In the 1960s, when she was an unmarried college sophomore, Lynn Franklin gave up her newborn son for adoption. Using her own story as a point of departure, Franklin examines the changing face of adoption and explores the uncertainties and emotions that surround it with rare honesty and perception. In May the Circle Be Unbroken, Franklin covers virtually every possible form of adoption but, perhaps most importantly, she speaks to adoptees wondering if they should search for their mothers and to women who have given up a child and are wondering if they are emotionally able to reconnect. While her own powerful story anchors the book, it is her voice as a birthmother that will this distinguish this book from others on the subject. Since finding her son, Franklin has come to know his wife and children and they, too, have become an important part of her life. In so doing she has closed one of life's most precious circles. May the Circle Be Unbroken will prove invaluable for readers concerned with the practical, emotional, and legal aspects of adoption, whether they are thinking of adoption for their child or hoping to be chosen as suitable parents for someone else's child. May the Circle Be Unbroken is both a moving memoir of a woman who reunited with a child she gave up for adoption and a no-nonsense book that gives readers an intelligent and well-informed approach to adoption. Today Franklin serves on the board of the Evan B. Donaldson Adoption Institute (www.adoptioninstitute.org). She lives in New York City, where she works as a literary agent.

Adoptee Martha Shideler was thwarted at every step as she pursued access to critical information in her search for identity. This fast-paced biography is the story of duplicity on the part of government agencies and adoption personnel. It is a triumphant account of perseverance; and the joy and resolution gained from completing her 27-year search for family and identity.

A must have resource guide for any family adopting a child from Liberia. It's one thing to make it through the process of adopting internationally; it's an entirely different thing to be properly prepared for a child's homecoming. In this book, written by Liberia Adoption Coordinator Angel Rutledge, adoptive families learn about the history of Liberia, cultural influences that affect Liberian adoptions, common post adoption challenges, medical issues, and how to ensure the best transition possible for their family and child.

a paper trail from her birthplace in Bolton, England, her voyage to America and a collection of newspaper headlines from June 1933 until February 21, 1934, about Nancy Yates Wilson, known as "the baby slapper" aka Annie Yates.

Out of respect for the only parents Gary had known, he waited until both of them had passed away to call the orphanage in pursuit of medical history on his biological parents. He was shocked to discover that a brother was searching for him. A life-altering phone call revealed that not only did he have a brother, but that he had ten siblings Why was he, the only ONE OF ELEVEN children, put up for adoption? World War II had many casualties. The woman who gave birth to him was one of them. At age 58, he would discover that the highway he and his 16-year-old buddies were gazing down the night before his family moved from North Dakota to Oregon, wondering where the road ended, would be at his birth mother's grave.

Cry of the Outcast is the incredible true story about a tiny premature African baby boy who was abandonned and left to die but because of love, survives and thrives with his forever family. With insurmountable difficulty, his new family struggles with the realities of life in Africa as they try to secure his future as a son and brother. The reader will gain deep insight into the challenges of Africa and a practical vision of how each one of us can make a difference.

What happens when all that is familiar disappears...when everything you see, taste, smell, feel, hear....is suddenly gone and lost to the other side of the world? Enter the world of An-Ya and Her Diary... 'An-Ya and Her Diary' chronicles the journey of an 11 year old adoptee from China. Written in diary format, young An-Ya reveals her emotional journey as she is catapulted from a Chinese orphanage into a middle class home in America. The diary, into which she journals, was the only item left with An-Ya when she was found as an infant. For 11 years An-Ya has left the diary blank as she patiently waited in China for her biological family to return. Ultimately, after her adoption to America, she feels compelled to write her story down. Inside her diary she strives to connect the two severed worlds in which she has lived. An-Ya's story is one of incredible loss, filled with painful transitions and longed for hope. It is a story that will linger with you after its final page is turned.

At least once in life, you will ask your parents about how you came into this world, what happened the day you were born, how the day looked like, how your parents went to the hospital, how you looked like at that moment... There are so many things you may wonder about the time you came into the world. I wanted to ask these precious questions, but no one knew. The only thing I knew was that I was abandoned at a police station in Seoul, Korea and put into adoption. For my eighteenth birthday my mother presented me with a diary she kept since the life-long decision was made to adopt a child. This helped answer many questions in my life but there was still something missing in my life. That was until 26 years later, I finally had a chance to find my story, my history, what happened the day I came into this world... and what I missed in my life.

As an infant, Henrietta Hexagon was left alone in a shape sorter with no one to care for her. She was found and adopted by a family of triangles. She loves her family more than anything but she can't seem to get past the feeling that she doesn't quite fit in. One warm spring morning, Henrietta goes outside searching for hexagons. She does manage to find one but in doing so, she finds herself in a very sticky situation. She heads back home feeling down and defeated but when she arrives, everything changes This sweet story about adoption and family relationships also subtly teaches a valuable math lesson. Children will adore Henrietta and will also learn the important lesson that it doesn't matter what you look like on the outside, it's what's on the inside that counts.

Scott Starkey and his wife Jennifer were determined after marrying that their household should never grow beyond the two of them - and however many dogs and cats occupied the premises at the time - when, in 2004, a chance encounter with a television program called "China's Lost Girls" set in motion a series of events that eventually led them to China and a thirteen month old little girl - their precious daughter Hope - in August, 2010. "You've Come a Long Way, Baby: A China Adoption Story" is a poignant, heartfelt, and frequently humorous chronicle of one couple's emotional adoption journey, including the decision to adopt, persistence through years of waiting, an anxiety filled two-week "adventure" in China where they met their little girl for the first time, and the challenges faced along the way. More importantly, it's a unique look at family, and what it really means to make one.

When Baby Brown Bear arrives, all alone and very frightened, at City Zoo, Mama Polar Bear scoops him into her arms and promises to be his mother. Despite the grumblings of the other zoo animals, Baby Brown Bear learns family is family, no matter the differences, and all bears need love.

In May 2007, Jackie found Katie, a daughter she had surrendered for adoption in 1957. Over the course of 13 days, Katie and Jackie communicated solely via email before meeting in person. Their messages tell the story of the intervening 50 years and how each prepared for their first face-to-face meeting.

99 Things You Wish You Knew Before ... Choosing Adoption is your comprehensive guide to help you through your adoption journey. If you have ever been interested in adoption-as a prospective adoptive family, a birth parent, or even as an adoption practitioner-this book is for you It addresses the mysteries and myths that surround and permeate the adoption process, simplifying them for the non-lawyer and keeping the reader entertained all the while. Fear not the adoption process The Kaskys, with their 60+ years of combined experience, efficiently answer all of your questions in a straightforward no-nonsense manner.

This is the story of the Holbrooks, who lived in 16 Manor Way in South London.

On the outside they were a very affluent and normal Medical family, but their life together was to be far from normal. The two children were adopted separately, their Mum was an alcoholic, and one dark winter's night she climbed the stairs to commit suicide. Nick Holbrook tells the whole story of what it was like to grow up with this family. With great personal detail, his book documents what happened over their 20 years of life together and how those events have affected him so greatly to this day. Read their story if you have an interest in Adoption, Alcoholism, Suicide and Family Relationships. It's both a powerful and tragic family story where things might have been so different.

The story of one ordinary family navigating through a life with fostered and adopted children, struggling to cope with loss, mental illness, and a sexual predator in their midst. The author hopes to raise awareness about the need to support victims of abuse and educate children in order to keep them safe. A story of faith challenged and God's grace.

During a raging thunderstorm, a little lost dog finds her way to Willowbrook Farm and is taken in by the Campbells. Though given food and a safe place to sleep there on the farm, the little dog needs something more, a playmate she can love. But no one on the busy farm has time for her. No one, that is, until Lin and her father come to pick peaches. As the bond between Lin, a young girl adopted from a distant land, and the little lost dog becomes obvious to everyone, the hopes and dreams of both come true. Lin finds the furry friend she's longed for and the little dog, Foxy, finds a lifetime of love and a forever home with the best little girl ever.

Under His Wings is a life-changing resource for: - adoptees - orphans - foster children - children waiting to be adopted Effective for children, ages nine and upward. Also, orphan ministry training materials for leaders. Healing tool for parents and children to complete together.

This is the story about how Ainsley came into our lives. How two middle-aged professionals managed to adopt a child without leaving our shores. You see, Ainsley is not from China, Ethiopia or Russia. She is a domestic product, manufactured right here in the United States. Finding her was no easy feat. In the pages that follow I hope to provide a feel for the travel, travails, and twerps one encounters upon entering the world of private adoption. This is not a tale for the faint of heart, the politically correct, or misers. Suffice it to say we had our ups, downs, and wrote a lot of checks. And, despite my continuing need for a nap, it was worth every expended minute and dollar.

This journal is a vehicle to be gifted to a placed child to allow communication with and become familiar with the birth family regardless of their accessibility. it is an opportunity for the birth family's story to be heard without interruption, in a safe non- accusing environment. An open adoption allows for this free exchange of information and can be a healthy way for an adopted child to understand it was through the love of family regardless of circumstance, that brought everyone together to share their lives. We are all simply, a branch of someone's family tree. A perfect open adoption gift

This colorful story of how a boy from Guatemala came to be part of a family in the United States is a tool to introduce the topic of adoption to adopted and non-adopted children alike. Justin Walling chose to illustrate the family using birds of various colors, providing a platform for understanding the similarities and differences embedded in multi-cultural families. Although not a simple story, the steady and repetitive theme of what makes a family and what children need is very simple, fundamental and true. Songlike in its delivery, the words are softly rhymed and often repeated. September 21, 2011 Press Release: How do you introduce the topic of adoption to your adopted son and his non-adopted siblings? Kelly Dougherty and Justin Walling had just that question and have answered it in The Story of Che, a children's book based on their own family's story of how a boy from Guatemala came to be part of a family in the United States. With personal clarity of how differently families can form, and deep exploration into the ever-pressing issue of how a child might interpret comments from outside the home, Dougherty and Walling chose to literally illustrate exactly how their family came to be. "We are living in a world where families come in all shapes, numbers, and colors," says Dougherty. "Often those familial colors are monochromatic, but more and more today we are seeing something beyond that, something a little less simple. The Story of Che addresses that." Using birds of various and brilliant colors, Justin Walling's illustrations provide the platform for understanding the similarities and differences involved in multi-cultural or interracial families. Kelly Dougherty's artful writing follows a steady and rhythmic theme centering on what makes a family and what all children need, creating a tale that is simple, fundamental and true. Kirkus Indie says, "There is much to like in this story...Its structure and repetitive stanzas give it a songlike character. The art is charming and the message is heartwarming..." The Story of Che opens with a lady bird building a nest. Surprised to find it empty after her hard work, she begins to search for her baby bird. The vibrant images capture her journey from Charleston to Guatemala and back, drawing the reader into the story as the echo of "I'll be his mama, I'll help him fly" continues with each new bird entering the nest. "Whether a bird is red, green, black or pink, it is a bird all the same - still in need of love; still in need of food; still in need of understanding," says Dougherty. Dougherty is author of Sleeping with Steinbeck, a work of creative non-fiction that chronicles a cross-country journey with her dog. Justin Walling is the owner of Charleston Architectural Glass. Fringe Squirrel Press is the publisher of The Story of Che.

When the two-time National Book Award finalist Melissa Fay Greene confided to friends that she and her husband planned to adopt a four-year-old boy from Bulgaria to add to their four children at home, the news threatened to place her, she writes, "among the greats: the Kennedys, the McCaughey septuplets, the von Trapp family singers, and perhaps even Mrs. Feodor Vassilyev, who, according to the "Guinness Book of World Records," gave birth to sixty-nine children in eighteenth-century Russia."
Greene is best known for her books on the civil rights movement and the African HIV/AIDS pandemic. But she and her husband have also pursued a more private vocation: parenthood. "We so loved raising our four children by birth, we didn't want to stop. When the clock started to run down on the home team, we brought in ringers."
A celebration of parenthood; an ingathering of children, through birth and out of loss and bereavement; a relishing of moments hilarious and enlightening--"No Biking in the House Without a Helmet" is a loving portrait of a unique twenty-first-century family as it wobbles between disaster and joy.

Adoptive parents often wonder why their adopted child continues to be manipulative, defiant and aggressive despite all the love and generosity they have been given. Research shows the power that the infant's experiences and lack of nurturing have on later development. In Gotcha Welcoming Your Child Home, author and psychologist Patti M. Zordich, Ph.D., offers a refreshingly positive and clear explanation of the complex issues contributing to these behavior problems. She then provides guidelines for a simple, loving tool called Cocooning, Dr. Zordich's innovative system that helps parents heal these inner wounds, bringing their child to a more peaceful, loving place.

"An eye-opening account of life in China's orphanages. Kay Bratt vividly details the conditions and realities faced by Chinese orphans in an easy-to-read manner that draws the reader in to the heart-wrenching moments she has experienced in her work to bring hope to these children."--Dan Cruver, cofounder and director of Together for Adoption
When her family relocated to rural China in 2003, Kay Bratt was thrust into a new world, one where boys were considered more valuable than girls and poverty and the one-child policy had created an epidemic of abandoned infants. As a volunteer at a local orphanage, Bratt witnessed conditions that were unfathomable to a middle-class mother of two from South Carolina.

Based on Bratt's diary of her four years working at the orphanage, "Silent Tears" offers a searing account of young lives rendered disposable. In the face of an implacable system, Bratt found ways to work within (and around) the rules to make a better future for the children, whom she came to love. Her story balances the sadness and struggles of life in the orphanage with moments of joy, optimism, faith, and victory. It is the story of hundreds of children--and one woman who never planned on becoming a hero but became one anyway.

Author Kristen A. Morton has entwined her experience as a birth mother with her love of writing. In the book "With One Heart," she brings to life each emotional layer of the hearts and minds that are affected by open adoption. This booklet highlights the strong, ever-lasting, relationships that can develop from adoption. It is possible for adoptive mothers and birth mothers to share a happy and healthy relationship with time and trust. Morton brings you eight chapters revealing, brick by brick, how to build a beautiful relationship together.