There may be times when adoptive parents need guidance-plus real insight, real knowledge, and the voice of an expert. Only adoptees can truly unravel the complexities of the adoption journey. Rooted in Adoption: A Collection of Adoptee Reflections is a collections of short narratives from those who have been adopted. Adoptees of various ages, backgrounds, and experiences discuss the joys of adoption and the struggles of living a life of secrecy and lost identity. Internationally recognized trauma expert, motivational speaker, and psychotherapist Jules Alvarado, shares her insight on adoption related trauma.
In the midst of the Cold War, these children-many the sons and daughters of Greek leftists-became pawns in the global battle for democracy. In this powerful, un-put-downable narrative, Cardaras gives voice not only to Greek adoptees, but to international adoptees everywhere as they navigate returns to their birthplaces; their birth relatives; and reclaim their stolen origin stories.
2019 High Plains Book Award (Creative Nonfiction and Indigenous Writer categories) 2021 Barbara Sudler Award from History Colorado In Bitterroot Susan Devan Harness traces her journey to understand the complexities and struggles of being an American Indian child adopted by a white couple and living in the rural American West. When Harness was fifteen years old, she questioned her adoptive father about her “real” parents. He replied that they had died in a car accident not long after she was born—except they hadn’t, as Harness would learn in a conversation with a social worker a few years later. Harness’s search for answers revolved around her need to ascertain why she was the target of racist remarks and why she seemed always to be on the outside looking in. New questions followed her through college and into her twenties when she started her own family. Meeting her biological family in her early thirties generated even more questions. In her forties Harness decided to get serious about finding answers when, conducting oral histories, she talked with other transracial adoptees. In her fifties she realized that the concept of “home” she had attributed to the reservation existed only in her imagination. Making sense of her family, the American Indian history of assimilation, and the very real—but culturally constructed—concept of race helped Harness answer the often puzzling questions of stereotypes, a sense of nonbelonging, the meaning of family, and the importance of forgiveness and self-acceptance. In the process Bitterroot also provides a deep and rich context in which to experience life.
This book 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.
NAMED A RECOMMENDED BOOK OF 2018 BY: Buzzfeed • The Boston Globe • The Millions • InStyle • Southern Living • Vogue • Popsugar • Kirkus • The Washington Post • Library Journal • Real Simple • NPR “With his unerring eye for nuance and unsparing sense of irony, Rumaan Alam’s second novel is both heartfelt and thought-provoking.” — Celeste Ng, author of Little Fires Everywhere From the bestselling author of Leave the World Behind, a novel about the families we fight to build and those we fight to keep Like many first-time mothers, Rebecca Stone finds herself both deeply in love with her newborn son and deeply overwhelmed. Struggling to juggle the demands of motherhood with her own aspirations and feeling utterly alone in the process, she reaches out to the only person at the hospital who offers her any real help—Priscilla Johnson—and begs her to come home with them as her son’s nanny. Priscilla’s presence quickly does as much to shake up Rebecca’s perception of the world as it does to stabilize her life. Rebecca is white, and Priscilla is black, and through their relationship, Rebecca finds herself confronting, for the first time, the blind spots of her own privilege. She feels profoundly connected to the woman who essentially taught her what it means to be a mother. When Priscilla dies unexpectedly in childbirth, Rebecca steps forward to adopt the baby. But she is unprepared for what it means to be a white mother with a black son. As she soon learns, navigating motherhood for her is a matter of learning how to raise two children whom she loves with equal ferocity, but whom the world is determined to treat differently. Written with the warmth and psychological acuity that defined his debut, Rumaan Alam has crafted a remarkable novel about the lives we choose, and the lives that are chosen for us.
A unique book describing the coersion of pregnant women to surrender their babies to adoption, the personal holocaust suffered by them, and strategies for healing
What does it take to keep a family together; a family completed through adoption? Love, patience, compassion, understanding—a little of everything maybe. The book elucidates real-life adoption experiences through the voices of adoptive families and adult adoptees as they share their moments of joy, sadness, challenges, pain, fulfilment and much more. It touches upon grief and loss and the stark realities of adoption. Adoptive parents share their experiences of how they let their adopted children know that they were adopted and how they handled “root search” which are crucial issues when it comes to understanding adoption. The book highlights some of the less frequently discussed adoption issues such as dealing with mixed emotions relating to an identity crisis and the desire of the adoptees to learn about their biological roots. Also included are candid accounts from adult adoptees on ‘Growing up in Adoption’. By providing glimpses of the world of adoption, the author aims to aid prospective and current adopting individuals to understand the thought process of adoptive children and be better prepared as parents. Are you looking to adopt? Don’t forget to take a look at the questionnaire to test your readiness for adoption. #adoptionmakesafamily “This book is a welcome contribution to the small body of literature on adoption in India.” – Dr. Shalini Bharat, Director and Vice-Chancellor of Tata Institute of Social Sciences. “This book has a mission not just to educate but it will be a support through your pilgrimage as a parent.” – Dr. Aloma Lobo, Adoptive Parent and former Chairperson of the Central Adoption Resource Authority and the Adoption Coordinating Agency, Karnataka. Bharatiya Samaj Seva Kendra works towards making a positive difference in the lives of vulnerable children and families since 1979.
Betty Jean Lifton, whose Lost and Found has become a bible to adoptees and to those who would understand the adoption experience, explores further the inner world of the adopted person. She breaks new ground as she traces the adopted child's lifelong struggle to form an authentic sense of self. And she shows how both the symbolic and the literal search for roots becomes a crucial part of the journey toward wholeness.
In this practical book, Moore highlights the importance of adoption for all Christians, encouraging readers to lead the way in adoption and orphan advocacy out of our identity as adopted children of God.
The NPR Weekend Edition host explores the cultural impact of adoption while sharing the story of how his wife and he adopted two daughters, in an account that also relates the experiences of other prominent figures who were adopted or became adoptive parents.
