Tracy Davis lived in a children's home with several older children who paid no attention to her. All she ever wanted was a real family to call her own. She found that family in the Waynes. This is a very heart-warming story that will bring tears to the readers' eyes. "A Home for Tracy" teaches children the values of patience, faith, and consideration for others. This book can easily be read by eight-year-olds and up, and may be read to younger children as well.

Foster caring is as challenging as it is rewarding. There is a school of thought that if one is interested in fostering, then one can become a foster carer. Considering the many problems that surface on a day-to-day basis in a given fostering environment, it takes much more that interest in fostering to make fostering work. 'Family Matters' frankly discusses what fostering entails and clearly demonstrates how Mohammed and Sharon Lahrichi have had a reasonable degree of success in their fostering work. It documents cases that tell how foster children as well as biological children interpret their lived experiences as children of the same household. It is a book that foster carers, social workers and all those who involve in care work should read. In fact, it will make an interesting read for all members of any given family. 'Family Matters' also advances the idea that fostering is a work of love, which should be taken seriously, but which also should be celebrated in spite of the range of emotions that foster caring is capable of evoking.

A powerful blazingly honest memoir told with humor and panache about a mother and son finding each other again after years of estrangement. A coming-of-age story of outrageous excess, glamour, entitlement and grand delusion, lived above the fray and over the top. A gay man's journey through the joys and perils of his generation, coming out in the early eighties in the shadow of a terrifying of disease that would devastate so many, surviving tremendous loss and culminating in his decision to adopt a child as a single parent.
When Sergei, a psychotherapist who has been living in Paris for the past decade, discovers that his mother is terminally ill, he decides to leave his practice and his life to be by her side, in the hope of healing the bitterness and discord before it is too late. Alternating between a narrative of Dollsie's last months as she battles cancer, interwoven with poignant and hilarious and at times shocking scenes from their outlandishly privileged lives, DAMAGE CONTROL is a story about exile and loss, searching and escape. From the mountain villages of Gstaad, Switzerland, to New York and Miami and Cuba, the narrator revisits the chateaux and chalets of his childhood, exploring the emotional and geographical landscapes of a mother and son whose lives are revealed to be poignant parallels of each other. After avoiding his mother for a lifetime, seeking shelter from her destructiveness and her drinking and her rage, Sergei comes face-to-face with this narcissistic woman confronting mortality for the first time, and through his own experiences as an activist and a therapist and a man who has faced his own mortality at young age, he helps her to come to terms with all her guilt and regrets and fear of dying.
This memoir offers a fascinating and disturbing portrayal of a glamorous woman whose life has been one of great elegance and luxury, along with disillusionment, grandiosity, seduction and self-destruction: her childhood in pre-Castro Cuba, a mythical island paradise; her marriage at the age of eighteen to a dashing young Swiss man and their subsequent exile; her frantic and desperate resolve to create a mythical life of her own and pass on the traditions of aristocracy to her children, all the while leading a double life and suffering feelings of intense longing and frustration and guilt which eventually cause her to destroy and walk away from everything that she has been raised to want and expect out of life.
DAMAGE CONTROL is ultimately a rendering of the cycle of life, saying goodbye to a parent so you can say hello to a child, and finding grace and redemption through a mother's love.

Follow one woman's incredible and heartfelt journey from the pain of miscarriages to the joy of becoming a parent through adoption. Witness the many struggles that can permeate your life in the aftermath of pregnancy loss. Take a glimpse at the overwhelming desire some women have to become a mother. Celebrate the joy of overcoming adversity and achieving your dreams. Filled with honest, raw emotions and helpful coping tips, "From Pain to Parenthood" promises to touch your life with a real story that shows the power of the human spirit and the beauty of a mother's love.

An-Ya and Her Diary: Reader & Parent Guide is a ground breaking collaborative work and the first of its kind to be published under the An-Ya Project. Inside you will find the wisdom and artistry of professional adoptees who discuss all aspects of the novel An-Ya and Her Diary. Included are lessons on how to lead an adoption discussion, how a parent can use the novel to emotionally guide their child through the book, as well as writers who eloquently express their own complex journeys as adoptees. Readers will also find: the 'Reflections' of young adoptees and their siblings and an in-depth interview with the author of An-Ya and Her Diary conducted by members of the CAL One World Chinese Adoptee Program. Contributors Include: Stephanie Kripa Cooper-Lewter, Ph.D., L.M.S.W. Lee Herrick Amanda H.L. Transue-Woolston, BSW Jennifer Bao Yu "Precious Jade" Jue-Steuck Susan Branco Alvarado, MA Ed, LPC Matthew Salesses

We were all full of expectation as we waited patiently at Melbourne's international airport. I hadn't slept properly for weeks. All of us had been waiting for this moment for months. Our fourth child was soon to arrive ...This is the story of 18-year-old Kartya Wunderle, one of 64 babies flown out of Taiwan in the early 80s. Babies stolen from their mothers or sold by their families and adopted out to unsuspecting overseas parents. At 15, Kartya began to use heroin in an attempt to take away the pain of not knowing who she was and where she came from. Her distraught parents watched their beautiful daughter slowly slip away from them, spiralling towards a tragic and almost inevitable conclusion. Out of desperation and fired by an unconditional love for her daughter, Nola Wunderle resolved to find Kartya's birth mother and change the ending to Kartya's story. An amazing search for one woman in a country of 22 million began. The result was nothing short of miraculous, and made Kartya a national hero in her homeland. Lost Daughter is a moving testament to the power of love and the strength of the human spirit, one that will humble and inspire all who read it.

Everyone has an opinion of fifteen year old Katherine Beagan. To her therapist she's emotionally disturbed, while her vice principal thinks she is a trouble maker. To her classmates she's a runt, while her social worker thinks she's a punk. But when the Portland police call her an arson, her only escape is to pretend to be someone else, and that is when her real trouble begins....

A pregnant, upper class nineteen-year-old Philadelphia Main Line debutante is confined, against her will, to a state mental hospital. She spends her pregnancy surrounded by the mentally challenged and the criminally insane. On April 19, 1964, she gives birth to a child, whom she is forced to give up for adoption.
A loving middle-class couple adopts a month-old little girl from Catholic Charities. She is adored and cherished from the very beginning. It is as though she is dropped into the first chapter of a fairy tale-but we all know how fairy tales go.
This is the story of a mother and daughter. Of what it is to give up a child and what it is to be given up. Of what it is to belong, what it is to be a family and what it is to yearn deeply, and to never lose hope-because anything is possible.
In this exquisite memoir, Julie Mannix von Zerneck and Kathy Hatfield recount the stories of their lives. Deliciously strange, surprising and sweetly funny, this tenderly written book takes us on a wild and frightening journey. Written in two distinct and deeply expressive voices, their stories seamlessly meld together in a breathtaking ending.

PRAISE FOR SECRET STORMS:
"The book shifts between sections narrated by mother von Zerneck and daughter Hatfield, and both authors have gripping stories to tell. Readers will delight in their shared narrative, which is as heartwarming as it is engaging. von Zerneck's life alone would be a fascinating read, but combined with Hatfield's search for her mother it becomes compulsive reading."
-Publishers Weekly
"The book is beautifully written and...compelling, to the extent that readers might feel they are sitting with the authors, listening to them tell their tale...more like a novel than a memoir."
-ForeWord Reviews
"Shining through both narratives is goodness and the power of the human spirit. A dually narrated, uplifting tale on overcoming profound adversity."
-Kirkus Reviews
"This story will break your heart, bring on tears of joy, and make you believe in the healing power of love, forgiveness, and family."
-Meredith Rollins, Executive Editor, Redbook Magazine
"A heartbreaking but ultimately life-affirming mother-daughter story that defies fiction. Every plot twist, every emotion touches a chord, even for those of us who have not had to endure such a brutal separation. Read it and weep-and then finally rejoice. An ode to the enduring power of family ties."
-Elizabeth Forsythe Hailey, author of A Woman of Independent Means
"In my writers' workshops, the greatest gospel I can preach is the obvious one-to tell the truth, whatever form it takes. This amazing mother-daughter writing team exemplifies the concept to the max. The plot is Dickensian, rife with villains and struggle, the revealing of it, breathtaking in its simplicity and heartbreaking in its courage. What a story."
-Ernest Thompson, Academy Award-winning writer of On Golden Pond
"What an extraordinary and compelling story, all the more so because it's true-and told so beautifully by its two heroines."
-Alice Maltin, producer & Leonard Maltin, film critic and correspondent for Entertainment Tonight
"This is an uplifting story of hope and personal courage that is sure to resonate with most readers."
-Monsters and Critics

Ukraine Adoption is the story of how the Redman family, against all odds successfully adopted 2 young girls from Ukraine. Follow their journey working with, and against the Ukrainian adoption system and learn how you too can navigate the often murky waters. Adoption is a blessing for both the child and your family - we'll show you how we did it and you can too.

In a family memoir that reads like a detective novel, Rhonda Noonan recounts her thirty-year quest to find the truth of her own background-and what she uncovered will surprise readers as much as it did her. Rhonda was born and adopted in Oklahoma, a state with closed adoption records. And, although she was cherished by her adoptive family, she-like so many adoptees-felt a burning desire to find and make contact with her birth parents. Her three-decade-long search involved institutional stonewalling; the intervention of numerous judges, attorneys, and detectives; mountains of paperwork and court filings, and thousands of dollars in expenses. Tirelessly tracking down lead after lead-and with the otherworldly help of a friend named Lillie-Rhonda finally unearthed her true history. Her father was none other than Randolph Churchill, son of Sir Winston Churchill. The State Department of Human Services and the FBI laid down an intricate cover-up, with Averell Harriman and President Truman on the periphery. The evidence was clear-there was no question in her mind (though her efforts to secure incontrovertible proof in the form of a DNA test were stymied by the Churchill family). Rhonda had gone about finding her heritage just as her paternal grandfather had conducted his military campaigns: relentlessly and with no small amount of courage. Like him, she triumphed. The events leading up to her discovery, as well as the aftermath of the astonishing revelation and her face-to-face confrontation of the Churchills, will leave you in awe of this intrepid heroine of her own life. As full of twists, turns, and suspense as the best fiction, The Fifth and Final Name should prove inspiring to all who yearn to uncover the secrets buried within their own family histories.

March into My Heart is a poignant and inspiring story of family, adoption, and the search for the irreplaceable bond between a mother and daughter. Patty Lazarus was happily married and busy raising two sons. By all accounts she was a very lucky woman. But still, something was missing. Despite her love for her family, she felt a deep longing for the mother-daughter connection she'd always dreamed of. After enduring her mother's tragic illness and untimely death, Patty knew that adding a girl to the family was the only way to ease the pain she felt. She and her husband set out on a four-year, arduous, complicated, and emotional journey through infertility, miscarriages, and adoption ending in a small town in rural Missouri where they would finally meet their new daughter as she came into the world.

Thinking of adopting? Are you an adoptive family and need encouragement? Do you know an adoptive family in your church and want to minister to them more? Within the pages of Woven Together there is deep insight, warmth, and valuable truth for Christians on the adoption journey. Woven Together is a compilation project by Funding Hope whereby 18 authors share and unpack GodOs grace and goodness in adoption. Woven Together brings testimonies to life from adult adoptees to birthmothers, domestic and international adoption, special needs to embryo adoption, and each author speaks from their heart as they experienced God move in their family though the gift of adoption. As Christians, we know that God is all about adoption as He has adopted each of us through Jesus. Woven Together explores His love of adoption in testimonies.

All authors have donated their writings. All profits will go directly to Funding Hope to provide adoption grants to Christians.

A story of foster care and adoption; the pitfalls, the realities, the truth from an adoptive parent and former foster parent.

A true story about resilience, and the journey of a lifetime for a pair of brothers and their new father against the sometimes all too uncompromising realities of international adoption.

Rich, poignant stories of adoption from courageous birth parents who have made an agonizing life choice for another, who had no voice in the decision. Dramatic and amazing stories from adoptees about the search for their roots, the countless emotional impacts of being adopted, and some of what they've learned from their lives. Beautiful, at times heart-wrenching, personal experiences from both closed and open adoptions. An essential read for not only the adoption "triad" (birth parents, adoptees, and adoptive parents) but for adoption professionals and legislators who address adoption issues.

A haunting memoir of a tiny girl's journey through a life of hell. After suffering the death of both of her biological parents due to their drug addiction, Natalie Winters was placed in a Texas Foster home where she was emotionally, physically, and sexually abused. In A Secret Star, Natalie shares the horror stories and dark moments of despair that filled her world. Even as the events are detailed within these pages, no one could ever understand the depth of abandonment, abuse, and absence of love she felt. Natalie struggled during these horrible times wondering what light to seek and what star to wish upon. Even when there seemed no glimmer of hope or rescue, Natalie still found a wish that gave her just enough hope to endure. Just as the stars continue to twinkle whether they are visible or not, Natalie discovered that true light doesn't appear at the end of a long, hard road. True light comes from within and offers solace and comfort in the darkest hours. Most people live their whole lives unaware of this secret and empowering light, and it is often not discovered until someone shows us it's there. Natalie realized that even during her most traumatizing experiences, she was not alone. For even the darkest of skies, still have the sparkle of the stars.

Forever Mama is a heartwarming children's book which recounts the story of a little girl's adoption from China in a conversational format between mother and daughter. This book touches on the roles that the little girl's birth mother and foster mother had in her life and the qualities she inherited from both women. Finally, the little girl receives from her adoptive mother what she has been waiting for all along---the promise of forever.

Jessica Keebler, director of the Los Angeles County Bureau of Adoptions in 1955, faces an almost insurmountable crisis. There's a logjam of unadoptable babies and a severe lack of adequate foster homes for these children. The crux of this issues rests with a statute in California's adoption law stating ..". an interracial child is a non-white and may be given only to a Negro family."Since Negro family applications to adopt are as rare as rain in the Mojave desert, the backlog of interracial babies threatens the structure of Keebler's department and her mental health. When Paul and Anne Barlin, a white family, say they will adopt a child "of any color, any national origin," Keebler believes she may have found a way to resolve this backlog of babies.To make this unusual adoption a reality, she must have the courage to flaunt the law or stand up to the state legislature and ask them to repeal the law. Her actions will determine if one at-risk child will be placed in a loving home. This one case has the potential to change the landscape of adoption forever.

For nineteen straight years, the all-Hispanic boys' soccer team from Oregon's Woodburn High has made the playoffs. As they prepare to make it twenty, one thing will become clear: Los Perros play the beautiful game with heart, pride, and their lives on the line. Their spirited drive gives a rare sense of hope and unity to a blue-collar farming community that has been transformed by waves of immigrants over recent decades, a town locals call "Little Mexico." Watched over by a south Texas transplant--a surrogate father to half the squad--this band of brothers must learn to come together on the field and look after each other off it.
More than just riveting sports writing, "The Boys from Little Mexico" is about the fight for the future of the next generation--and a hard, true look at boys dismissed as gang-bangers, told to "go home" by lily-white sideline crowds. The wins and losses they notch along the way spin a striking tale about what it takes to capture the American Dream.

Pamela Bartram provides expert knowledge about the effects of development delay, coupled with facts, figures and guidance presented in a straightforward and accessible style. Adopters also describe what it is like to parent affected children, 'telling it like it is', sharing their experiences and offering advice.

In 1965, Carol Schaefer was 19, a freshman in college and deeply in love. She was also pregnant. When her boyfriend's family opposed their marrying, her parents sequestered her in a Catholic home for unwed mothers a state away, where she was isolated and where secrecy prevailed. She had only to give up her baby for her sin to be forgiven and then all would soon be forgotten she was told. The child, in turn, would be placed with a "good" family, instead of having his life ruined by the stigma of illegitimacy. Carol tried to find the strength to oppose this dogma but her shame had become too deep. "The first time I looked deep into my son's eyes, I felt like a criminal. As I unwrapped his hospital blanket and took in the heady fragrance of a newborn, I feared the nurses or the sisters would come in and slap me for contaminating my own son." Finding no way out, she signed the fateful papers leaving her son in the hands of strangers, but with a vow to her baby she would find him one day. For years, Carol struggled to forget and live the "normal" life promised, not understanding the consequences of the trauma she'd endured. On his eighteenth birthday, she set out to find him, although the law denied access to records. Her search became a spiritual quest to reclaim her own lost self, as she came to understand the emotional and psychological wounds she and other mothers like her had endured. Against all odds she succeeded in finding him and discovered that in many ways they had never really been apart. With her son's encouragement and his adoptive mother's cooperation, she tells their story. REVIEWS: "Strength, sadness, joy, and the power of undeniable love abound in this book." 500 Great Books by Women (A Penguin Books Reader's Guide, 1994) The list of authors goes back to the 11th century. Nominated "One of the best books of 1991." American Library Association. ..". flows as forcefully as the finest fiction. ... This 'ten-hankie-read' never descends into sentimentality but simply reveals the unvarnished truths of the human heart." Wilson Library Bulletin "This wrenching account, covering a range of adoption issues, is a moving testament to the bonding power of motherhood." Publishers Weekly "An astonishing revelation of the emotions that come into play throughout the adoptive process - a must read for all concerned." Kirkus Reviews Literary Guild Alternate Selection. "Inspiring ... a heart tugger." Patricia Holt, San Francisco Chronicle "A chronicle of a time with the starkest of emotions revealed ... Readers quickly understand the trauma that lingers on deep in the hearts of birthmothers every day of their lives." Elliot Bay Booknotes "It should be a must read for anyone who considers adoption the 'easy' answer to an unwanted pregnancy." The Philadelphia Inquirer "As she experiences pain and love, you're on that roller coaster with her, as if the life she lived was yours." St. Petersburg Times "Poignant and powerful, The Other Mother shatters the myth that unwed mothers, unprepared for the sacrifice they make, go on to lead normal and untouched lives." Booklist "Any woman who has gone through any part of her experience, or has been close to somebody who has, will attest to the story's authenticity." The Washington Post "I recommend it with all my heart. Its courage, integrity and love make it a treasure. ... not only for adoptive families and birth families, it is for everyone who longs to know how deep the levels are that connect us, and how precious." Gary Zukav, The Seat of the Soul ..". addresses intimately the experience of a Birthmother as no other book has - or probably ever will. Expertly written." Jone Carlson, Editor People Searching News "Courageous, moving and heartening." Betty Jean Lifton, Journey of the Adopted Self "A wonderful book. From my professional perspective the book is right on target." Reubon Pannor, coauthor, The Adoption Triangle