This lovely illustrated children s book written in rhyme paints the journey adoptive families take in order to bring their Russian children home. Follow a couple on their journey and experience the joys and challenges they go through until their child is ultimately united with them. Check it out on Facebook at https://www.facebook.com/#!/pages/Teresa-Travous-Hull/172131412924422. Let s celebrate adoption together!
Sixteen essays ranging from lyric essays to narrative journalism address how we make sense of what we cannot know, how we make change in the world, how we heal, and how we know when we are home. Collectively, these essays convey the longing for agency and connection, particularly among women. They will resonate with readers of all ages, but perhaps especially with women in the second half of life, those dealing with aging parents, retirement, illness, and accompanying vulnerabilities. Here readers will find comfort within keen reflection upon life's ambiguities.
A poignant account of international adoption and family describes a couple's experiences as they journey to the former Soviet Union and wade through a vast bureaucracy as they find their two new daughters, Natalie and Lana, reflecting on such issues as feelings of guilt over taking children away from their roots, the mystery of her daughters' earliest childhoods, and more. Reprint. 20,000 first printing.
What do you do when you encounter a spirited little girl in a Russian orphanage and know in your heart that she is yours and you have to adopt her? For single, childless, 40-year-old Dee Thompson, it began with an astonishing dream of a little girl reaching out to her. Meeting the little girl led to an almost two year odyssey that changed Dee forever. Throughout the adoption, hurdles kept popping up that sent Dee reeling-a job layoff, an uncooperative orphanage director, a boyfriend who broke her heart, friends and family members telling her she was crazy, an uncaring agency that kept telling her to choose a different child-and many others. Despite everything, Dee's faith in God, support from her mother, and single-minded conviction that she had to bring her daughter home helped her stay on course. Letters from her daughter Alesia brightened the long, scary months of waiting. Finally, all the mountains had been moved, and a mother and daughter came home from Russia, a family at last.
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.
Although single women have long been permitted to adopt children, adoption by unmarried men remains an uncommon experience in Western culture. However, Robert Klose, who is single, wanted a son so badly that he faced down the opposition and overcame seemingly insurmountable barriers to realize his goal. The story of his quest for a son is detailed in this intimate personal account. The frustrating truth he reports is that most adoption agencies seem unsure of how to respond to a single man's application. During the three years that it took for him to proceed through the adoption maze, Klose met resistance and dead ends at every attempt. Happenstance finally led him to Russia, where he found the child of his dreams in a Moscow orphanage, a Russian boy named Alyosha. This is the first book to be written by a single man adopting from abroad. The narrative of his quest serves as an instructional firsthand manual for single men wishing to adopt. It details the prospective father's heightening sense of anticipation as he untangles bureaucratic snarls and addresses cultural differences involved in adopting a foreign child. When he arrives in Russia, he supposes the adoption will be a matter of following cut-and-dried procedures. Instead, his difficulties are only beginning. Although he meets kind and generous Russians, his encounter with the child welfare system in Moscow turns out to be both chaotic and bizarre. However, his dogged ordeal pays off more bountifully than he ever could have hoped. In the end he comes face to face with a little boy who changes his life forever.
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.
Parents of teenage boys experience the obstacles, trials, and rewards of using international adoption to add a little girl--Katya, an orphan from Russia--to their family.
Latika Bourke was adopted from India, aged eight months. Growing up in Bathurst, New South Wales she felt a deep connection to her Australian home and her Australian family. It wasn't until she heard her name uttered in the hit movie Slumdog Millionaire that Latika recognised she knew nothing of her Indian roots, the world she was born into and what she could have become had she not been brought to Australia as a baby. As Latika carved out a successful career for herself as an award-winning political journalist, she became more and more curious about her heritage and what it meant to be born in India and raised in Australia. And so began a deeply personal and sometimes confronting journey back to her birthplace to unravel the mysteries of her heritage. From India with Love is a beautiful story of finding your place in the world and finding peace with the path that led you there.
