So you've made the decision to adopt. What's next? For starters, how do you know whether domestic or international adoption is right for you? (And what are the real differences between the two?) Adoption insider Elizabeth Swire Falker answers these questions and many more. As an attorney who practices in the area of adoption and has worked with hundreds of families, and as an adoptive parent herself, she offers expert advice on each stage of the process. This comprehensive, accessible guide leads you with confidence through every decision you'll have to make-including the ones that you'd never know to expect. Complete with checklists, tips, sidebars, and plenty of counterintuitive advice, it shows you how to:

• Identify which adoption experts you do and don't need
• Find the right birth mother or choose the right country for your family-and how to spot red flags in potential situations
• Select an attorney or agency and prepare for your home visit
• Finance an adoption on a budget, manage the red tape, and get around the roadblocks
• Navigate all of the complex emotions that surface along the way. .
• .

"The book chronicles not only the adoption of their three children abroad, but follows each of their children (including their biological son) into young adulthood. It vividly depicts their difficulties in raising teenagers in a cross-cultural, transracial home, and also exposes the frightening conditions facing today's kids in our public schools, including gang issues, drop outs, and culture clashes. It provides valuable insights to parents and non-parents as well. This book was a real eye-opener and awakened me to the harsh realities our teens must face in what I would have thought were quality schools. Although told from a parent's point of view, they very effectively explored the emotions, indeed the angst, of their teenage children."
--Jo-Anne Weaver, adoptive parent of a Chinese daughter placed by Los Ninos International, and Senior Acquisitions Editor of Education and Developmental Psychology for Harcourt Brace.

What is the experience of being an adopted person really like? An honest look at how adoption can affect the individual, families and partners. Claire Cashin was adopted. In her youth, she experienced many personal problems because her birth mother 'gave her away'. This led her in search of her biological mother. This is a true and very honest account of adoption, search and reunion. It examines in depth how adoption can affect the individual and their loved ones. It does not shy away from the reality of what a reunion can mean and how hard it can be at times, or indeed what joy it can add to peoples lives. The story describes in fascinating detail what the reality can be like for many adopted people and what challenges their families may face as they mature and wonder about the circumstances of their adoption. It attempts to offer advice to anyone considering searching for their own answers, from someone who has gone through the process, made the mistakes, learned some lessons along the way and is still smiling. This book describes the mistakes and triumphs she made along the way and how the news of a new birth family has affected her adopted family in Cork, and changed Claire forever. It gives hope and advice to families who wish to help and understand the dynamics involved in adoption and reunion.

""Parents By Choice" is an excellent guide for researching adoption as a method for building a family. It is informative and enjoyable. I highly recommend this book for any prospective parent or parents wishing to pursue a domestic or international adoption."
--Chriss Barnes, Small Miracles International

"Few books move me to tears and laughter any more, but "Parents By Choice" did. The book is wonderful, so full of humor and warmth."
--Judy Stigger, LCSW, The Cradle Society, Author of "Coping with Infertility" and "Conspicuous Families"

"Parents By Choice" is a user-friendly book with easy to digest chapters, terminology, and questions concerning adoption and parenting of an infant and a toddler. "Parents By Choice" is an invaluable resource for potential parents, explaining the paperwork, financial, and emotional expectations of adoption as a normal, healthy option for creating a family. The authors, adoptive parents, present their story in an honest, engaging dialog full of knowledge and perspectives, which allow for a realistic view of living the process.

The Cruelest Con is a unique book in many ways: it is deeply personal, emotionally powerful, and contains important lessons for everyone in the adoption community. We all should read it and learn from it - so that adoption can truly be the rewarding, ethical process that it should be.-Adam Pertman, author of Adoption Nation and executive director of the Evan B. Donaldson Adoption Institute. For nearly three years, author Kelly Kiser-Mostrom endured the nightmare of an adoption scam. Through her heart-wrenching personal journey in The Cruelest Con, Kiser-Mostrom focuses on the changing and often frightening world of adoption. She exposes the treachery behind adoption facilitator Sonya Furlow who exploited and defrauded forty-four adoptive parents of over USD215,000, shattering their most basic dream in life-to have a family. Kiser-Mostrom points out the chilling truth about adoption laws in the United States. Facilitators are unregulated, and laws vary from state to state, leaving the adoption world wide open for many kinds of criminal activities and baby buying. Through Kiser-Mostrom's personal testament, you'll be able to form a foundation for a positive adoption journey. with an intermediary - Learn how to cope with grief as a victim of adoption fraud - Learn how and when to report suspected fraud - Follow guidelines to obtain an adoption professional - Find adoption resources - Gain a new perspective on the positives and negatives of adoption Don't let fraud and deception destroy your adoption dreams. Let The Cruelest Con guide you through the adoption process.

Journeying Through State Adoption is a practical guide for anyone who desires to adopt a child and who needs information to begin. It gives you a complete roadmap for navigating the state foster care system. You will walk through the touching story of a family who pursued their desire to share love with a child in need. Additionally, Journeying Through State Adoption is for those who want to learn more about the state foster care system, professionals who work within the system, and people who serve as advocates for foster and adopted children. This guide helps readers answer some vital questions regarding adoption: * What are the requirements to become an adoptive parent? * How do I get started? * What kind of children are waiting to be adopted? * Is there a child right for my family? Journeying Through State Adoption includes helpful resources such as contact information for the child welfare agency in every state, listings for many nation-wide adoption support groups, help in identifying and obtaining subsidies for adoptive families, and a state-by-state definition of children with special needs. questions during their step-by-step journey

Adopting a child can be one of life's most rewarding experiences. Unfortunately, complex policies, legal risks, and fewer available children can make a domestic adoption difficult. International adoption offers a solution to parents yearning for a child of their own. Korea. John Maclean's The Chinese Adoption Handbook is a comprehensive guide to adopting a child from China and Korea. Adoption Handbook leads parents through the international maze, including: shopping. to be asked.

The experience of adoption-both adopting and being adopted-can stir up deep emotional pain, often related to loss and early trauma. A for Adoption provides insight and support to those families and individuals facing these complex processes and challenges. Drawing on both a psychoanalytic, theoretical framework and first-hand accounts of adopters, adoptees, and professionals within the adoption process, Alison Roy responds to the need for further and consistent support for adoptive parents and children, to help inform and understand the reality of their everyday lives. This book explores both the current and historical context of adoption, as well as its depiction within literature, before addressing issues such as conflict in relationships, the impact of significant trauma and loss, attachment and the importance of early relationships, and contact with birth families. Uniquely, this book addresses the experiences of, and provides support for, both adoptive professionals and families. It focuses on understanding rather than apportioning blame, and responds to a plea from a parent who requested "a book to help me understand my child better".

Adopting a child can be one of life's most rewarding experiences. Unfortunately, complex policies, legal risks, and fewer available children make adopting domestically difficult. International adoption offers a solution to parents yearning for a child of their own. Eastern Europe. John Maclean's The Russian Adoption Handbook is a comprehensive guide to adopting a child from overseas. Adoption Handbook leads parents through the maze of: food.

Finally, a childcare book written with the unique needs of adopted toddlers in mind. Written by an adoptive parent, Adopting A Toddler: What Size Shoes Does She Wear? is an indispensable guide to the wonderful world of toddler adoption. Filled with essential parenting information, Adopting a Toddler answers many questions that parents ask, including questions about changing a name, choosing a crib versus a bed, beginning potty training, and what size shoes to buy. Adopting a Toddler is easy to read and covers every aspect of adopting a one to four year-old; with sections on the toddler wardrobe, the nursery, child safety, mealtime, bath time, selecting a pediatrician, medical considerations, international adoption travel, pre and post adoption resources, and more. Adopting a Toddler provides the most up-to-date solutions for preparing for your new arrival. If you're a first time parent, believe me--this is the practical 'how to, how much, when, where and why' guide to preparing for and welcoming your toddler home. Highly recommended --Roberta Rosenberg, AdoptShoppeBooks.com Adopting a Toddler fulfills an unclaimed niche within the realm of older child adoption literature. Ms. parent. Parents will refer to it multiple times.--Susan M. Ward Editor, Older Child Adoption Online Magazine, www olderchildadoption.com Written with a mom's humor, this book contains the most practical advice on adopting a toddler I have ever read.--John Maclean, Author, Russian Adoption Handbook, Chinese Adoption Handbook Denise Harris Hoppenhauer is an adoptive parent and advocate. She is the Program Coordinator for an International Adoption Agency and the 2003 recipient of the Dave Thomas Advocate of the Year Award from the South Carolina Council On Adoptable Children. The Author is donating 10 per cent of her proceeds to Shoes for Orphan S

When faced with the prospect of being a one-child family, and yet having a strong desire for more children, this Midwest family embarks on what would become the adventure of their lives. Through the eyes of a mom, this book is written for all of us who know the joys and frustrations of foreign adoption as well those who may still be in God s holding pattern as they struggle through whatever pains life may deal them. A book of hope and perseverance, We Have a Baby For You, will bring you deep into the details of one family s journey, and encourage you in your own. Travel with this family to the Eastern European country of Romania in the days following the fall of Ceaucesciu, and watch as God opens doors, closes doors, and in some instances breaks down walls, to demonstrate His love for one special little boy and one faithful family.

Whether it's the joy-filled decision to welcome a child into your arms or the difficult decision to give your child another home-adoption is making the choice to love unselfishly and unconditionally. Loved by Choice offers a clear and uplifting look at adoption through true stories told from virtually every perspective. Birth parents, adoptive parents, grandparents, adopted children, families working out an overseas adoption, and those creating interracial families are among those who share their joys and difficulties. The collection is a tender celebration of adoption, led by those who understand it best. "Heartwarming and inspirational. By translating true stories from different perspectives, Horner and Martindale intensely convey to the reader the emotions that these people have felt-emotions ranging from desperation to elation, from abandonment to fulfillment. Loved by Choice is not only educational, it's an emotional read that, for maybe the first time, discusses in-depth the impact that adoption has on families and communities." Bill Owens, Governor of Colorado "Loved by Choice is a perfect example of God's adoption of us as his children and how the choice of love is extended to women in unplanned pregnancies. It is a powerful review of how God uses lives to save lives."Carol Everett, president of The Heidi Group "The reader, at the end of this book, has learned a great deal about the process of adoption, but that pales in comparison with the impact of the stories on the heart itself. And that's the real reason we should all read the book: to understand for the very first time what it really means to be Loved by Choice." Joe Wheeler, Ph. D., editor/compiler of the Heart to Heartseries of anthologies

An informed, comprehensive guide to raising a multicultural family.

How many times do you celebrate the New Year at home? Just once? If your family is Jewish, Chinese, and a few other things besides, you might celebrate twice or even three times a year! As the rate of cross-cultural adoption grows in the United States, new traditions are emerging. These are part of a new multiculturalism which, with its attendant joys and challenges, has become a fact of life in urban, suburban and even rural America. Alperson's sourcebook offers families the first complete guide to the tangled questions that surround this important phenomenon. As the adoptive Jewish mother of Sadie, her Chinese-born daughter, Alperson is able to offer personal as well as professional insight into such topics as combining cultures in the home, confronting prejudice, and developing role models. Focusing on adoptive families - international and transracial adoption in the United States has jumped in recent years - she provides guidelines on how families can prepare for their exciting journey toward becoming a multicultural family.

In addition to drawing on extensive interviews with such families, her book includes a wealth of on-line and "conventional" resources to find books, food products, toys, clothing, discussion groups and heritage camps that help families to enhance their lives as they build a multicultural home.

Evie and Elliot are scrawny, filthy and wide-eyed with fear when they turn up on foster carer Maggie Hartley's doorstep. Aged just two and three years old, this brother and sister have hardly set foot outside their own home. They have been prisoners, locked in a terrifying world of abuse, violence and neglect. Maggie soon realises that Evie and Elliot are lacking the basic life skills we all take for granted. The outside world terrifies them; the sound of the doorbell sends them into a panic that takes hours to abate. Gradually unlocking the truth of their heart-breaking upbringing, Maggie tells their shocking true story. From emotionally scarred and damaged little children, we see how - with warmth and dedication - Maggie transforms their lives. As this moving story unfolds, we share Maggie's joy when these children finally smile again, when they realise they do have a future after all.

The first guide of its kind, covering all stages of the adoption process

Adopting on Your Own addresses the questions and concerns of prospective single parents. Lee Varon, a practicing therapist specializing in adoption counseling and the single mother of two adopted children, helps readers make an evenhanded assessment of whether adoption is right for them, then leads them through the different stages of arranging and financing the adoption. She weighs the advantages of open versus closed and international versus domestic adoption for the single parent, and demystifies potentially daunting steps such as choosing an agency and preparing for the home study.

Adopting on Your Own also offers up-to-date information on the latest developments in interracial adoption policy, the legal rights of gays and lesbians to adopt, and the evolving attitudes of agencies and social workers toward single-parent adoptions. Throughout the book, Varon draws on personal anecdotes and the experiences of her clients to offer honest, insightful advice on every step of the adoption process.

"I'm NOT going to school today!" Riley the Brave is a little bear with big feelings. Some days he wakes up feeling cheerful and ready to brave the day. He has energy to get dressed, eat breakfast and have some fun! But some days he wakes up feeling like a grumpy porcupine. His brow is scrunched and he thinks that it is going to be a terrible day. Today, Riley is having one of those days! What can be done to help him? All children struggle to make it to school some days, and this can be even tougher for children who have had difficult life experiences and extra challenges at school. This book creates a safe space for conversations about big thoughts and feelings, and offers positive tips for families to try. It also features an educational afterword for grown-ups which explains how the book helps children, and how to get the most out of it.

In the only book to make sense of the worlds of adoption and fertility treatment, Bartholet combines moving personal narrative with compelling policy analysis. Family Bonds is newly available at a time when more children than ever are waiting to be adopted and infertility treatment is not only a growing business but also an increasingly expensive and sophisticated technology. "A jewel. . . . Recommended to anyone contemplating or involved with adoption and to any citizen concerned about the welfare of children in our society."
--Carolyn Moore Newberger, The Boston Globe "It would take a book--a very smart and sane book--to deal with these matters and come to the aid of the parties to adoption, and, on the bright side of coincidence, someone is about to publish it [Family Bonds].
--The New Yorker "Anyone seeking to become a parent should both heed and take heart from Elizabeth Bartholet. Family Bonds is at once powerful testimony to the robust ties adoptive families form and an urgent plea for the rights and needs of children everywhere."
--Diane Cole, Newsday "Essential reading for policymakers, lawyers, and child welfare workers."
--Joan Hollinger, editor, Adoption Law and Practice