How can we love with excellence the millions of orphaned and vulnerable children in our world who have lost their parents, have no relatives to love them well, and likely will not be adopted?

In Pursuit of Orphan Excellence frames a conversation around this question through a collaborative effort involving fifteen authors from orphan care organizations around the world, bringing to the table an often-neglected component of orphan care. After discussing why everyone in the world, Christian and non-Christian alike, should care to the core about caring for orphans, In Pursuit examines a framework-from family to spiritual formation (and a whole lot in between)-of what excellent, best-practice orphan care looks like in situations where kinship care, legal adoption, quality foster care, or reunification with biological family is not possible, feasible, or likely to occur.

As you read this book, you will be invited to learn from others seeking best-practice orphan care, engage in the conversation, and advocate for orphans around the world . . . and in your own backyard.

"But then, even then, are the twists and turns of the path we chose prevalent because from one single act of love a life is conceived and a new journey begins."

Love will always find a way in Frederick E. Hoff's touching new book, "Guiding Crosses."

Based on the shocking true story, Hoff details the saga behind a teenage girl's heartbreaking decision to give up her son for adoption, only to unexpectedly reconnect with him decades later.

Darlene's unplanned pregnancy at the age of seventeen is devastating to her entire family. But her strict father makes it clear that the only option for her unborn child will be adoption.

The years pass, and a young man named Chad prepares to marry the girl of his dreams. Despite a childhood offering him every advantage, Chad's knowledge that he was adopted has haunted him all the way to adulthood.

As the wedding nears, a new twist, a tiny clue, causes Chad to embark on the emotional journey to find the biological mother he has always yearned to know.

Are you wanting to adopt domestically, but you are overwhelmed about the process? My husband and I supply information on what we learned after adopting twice in the U.S, good and bad, and offer advice that was given to us by adoption professionals. We share what expenses we incurred, and "talk" to you as if you are sitting in front of us. Questions answered: 1. Why join a support group? 2. What should be in your adoption profile? 3. Reasons why family members and friends are unsupportive, and some advice to handle this. 4. What types of information that your social worker is looking for to complete your homestudy, and questions he of she will most likely ask you 5. Meeting the expectant family for the first time and hospital visits 6. Expenses we encountered, information about taxes and so on. 7. Information about open adoption, and how we contact with our children's biological families. 8. Twenty questions to ask an agency and/or attorney before you work with he or she on an adoption placement. 9. Many tips throughout the book on what we learned good and bad with our adoptions and others we know that have adopted, or are adopted. 10. A few of my favorite web links to help you with your journey to adopt or learn more about the process.

A heartfelt true story of a birth mother's emotional journey surrounding the choice of adoption for her two children. It is an in depth account of the ongoing struggle involved in keeping the secret, and the impacts those choices had on family members and future relationships. It is a story of truth and acceptance coming full circle. A must read for anyone involved in the adoption process including those in counseling, or any child or adult who grapples with trying to understand why they were adopted.

When our son, Michael, joined our family, I was unprepared for the many lessons that I would learn through him. It has been both humbling and inspiring to experience this serendipity. God has created us all so differently, and if we allow our eyes and hearts to be open, we can learn important lessons from one another as we walk together on this side of heaven. - Renia Veldt

More than just one woman's search for information about the biological mother she believed had died in childbirth, this book explores the mind and feelings of an adopted child. Call Me Ella is a heartwarming and uplifting story about a young girl who considered her adoptive parents her "real parents," yet needed to know more. She needed to know her roots. Her heritage. With a burning desire to have someone who "looked like her," she couldn't wait to marry and have children of her own. She had no idea that her twenty-four year search, which did not begin until after both of her parents had passed away, would involve Sopranos-like tales of organized crime, gambling, and infidelity. Kaufman grew up thinking she killed her mother. As a child, when her adoptive mom answered her question, "Where did I come from?" by saying her birth mother died in childbirth, she believed in her heart she killed the woman who gave her life. She kept asking her mom the same question, hoping to get a different answer. Maybe she'd learn her birth mother had been ill, that it wasn't her fault she died. When Kaufman finally got old enough to figure out it took two people, a man and a woman, to have a child, she asked a new question: "What happened to my birth father? Did he die too?" That's when her mom shot her foot through the kitchen wall screaming, "Don't ever ask me that again." It took her years to realize why that question hit a nerve. In New Jersey, when a baby is adopted, their original birth certificate is sealed, making it seem as if the child did not exist before the adoption. Kaufman never even knew her birth mother's last name until she discovered her adoption papers a week before her mom passed away. Unfortunately, when her mom died with her secrets intact, she thought she'd never learn about her ethnic background or medical history. She wasn't ready to give up. She needed to know more. She needed to know the big secret that kept her mom from answering her questions. With determination and the unexpected help from a self-proclaimed "romantic" stranger, she set out to find her roots. Call Me Ella is a memoir of love, family, loss and perseverance. It shows how we can work to achieve our happy endings.

In the late 1960s, at the age of nineteen and living far from home amidst the thriving counterculture of Ottawa, Marilyn Churley got pregnant. Like thousands of other women of the time she kept the event a secret. Faced with few options, she gave the baby up for adoption. Over twenty years later, as the Ontario NDP government's minister responsible for all birth, death, and adoption records, including those of her own child, Churley found herself in a surprising and powerful position ? fully engaged in the long and difficult battle to reform adoption disclosure laws and find her son. Both a personal and political story, Shameless is a powerful memoir about a mother's struggle with loss, love, secrets, and lies ? and an adoption system shrouded in shame.

The Bear Who Waited is a tale for children who have waited to be adopted. It portrays many feelings that children and parents have while awaiting the big event. The main character is a lovable, humorous stuffed bear purchased around the holidays. He thinks he will be a Christmas present but instead, is placed on a window ledge. He sees the seasons change, and questions the purpose of his existence. Eventually the Bear realizes he was purchased for a child who waited to be adopted. This book contains a message to parents, and a message to professionals.