: With degrees from Stanford and MIT, Peter Likins served as an engineering professor at UCLA, a dean and then provost at Columbia University, president of Lehigh University, and then president of the University of Arizona. Retired now, he lives with his wife in Tucson.

From the Back Cover: The Carter Family is expecting, but not exactly in the traditional way. Alisa Maria Carter’s family is adopting.

As the family prepares for the arrival of nine-year-old, Lillie Rose, Alisa makes it her mission to learn all she possibly can about Lillie.

Before you know it, Alisa becomes a mini expert on Indonesia, the country where Lillie is coming from.

Come and read this story about how a family welcomes an Indonesian orphan. Experience how the power of their love warms their hearts and unites their souls.

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About the Author: Dr. Kerlynn Christophe is an educator and author, whose goal is to capture readers by promoting learning through reading. Dr. Christophe believes that whether reading takes you on an adventure or teaches you a skill; whether you are reading for pleasure or for learning; or whether you are reading a children’s book, a novel, a magazine, a newspaper, or even a cookbook, JUST READ! In her spare time, Dr. Christophe enjoys reading, writing, going to the movies, spending time with loved ones, and starting new projects. This is Dr. Christophe’s second children’s book with Alisa Maria Carter. Her first is titled, My Inspiration. Dr. Christophe has also written A Mystical Dream Ride. Additionally, Dr. Christophe is currently finalizing her first novel. Stay tuned and keep reading.

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Compiler’s Note: See, also, A New Arrival—Lillie Rose: Workbook.

From the Publisher: No More Here and There is a down-to-earth account of an older child growing into a family, as reflected in the diary kept by his adoptive mother, who subsequently developed this personal journal into a manuscript which the publisher hopes will be of real value to all those interested in the adoptive placement of children with special needs.

No Panic! How to Adopt an Older Child is a practical, hands-on guide, navigating readers through the sometimes complicated process of adopting an older child, from inception of the idea through to a final transformation into a happy, forever family. Covering topics such as how and when to decide to adopt, fundraising, picking agencies, domestic vs. international adoption, parenting your new child, and transitioning into a new family dynamic, No Panic! is an honest, positive, and uplifting account. Full of usable tips and tricks, resources, and ideas, parents are empowered to follow their hearts on integrating a new family member completely and permanently. Above all, No Panic! is an incredible love story in which one American family and one Ukrainian teenage boy fall in love, changing the course of both of their lives forever.

A former kindergarten teacher who’d been trained to memorialize her day-today experiences applies this habit to her home life after taking in an orphaned five-year-old boy, when her and her husband’s preference for a girl was thwarted by a paucity of acceptable available female orphans.

From the Preface: I SHOULD like to say a few words of explanation to my readers before they begin my note-book. It is not a novel with a purpose. It is a notebook with a purpose, however, and I wish it to start its career honestly.
     When I was a young girl, studying in one of the most thorough kindergarten training-schools in the country, I was required to keep a journal in which were recorded with unflinching honesty the results of all my teaching under supervision. This journal was handed in to the Director once a week, read, and unsparingly criticized by her. In it I was obliged to tell of the work done with my pupils during each half-hour, what the lesson was intended to teach them, physically, mentally, and spiritually; whether I felt that it was a success; if not, where my failure had been and whether I thought I could improve on it if given another trial. I was also expected to write down any especially bright or significant remarks made by the children. The ostensible purpose of this was to keep the Director closely in touch with the work of her unpaid assistants. The great good of it to the conscientious student, however, was the habit of self-examination which it formed. Many a time I have come to understand my pupils and myself much better because of the quiet thought I was obliged to give to our work together, at a time when there were no conflicting calls for my help and no temptation to flurry or impatience.
     It has seemed most natural, therefore, since I left my beloved work of training both kindergarten children and kindergarten teachers, to continue in my own home the habit of earlier years. A memorandum pad on my dresser and another on my desk have caught the hurried jottings of my busy days, and when my boy was sleeping it has been happy and profitable work to elaborate the hastily made notes.
     All mothers cannot do this, I know, yet all are meeting from day to day many of the problems which come to me. So it may chance that, following my experiences on the printed page, they will find their own perceptions somewhat quickened, and profit, not only by my little successes, but by my failures as well. It is a great deal to form the habit of looking beneath the surface of the day’s happenings; it is a great deal for some of us even to want to do so.
     There is a second purpose to this volume. All over this broad land there are homeless children and there are childless homes. It seems such a radical step to take, this bringing into a quiet and well-ordered house a child of strange parentage, and there are always so many ready to prophesy evil consequences, particularly among one’s own relatives, who become suddenly anxious for the honor of the family name. But one who has tried it knows that it is not such a startling thing to do after all, and if the laying bare of her own deepest experiences results in the opening of one more home to some friendless child, she will not begrudge the effort that it costs.
     Because these notes are written with such honesty and are of such a personal character, I ask to be permitted a nom de plume. The only reservation I have made is in the matter of names.

From the Back Cover: This is the first-person story of an adoption that took 10 years to complete. Lee Ann joined the Lindsay family at the age of seven, after years of shuttling from one foster home to another. She brought with her a sense of humor, good survival skills, and a host of problems, complicated by the intermittent presence of a father who could not care for her but refused to consent to her adoption. The book recounts her struggle to become secure with her new parents and her relationships with friends, siblings, and other relatives, as well as social workers, counselors, teachers, psychiatrists, lawyers, and judges. The author writes movingly and honestly, sharing both the strategies she used to create a sense of belonging for Lee Ann and her ultimate inability to change the past. Readers will agree that something good did happen to Lee Ann when she joined this loving, resourceful family.

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About the Author: Caroline Hassinger Lindsay, an educator, has taught at Epworth Pre-School in Durham, North Carolina, for 20 years. She has a bachelor’s degree from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and a master’s degree from Columbia Teacher’s College and Union Theological Seminary in New York City.

The mother of four children, three of whom are adopted, including “Leigh,” she facilitates workshops for parents and teachers. She lives in Chapel Hill, North Carolina, with her husband Paul.

From the Publisher: Adopting a child over the age of two can present unique challenges and opportunities, even for experienced parents. It is one thing to understand about adopting an older child and quite another to live with that child. This book presents both the author’s personal experiences after having adopted three children (ages nine to twelve) and the results of her research of over thirty families who adopted older children.

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About the Author: Grace Robinson of Fort Collins, Colorado, was a Middle School teacher for 20 years. In 1983 when she wanted a Middle School-aged child she would not have to give up in June, she adopted a twelve-year-old. In the next three years, she adopted a thirteen-year-old and a nine-year-old. Grace has been an active member of Family Resources, a private, non-profit agency specializing in older child adoption.