From the Back Cover: How do adoptions really turn out? How do adopted children feel about the family they were given and the opportunities they were offered? To what extent do they fulfil their new parents’ expectations of them? And does it matter whether their adoption grew out of a fostering relationship or was considered right from the start as a permanent arrangement?

The major follow-up study on which this book ts based sought to answer these questions. The research involved 160 sets of parents and over 100 of their adopted children, now young adults. This was, in fact, the largest group of adult adoptees anywhere in the world to be interviewed and studied in a systematic way. As they look back over their life together, the parents and the young people explain what adopting or being adopted was like for them.

The Adopted Child Comes of Age offers glimpses of adoptive family life over a period of more than twenty years, compares the views of the young people with those of their adopters and measures the factors which influenced the various outcomes. Particular attention is paid to the basis on which the child was originally placed, in order to shed light on the controversial subject of whether a preliminary fostering period represents a useful safeguard.

The information gathered by Lois Raynor and her colleagues provides the feedback so long sought by social work teachers and by those practising social workers who have the responsibility for making long-term plans for children and for approving foster home or adoption applications. Readers with personal experience of adoption will be interested in making their own comparisons, while prospective adopters will learn to avoid some pitfalls and to enjoy an adopted child as their own.

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About the Author: Lois Raynor is an American social worker now resident in London. She brings to the study the accumulated knowledge and questions of experienced social workers on both sides of the Atlantic. in particular, she has a unique experience of child welfare and adoption agencies and is the author of The Adoption of Non-White Children and Giving Up a Baby for Adoption. Her findings will be of interest to social work professionals and to adoptive families throughout the English-speaking world.

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By the Same Author: Adoption of Non-White Children: The Experience of a British Adoption Project (1970).

From the Dust Jacket: This is an immensely important pioneer study into the life history of people who were adopted in childhood. Previous adoption research has largely been confined to studies of the problem as seen by adopting parents; this work is the first study of adoption as it appears to the person ultimately most concerned—the adopted child.

The author introduces her study with a historical review of attitudes to and provisions for the unmarried mother and for the adoption of children in the United Kingdom as shown in contemporary writings and legislation. Dr. McWhinnie’s research is based on interviews with adopted adults, and her findings demonstrate the wide range of factors which are significant in the adult adjustment of adopted children. She also considers the review of current adoption law and adoption practice, and concludes that current adoption law offers its protection too late and in too limited a way to promote good adjustment for adopted children.

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About the Author: Alexina Mary McWhinnie worked as a Medical Social Worker for four years in a general hospital, in Miners’ Rehabilitation Centres, and in an Edinburgh moral welfare organisation. She then returned to academic study, graduated as an M.A. and a Ph.D., and qualified as a Psychiatric Social Worker at the University of Edinburgh. She was director for five years of the Guild of Service, Edinburgh, a voluntary child care organisation and registered adoption society. She is married to a Child Psychiatrist and has two young sons.

This is a follow-up of a representative group of adopted children and their families, undertaken some ten years after the children were placed through the Adoption Agency of the Child Welfare Committee of Stockholm City. The sample was the 168 children placed by the agency within a period of two years. Ages ranged from ten to eleven years. The adoptive parents were found to have better attitude towards girls than boys, and the girls were better adjusted, b Maladjustment was more frequently found among boys than girls. Problem behavior was characterized by disturbed relations with peers, defiance, aggressiveness and inability to concentrate.

With the intercountry adoption of children being an ever-more-common phenomenon, the question arises as to how the adaptation of foreign children in Western society is working out. This book gives an account of the investigation into the experiences of 88 Dutch families with 116 children adopted from Thailand, providing information of interest to adopted children, adoptive parents and interested professionals.

From the Back Cover: “I wanted somebody to look after me and love me and do all that kind of stuff and basically look after me and bring me up properly.”

“Meet new family, meet new friends, meet new cousins, meet new houses, meet new schools. Everything really. Meet a new world.”

“I was worried whether I would be allowed to get adopted or not. And if not, what would I do and where would I go?”

If you really want to learn about children’s wishes and feelings about adoption and their experience of it, this unique book is for you.

Adopted Children Speaking is part of a wider research project published under the title Supporting Adoption: Reframing the Approach which throws light on aspects of policy and practice concerning the support available to older children and their adoptive families. This book gives voice to the invaluable perspective of the children themselves.

Adopted Children Speaking is full of moving and poignant testimonies and, above all, revealing insights into what children and young people themselves think and understand about adoption, the support they received, their involvement in the process and any unmet needs. There are powerful messages here for social work practitioners and those making decisions for children.

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About the Author: Caroline Thomas is a Research Fellow at Cardiff University. She took the lead role in this study of older children’s views and experiences of the adoption process. She is currently on secondment to the Scottish Office managing a programme of research on the Children (Scotland) Act 1995.

Verna Beckford is a social worker with Bath and North East Somerset Council. She has worked as a Research Associate at the Bristol University’s Norah Fry Research Centre and at Cardiff Law School. She is also co-author of Consolidation or change? A second survey of family based respite care services in the United Kingdom with C Robinson.

Nigel Lowe is a Professor of Law at Cardiff Law School. A former Chair of BAAF’s Legal Group (1984-1990), he has a long-standing interest in adoption and, together with Professor Murch, has directed a number of empirical studies into its law and practice including Supporting Adoption: Reframing the approach. He has published extensively and is the co-author of The Children Act in Practice (2nd edn) with Richard White and Paul Carr, and of Bromley’s Family Law (9th edn) with Gillian Douglas. He is an editor of Clarke Hall and Morrison On Children and of Family Law Reports.

Mervyn Murch has taught Law and Applied Social Studies and is a Professor of Law at Cardiff Law School. His 30-year research career has focused on the interdisciplinary work of the family justice system and has contributed to policy and practice development and law reform in divorce, adoption and child protection. He is currently studying the ways by which the voice of the child can be heard in divorce proceedings. His books include Justice and Welfare in Divorce, The Family Justice System with Douglas Hooper and Grounds for Divorce with G Davis.

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.

264 killers, all of whom were adopted at birth or in early childhood, are profiled to explain WHY they killed.

From the Back Cover: Since the end of the Korean War, an estimated 200,000 children from South Korea have been adopted into white families in North America, Europe and Australia. While these transnational adoptions were initiated as an emergency measure to find homes for mixed-race children born in the aftermath of the war, the practice grew exponentially from the 1960s until the 1980s. Most of the adoptees were raised with little exposure to Koreans or other Korean adoptees, but as adults, they have come into increasing contact with each other, Korean culture, and the South Korean state. Since the 1990s, as Korean children have continue to leave to be adopted in the West, a growing number of adult adoptees have been returning to Korea to learn about their cultural and biological origins. In this fascinating ethnography, Eleana J. Kim examines the history of Korean adoption, the emergence of a distinctive adoptee collective identity and adoptee returns to Korea.

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About the Author: Eleana Kim is an Assistant Professor of Anthropology at the University of Rochester.

Abstract: This thesis is an examination of the life and trials of an adoptee. The impact of trauma related to adoption extends deep into the psyche as the child grows. Among the factors contributing to an adoptee’s struggle with trauma is the focus on the adoptive parents. The adoptee’s experience is neglected as the adoptee is expected to be thankful to the adoptive parents and to comply without making waves in the new family. Research shows a link between adoption, trauma, and dissociation; yet the adoptee is misdiagnosed and therefore provided with erroneous treatment. Utilizing a heuristic methodology, the author incorporates her personal experience with literature on studies regarding the adoption experience and depth psychology, including the Hero’s Journey. The personal journey of the adoptee extends into the cultural shadow where the fear of abandonment festers. The intention is to bring these issues to light to promote individuation and healing.

Ever need a fact or quotation on adoptees? Designed for speechwriters, journalists, writers, researchers, students, professors, teachers, historians, academics, scrapbookers, trivia buffs and word lovers, this is the largest book ever created for this single word. It represents a compilation from a variety of sources with a linguistic emphasis on anything relating to the term “adoptees,” including non-conventional usage and alternative meanings which capture ambiguities. The entries cover all parts of speech (noun, verb, adverb or adjective usage) as well as use in modern slang, pop culture, social sciences (linguistics, history, geography, economics, sociology, political science), business, computer science, literature, law, medicine, psychology, mathematics, chemistry, physics, biology and other physical sciences. This “data dump” results in many unexpected examples for adoptees, since the editorial decision to include or exclude terms is purely a linguistic process. The resulting entries are used under license or with permission, used under “fair use” conditions, used in agreement with the original authors, or are in the public domain. Proceeds from this book are used to expand the content and coverage of Webster’s Online Dictionary (www.websters-online-dictionary.org).

Webster’s bibliographic and event-based timelines are comprehensive in scope, covering virtually all topics, geographic locations and people. They do so from a linguistic point of view, and in the case of this book, the focus is on “Adoptees,” including when used in literature (e.g. all authors that might have Adoptees in their name). As such, this book represents the largest compilation of timeline events associated with Adoptees when it is used in proper noun form. Webster’s timelines cover bibliographic citations, patented inventions, as well as non-conventional and alternative meanings which capture ambiguities in usage. These furthermore cover all parts of speech (possessive, institutional usage, geographic usage) and contexts, including pop culture, the arts, social sciences (linguistics, history, geography, economics, sociology, political science), business, computer science, literature, law, medicine, psychology, mathematics, chemistry, physics, biology and other physical sciences. This “data dump” results in a comprehensive set of entries for a bibliographic and/or event-based timeline on the proper name Adoptees, since editorial decisions to include or exclude events is purely a linguistic process. The resulting entries are used under license or with permission, used under “fair use” conditions, used in agreement with the original authors, or are in the public domain.

From the Dust Jacket: Drawn from compelling stories of people who have been adopted, this book provides an intelligent and accessible description of the distinct emotional and spiritual challenges faced by adoptees and their families. Nydam avoids overstating the plight of the adopted person. Instead, he maps out an alternative developmental pathway that adoptees travel, given the realities of relinquishment and adoption. Adoptees can grow up joyfully, Nydam concludes, but they do grow up differently.

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About the Author: Ronald J. Nydam is Assistant Professor of Pastoral care at Calvin Seminary, Grand Rapids, MI.

From the Publisher: This special issue addresses the construction of ethnic identity among international transracial adoptees, which typically involve the placement of Black, Asian, Hispanic, or Multiracial children with White parents. International transracial adoptees, similar to immigrants, navigate a cultural and ethnic context other than their birth culture. However, they are unique in that they navigate these experiences within families who don’t share their cultural, ethnic, and racial background. Critical questions emerge about the construction and development of their ethnic identity. These questions include
• the role that transracial adoptive parents play in providing cultural socialization (exposure to children’s birth culture);
• the impact of culture camps designed to provide cultural socialization in the context of peers;
• the intersection of adoptive identity and ethnic identity and youth adjustment;
• whether relations between ethnic identity and adjustment are linear or curvilinear;
• the role of bicultural identity integration as a link between ethnic identity and pscyhosocial adjustment; and
• ethnic identity processes among internationally transracially adopted young adults who mentor younger adoptees from similar cultures.
These questions are addressed in this special issue in a collection of studies that examine ethnic identity among diverse international transracial adoptees, at different ages, adopted into two countries and using differing sample sizes and methodologies. International transracial adoptive families represent a microcosm of the growing international, transracial, and transethnic social transactions taking place in this diverse world. The collective findings in this special issue about the multidimensionality of ethnic identity and its intersectionality with other identities across developmental eras not only enhance knowledge about identity development among international transracial adoptees, but also expand understanding about identity development in general. This is the 150th volume in this Jossey-Bass series New Directions for Child and Adolescent Development. Its mission is to provide scientific and scholarly presentations on cutting edge issues and concepts in this subject area. Each volume focuses on a specific new direction or research topic and is edited by experts from that field.

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About the Author: Ellen E. Pinderhughes is an associate professor in the Eliot-Pearson Department of Child Study and Human Development at Tufts University.

Rosa Rosnati, Ph.D., is full professor of Psychology of adoption, fostering and family enrichment and member of the Scientific Committee of the University Centre for Family Studies and Research (Catholic University of Milan).

From the Publisher: Around three quarters of people who turn to adoption do so because of infertility and those working in this field need information, guidance and support to assist them in the process of adoption to support the adopters and to deal with any issues that may result from infertility. Adopting after Infertility is an accessible and informative interdisciplinary book that addresses the issues that professionals working with adopters and the adopters themselves face when going through the adoption process and the impact of infertility on their experiences. The book includes chapters on the effects of infertility, why people may choose adoption and the assessment and preparation process. It also covers what an Adoption Panel needs to know about the prospective parents, the experiences of those coming to adoption from minority communities or when living with health conditions and post-adoption support needs. Personal accounts by people who have experienced adopting after infertility are included throughout the book. This book will be essential reading for professionals and academics from a range of disciplines including social work, psychology, health, mental health and counseling. It will also be invaluable to students studying for post-qualifying awards.

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About the Author: Marilyn Crawshaw is Senior Lecturer in Social Work at the University of York. Her research interests include psychosocial aspects of reproductive health, policy and practice.

Rachel Balen is Principal Lecturer in Social Work at the University of Huddersfield. Her research interests include child welfare and safeguarding. Marilyn and Rachel are co-editors of Sexuality and Fertility in Ill Health and Disability: From Early Adolescence to Adulthood (2006, Jessica Kingsley).

From the Publisher: American literature abounds with orphans who experience adoption or placements that resemble adoption. These narratives do more than describe adventures of children living away from home. They tell an American story of family and national identity. In literature from the seventeenth to the early twentieth century, adoption functions as narrative event and trope to recount the American migratory experience, the impact of Calvinist faith, and the growth of democratic individualism.

The literary roots of adoption appear in the discourse of Puritan settlers, who ambivalently took leave of their birth country and portrayed themselves as abandoned offspring. Believing they were chosen children of God, they also prayed for spiritual adoption and emulated God’s grace by extending adoption to others. Nineteenth-century literature develops from this idea of adoption as salvation and from simultaneous attachments to the Old World and New. In fiction of the mid-nineteenth century, adoption also reflects the importance of nurture in childrearing and the nation’s increased mobility. Middle-class concerns over immigration and urbanization appear in the form of orphancy and are addressed through adoption. For some, adoption signals a fresh start and the opportunity for success without genealogical constraints. Other times, particularly for girls and children of color, it suggests dependence, reflecting contemporary gender and racial biases.

A complex signifier of difference, adoption gives voice to concurrent and sometimes contradictory calls to origins and new beginnings; to feelings of worthiness and unworthiness. In writings from John Winthrop and Cotton Mather to Nathaniel Hawthorne, Louisa May Alcott, and Edith Wharton, Carol Singley reveals how adoption both replicates and challenges genealogical norms, evoking ambivalence and playing a foundational role in the shaping of many of our most dearly held national mythologies.

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About the Author: Carol J. Singley is Associate Professor of English at Rutgers University-Camden. She is the author of Edith Wharton: Matters of Mind and Spirit and the coeditor, with Caroline Levander, of The American Child: A Cultural Studies Reader.

From the Dust Jacket: Tens of thousands of children in the United States alone are waiting in foster care for parents, and many Americans, single and married, want to open their hearts and homes to these children who wait. A landmark 1980 federal law made adopting and raising special needs children affordable even for people of limited means. What could be easier than matching these kids to these families? The reality is that many prospective adopters never complete the adoption process because of red tape, regulations, and institutional lethargy. Among the adults who complete a homestudy or placement, lack of support services and advocacy training sometimes leads to heartbreak and adoption failure—not a happy ending.

Adopting and Advocating for the Special Needs Child bridges the gap between the desire to help a waiting child and the reality of America’s special needs adoption system. It is designed to be used by adoption professionals and adoptive parents, to help them get started, keep going, and locate whatever additional information and support they need. The authors are adoption professionals, long-time support volunteers, child advocates, and mothers of a total of 23 children, 14 of them adopted children with special needs.

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About the Author: L. Anne Babb is Executive Director of a nonprofit adoption advocacy center, the Family Tree Adoption and Counseling Center in Norman, Oklahoma.

Rita Laws is Director of the Oklahoma Chapter of Adopt a Special Kid (AASK) and representative to the North American Council on Adoptable Children (NACAC).

Both authors received their M.S. degrees and Ph.D.s in psychology.

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By the Same Author: Ethics in American Adoption (1999).

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Compiler’s Note: The authors included both the Readers’ Guide to Adoption-Related Literature and the Compiler’s former computer bulletin board system, KinQuest BBS (on which the bibliography was accessible), in the book’s “Appendix: Resources,” under “Essential Publications for Special Needs Adoptive Parents” and “Online Only Resources,” respectively.

From the Back Cover: What would it be like to adopt three siblings from foster care—or perhaps four or more? Who might be able to do this, and what could motivate someone to make such a huge commitment? Are there particular ways in which practitioners can help to ensure the successful placement of large sibling groups? And what kind of support are sibling-group adopters likely to need?

These are just some of the questions which were addressed during in-depth interviews in 2009 with 37 sibling-group adopters with staff in 14 adoption agencies (five local authority adoption agencies and nine voluntary adoption agencies).

The aim of this exploratory study was to identify best practices with regard to placing large sibling groups for adoption, and the interviews followed the adoption process from recruitment, assessment and preparation to matching, introductions, placement and support.

Based on the experiences of sibling-group adopters and adoption staff, this book provides a detailed description of the adoption process when this involves a large sibling group. As such, it should be of value not only to adoption social workers and other practitioners working with adopted children and with prospective adopters, but also to any prospective adopter who is thinking of adopting three or more siblings.

From the Preface: This book is a report of a courageous experiment conducted by a group of adoptive parents [who] accepted a child for adoption when the child was five years of age or older. The book presents, primarily in the parents’ own words, some of the joys and satisfactions, some of the sorrows and disappointments that resulted from welcoming the older child into the family[, which] proved to be considerably more satisfying than disenchanting for the adoptive parents. ...

The study reported here was conducted with support of a research grant from the Children’s Bureau, U.S. Department of Health, Education, and Welfare. We should like very much to express our appreciation to the Children’s Bureau for the support which made possible this study.

—Alfred Kadushin, May 1970

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About the Author: Alfred Kadushin, Ph.D. (1916-2014), began in social work as a caseworker in New York City (1947-1950), and then moved to teach at the University of Wisconsin-Madison School of Social Work, where he established a career that spanned over sixty years. The Julia C. Lathrop Distinguished Professor of Social Work, Professor Kadushin played significant pioneering roles in the development of the knowledge base for social work and child welfare practice, policy, education and research, and in its world-wide dissemination.

From the Back Cover: Are you thinking of adopting an older child? There are over 100,000 children hoping for families in the United States and more worldwide. Adopting an older child, though, can present a unique set of parenting issues as well as rewards.

Adopting Older Children highlights the most significant challenges when parenting older adoptees who face mental health, behavioral and educational issues. Included is critical information about developmental concerns, issues related to emerging sense of self, sexual orientation, cultural identity and other special needs that an adoptee may have. This will help prospective parents be aware of concerns that can arise for their adopted children and help parents deal with difficulties these children are facing.

Authors Bosco-Ruggiero, Russo Wassell and child welfare expert Groza deliver definitive techniques and strategies for adoptive parents and professionals:

» Navigating domestic and international adoption processes

» Coping with transition and family dynamics

» Educating others about adoption

» Preparing the family unit

» Understanding the background, personality and problems of your adopted child

» Acquiring critical resource information for prospective parents (including single, LBGT and older adoptive parents)

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About the Author: Stephanie Bosco-Ruggiero, M.A., is a Communications and Research Assistant for the National Center for Social Work Trauma Education and Workforce Development at the Fordham University Graduate School of Social Service. She resides in Wappingers Falls, New York.

Gloria Russo Wassell, M.S., L.M.H.C., is a nationally certified counselor and doctorial candidate in Educational and Developmental Psychology at Cornell University with a private practice specializing in child and adolescent development. She resides in Dover Plains, New York.

Victor Groza, Ph.D., L.I.S.W.-S., is a professor of Social Work at the Mandel School of Applied Social Sciences, Case Western Reserve University, Cleveland, Ohio, with an area of expertise in child welfare and institutional care of children, focusing on family, children and service system issues in domestic, older-child adoption and intercountry adoption. He is the author or co-author of numerous books and articles relating to child welfare and global adoption. Since 1991 he has been involved in various child welfare projects in Romania, India, Ukraine, Guatemala and Ethiopia. He resides in Cleveland, Ohio.

Adoption Training for Parents and Professionals. The purpose of this training is to help those of you who will become parents to these children understand what happens to a child when he has been exposed to extreme stress, whether in a single event, or over time. In sharing this information with you, it is our hope that when you have finished this training you will have gained understanding of these emotional wounds and, armed with that understanding, have new skills to address and help heal them. Visit our website at www.AdoptionTrainingOnline.com for information about Certified Training for The Hague International Adoption requirements and Continuing Education Credits for Professionals.

Adoption Training for Parents and Professionals. The purpose of this training is to help those of you who will become parents to these children understand what happens to a child when he has been exposed to extreme stress, whether in a single event, or over time. In sharing this information with you, it is our hope that when you have finished this training you will have gained understanding of these emotional wounds and, armed with that understanding, have new skills to address and help heal them. Visit our website at www.AdoptionTrainingOnline.com for information about Certified Training for The Hague International Adoption requirements and Continuing Education Credits for Professionals.

This text looks at the main aspects of the adoption procedure: selection criteria, the role of adoption agencies, access to birth records, tracing birth parents, the rights of the birth parents and intercountry adoptions. The current problems are also addressed. Never have so many people wanted to adopt yet so few children are being adopted. Why are local authorities refusing to allow thousands of children in care to be adopted? The information comes from a variety of sources and includes government reports and statistics, newspaper reports, features, magazine articles and surveys, literature from lobby groups and charitable organizations.

This casebook on adoption provides students with personal and intimate glimpses into the thinking and actions of experienced practitioners working with children and families. The contributors to this casebook combined many decades of social work experience and teaching to create an opportunity for students to study and analyze how practitioners think about practice. The authors move beyond the belief that practice involves finding “correct” interventions to solve client problems, and instead invite students to review and challenge the work of others to help them understand what compromises important practice decision with real clients in real practice settings.

About the Author: Professor Ashoka Jahnavi Prasad is an internationally renowned physician, philosopher, newspaper columnist and historian of science holding six earned doctorates and is a qualified barrister. He had had work experience in 11 countries around the globe and has been feted with numerous honorary degrees and memberships of learned bodies. The Cambridge News, one of the most respected newspapers in the UK, has described him as the most educationally qualified person in the world.

From the Back Cover: In this essential contribution to the current literature on adoption, Peter Conn seamlessly draws upon philosophy, history, literary criticism, and related fields to offer a fascinating narrative of the global history of adoption. By bringing an unprecedented historical perspective to bear on the subject, Conn advances our understanding of the role of the concept of “culture” in attitudes toward international adoption and provides an enduring conceptual and historical framework for future research. This book is crucial to understanding the issues faced not only by the ever-growing number of adoptees in the United States, but also to the welfare of children the world over.

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About the Author: Peter Conn is Vartan Gregorian Professor of English, Professor of Education at the University of Pennsylvania.

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By the Same Author: Pearl S. Buck: A Cultural Biography (1996, Cambridge University Press), among others.

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Compiler’s Note: The author and his wife adopted their youngest child, a daughter they named Jennifer, from Korea in 1975, when she was about two years of age.

The plight of children waiting to be adopted is a challenge to the church. Old Testament models of a broad sense of kinship and the welcome of the stranger and New Testament language about our salvation being “adoption as sons” together assert that ties of love are stronger than ties of blood. Yet often Christians appear to deny this in their attachment to the nuclear family. Drawing on a wide range of information and reflection, this study argues that, until we put the needs of children first in the adoption process rather than the need to preserve cherished forms of family life we are failing to obey Jesus’ call to welcome the child.

From the Back Cover: Adoption is a topic that captures people’s interest, curiosity, imagination and empathy. Adoptees and birth parents are key people in the adoption arena yet. So too, are the adoptive mothers, as the primary carers who often remain hidden and busy doing the work of raising the adopted children. This book provides access to detailed, unique stories from adoptive mothers as they walk a different yet familiar road to mothering. Significant times across the adoption life cycle are discussed including waiting impatiently to adopt, mothering in the exhausting early years, coping strategies along the way, and facing change in the teenage years and beyond when issues of information about and contact with birth relatives are emerging. This book will be of great interest to adoptive families, potential adopting couples, policy makers and it will be especially useful for professionals working in the area of adoption.

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Compiler’s Note: See Wikipedia entry for VDM Verlag Dr. Müller.

From the Back Cover: Many people are trying to adopt or trying to place a child for adoption, and many find the legal process associated with adoption to be confusing and frustrating. Unfortunately, there are some unscrupulous and manipulative people masquerading as professionals who prey on the unwary. The adoption process requires a considerable financial and emotional investment which must be protected. Whether you are interested in adopting a child, placing a child for adoption or learning how the system works, this book is indispensable.

This book provides a clear, concise explanation of the complicated adoption process which you must thoroughly understand in order to successfully place a child for adoption or successfully complete adoption of a child. All legal terms are defined and a glossary is included to help you understand the entire adoption process. The book answers the questions most often asked by birth and adoptive parents. Know your rights!

YOU WILL LEARN

• Who is eligible to be adopted or who has the legal authority to adopt

• How to adopt a child

• How to place a child for adoption

• The pros and cons of using an adoption agency

• Typical expenses you can expect to pay in an adoption

• The steps which are involved in the legal process of adoption

• How to obtain information about birth parents

• How to track down the child you placed for adoption years ago

• What lawyers and adoption agencies typically charge for their services

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About the Author: Kelly Allen Sifferman, is a lawyer in Phoenix, Arizona, who has participated in hundreds of adoptions since 1984. Ms. Sifferman’s practice of law primarily focuses on adoptions. She also represents parents and children in related juvenile court matters such as dependency and parental rights matters. She is a member of the American Academy of Adoption Attorneys and has spoken to numerous groups on issues relating to adoption.