Adoption is not for the faint of heart. Labours of Love chronicles the journeys of Canadians who have overcome heartbreaking obstacles to become parents. Their stories are as diverse as our country, and span the borders of our world. While each account is unique in its own way, the stories are connected by the overwhelmingly commonality of the power of human connection.

Inspiring the film starring Judi Dench and Steve Coogan, and directed by Stephen Frears, Philomena is the tale of a mother and a son whose lives were scarred by the forces of hypocrisy on both sides of the Atlantic and of the secrets they were forced to keep. With a foreword by Judi Dench, Martin Sixsmith's book is a compelling and deeply moving narrative of human love and loss, both heartbreaking yet ultimately redemptive. When she fell pregnant as a teenager in Ireland in 1952, Philomena Lee was sent to the convent at Roscrea in Co. Tipperary to be looked after as a fallen woman. She cared for her baby for three years until the Church took him from her and sold him, like countless others, to America for adoption. Coerced into signing a document promising never to attempt to see her child again, she nonetheless spent the next fifty years secretly searching for him, unaware that he was searching for her from across the Atlantic. Philomena's son, renamed Michael Hess, grew up to be a top Washington lawyer and a leading Republican official in the Reagan and Bush administrations. But he was a gay man in a homophobic party where he had to conceal not only his sexuality but, eventually, the fact that he had AIDS. With little time left, he returned to Ireland and the convent where he was born: his desperate quest to find his mother before he died left a legacy that was to unfold with unexpected consequences for all involved.

From the 1940s through the 1960s, young pregnant women entered the front door of a clinic in a small North Georgia town. Sometimes their babies exited out the back, sold to northern couples who were desperate to hold a newborn in their arms. But these weren't adoptions--they were transactions. And one unethical doctor was exploiting other people's tragedies. Jane Blasio was one of those babies. At six, she learned she was adopted. At fourteen, she first saw her birth certificate, which led her to begin piecing together details of her past. Jane undertook a decades-long personal investigation to not only discover her own origins but identify and reunite other victims of the Hicks Clinic human trafficking scheme. Along the way she became an expert in illicit adoptions, serving as an investigator and telling her story on every major news network. Taken at Birth is the remarkable account of her tireless quest for truth, justice, and resolution. Perfect for book clubs, as well as those interested in inspirational stories of adoption, human trafficking, and true crime.

Prior to World War II, international adoption was virtually unknown, but in the twenty-first century, it has become a common practice, touching almost every American. How did the adoption of foreign children by U.S. families become an essential part of American culture in such a short period of time? Rachel Rains Winslow investigates this question, following the trail from Europe to South Korea and then to Vietnam. Drawing on a wide range of political and cultural sources, The Best Possible Immigrants shows how a combination of domestic trends, foreign policies, and international instabilities created an environment in which adoption flourished. Winslow contends that international adoption succeeded as a long-term solution to child welfare not because it was in the interest of one group but because it was in the interest of many. Focusing on the three decades after World War II, she argues that the system came about through the work of governments, social welfare professionals, volunteers, national and local media, adoptive parents, and prospective adoptive parents. In her chronicle, Winslow not only reveals the diversity of interests at play but also shows the underlying character of the U.S. social welfare state and international humanitarianism. In so doing, she sheds light on the shifting ideologies of family in the postwar era, underscoring the important cultural work at the center of policy efforts and state projects. The Best Possible Immigrants is a fascinating story about the role private citizens and organizations played in adoption history as well as their impact on state-formation, lawmaking, and U.S. foreign policy.

"Will you take her?" she asks.

When Beth Nonte Russell travels to China to help her friend Alex adopt a baby girl from an orphanage there, she thinks it will be an adventure, a chance to see the world. But her friend, who had prepared for the adoption for many months, panics soon after being presented with the frail baby, and the situation develops into one of the greatest challenges of Russell's life.

Russell, watching in disbelief as Alex distances herself from the child, cares for the baby -- clothing, bathing, and feeding her -- and makes her feel secure in the unfamiliar surroundings. Russell is overwhelmed and disoriented by the unfolding drama and all that she sees in China, and yet amid the emotional turmoil finds herself deeply bonding with the child. She begins to have dreams of an ancient past -- dreams of a young woman who is plucked from the countryside and chosen to be empress, and of the child who is ultimately taken from her. As it becomes clear that her friend -- whose indecisiveness about the adoption has become a torment -- won't be bringing the baby home, Russell is amazed to realize that she cannot leave the baby behind and that her dreams have been telling her something significant, giving her the courage to open her heart and bring the child home against all odds.

Steeped in Chinese culture, "Forever Lily" is an extraordinary account of a life-changing, wholly unexpected love.

After her adoptive mother's death, Lori Jakiela, at the age of forty, begins to seek the identity of her birth parents. In the midst of this loss, Jakiela also finds herself with a need to uncover her family's medical history to gather answers for her daughter's newly revealed medical ailments. This memoir brings together these parallel searches while chronicling intergenerational questions of family. Through her work, Jakiela examines both the lives we are born with and the lives we create for ourselves. Desires for emotional resolution comingle with concerns of medical inheritance and loss in this honest, humorous, and heartbreaking memoir.

Numerous reasons cause adopted teenagers to reconnect with their birth family via Facebook, creating new challenges for adoption today and tomorrow. Incorporating theory, practice, anecdotes, metaphors, diagrams, models and case studies, this accessible book, written by an experienced adopter, clearly explains these complex issues. It maps connections between trauma, child development, grief, adolescence, contact, truth telling and parenting styles; offering fresh perspectives and strategies for parents and professionals.

Zara H. Phillips seemed to live a charmed life - backing singer to the stars with an incredible career here and across the Atlantic - but her smile masked a difficult childhood and the reality that she was adopted as a baby in the 60s. Her life soon spiralled and as a teenager she suffered from drug and alcohol addiction, as she struggled to find her birth parents and her true identity. Somebody's Daughter is a fascinating and revealing account of how a beautiful woman's life has been dominated by her adoption and how it has affected her and those around her. Hard-hitting and emotional, Zara's memoir explores the needs of adopted children, with her characteristic warmth and wit, and the true journey it takes to find where you belong.

Describes what being a foster mom is really like, the effects of foster care on the whole family, and how the foster care system fails severely abused children. Foster children are society's throwaway kids, the children no one wants-until someone finally does. Saving Michael provides an inside look Keri Vellis' struggle to secure the best possible services for two severely abused and traumatized siblings. Some doors opened, but too many closed during her ten-year journey as the voice for children in her care who have no voice of their own within the current system. Readers get a glimpse of Keri and her family's day-to-day life as she went from mother of three to adoptive mother of three more children and then the temporary caregiver of another seventeen. Saving Michael delves into issues bigger than one family's experiences and determination. Now an author and child advocate, Vellis provides a profoundly personal look into what it takes to get the best for each of the children she's had in her care. Her journey started from the first day of her first foster care situation and the urgent need for diagnoses and treatment. It continued despite the many obstacles thrown in her path to securing services for the vulnerable children in her family's care. Along the way, she details the many ups and downs, challenges and triumphs, her whole family experienced as part of the foster care system. All children deserve permanent, safe homes. The effort to obtain those for every child is a tremendous one not for the faint-hearted. But the rewards reverberate for everyone when it works. Follow Keri and her family on this heartfelt journey of love and persistence.

All families of children affected by trauma are on a journey, and this book will help to guide you and your family on your journey from trauma to trust. Sarah Naish shares her own experiences of adopting five siblings. She describes how to use therapeutic parenting - a deeply nurturing parenting style - to overcome common challenges when raising children who have experienced trauma. The book describes a series of difficult episodes for her family, exploring both parent's and child's experiences of the same events - with the child's experience written by a former fostered child - and in doing so reveals the very good reasons why traumatized children behave as they do. The book explores the misunderstandings that grow between parents and their children, and provides comfort to the reader - you are not the only family going through this! Full of insights from a family and others who have really been there, this book gives you advice and strategies to help you and your family thrive.

"The power of love can save a life"
One rainy night on the Zambian savannah, a mother's heart moves the hand of God. From a land laid waste by disease and drought emerges this incredible story of courage, suffering, and the ultimate triumph of the power of God's love. This is the true story of an infant born in the bush of southern Zambia at the height of the worst drought in years. That tiny life was awaiting the traditional burial--lying on the chest of her mother, who died during delivery. For months the relentless claw of death would try to snatch another victim, but God had a purpose for her life.
Through Tedd Galloway's eloquent and inspiring words you will learn that:
God's timing is perfect, but not always understood Genuine Christian love is colorblind Love is costly and can be painful Every life is precious to God The cost of loving doesn't compare to the joy that comes
Our world would be a different place if God's people saw each other through the eyes of the mother in this story. Be inspired as you read about the body of Christ not just talking about loving each other, but actually demonstrating it.
Tedd Galloway is a former pastor and missionary who served as a pastor in six churches. For three years he worked in Zambia, where he oversaw property development for his denomination. He has been married to Donna for thirty-nine years and is the father of three daughters. Due to a spinal injury, today he finds himself writing and guest speaking.

A young American growing up in the Middle East, Carina Rourke enjoys a blissful innocence until, at age fifteen, she is captivated by an obsessive desire to peek inside of her mother's forbidden jewelry box. There, Carina discovers a shocking family secret arising from her clandestine mother's past in post-World War II Germany. On the heels of her discovery, she and her family pursue her father's dream: an exotic drive through the Middle East and Europe, which serves as a metaphoric journey for the woman Carina becomes-a silent nomad searching for identity. When they reach Paris, Carina is entranced by the city's temptations. French pastries become a dangerous addiction and an accomplice in silence . . . and so does the love of a mysterious Tunisian. Inspired by her past, The Syrian Jewelry Box: A Daughter's Journey for Truth chronicles a teenage heroine who triumphs over her identity crisis and learns the power of love.

Growing up, Tiffany Rochelle had no reason to believe her mother was not who she claimed to be, but that all changed when she was nine. She learned her mother had been living under a false identity since before she was born, and that the name her mother had used on her birth certificate wasn't real. From that point, Tiffany's life was never the same. By the time she was twenty-five, her mother had used twenty-seven known aliases and had created just as many lives to go along with them. As she got older and "found" herself in the world of art, Tiffany realized that even if she could have chosen her mother, she would have chosen no differently. Tiffany knew that she would not have achieved success as an artist were it not for her mother's insane roots. Tiffany Rochelle's story shows how true the saying, "You can't choose your family" is and why you should be grateful for them.

Nancy's labor pains were harsh and long, close to seven years, in fact. Conceived by Ukrainian parents, her two adopted children, Alyona and Alec, began their rebirth six years later in an American city near the East Coast shoreline.
"Healing Emotional Wounds-A Story of Overcoming the Long Hard Road to Recovery from Abuse and Abandonment"""is a compelling chronicle of metamorphosis that gives testament to the power of love, encouragement, and resolve over the desperate circumstances of abuse, neglect, and abandonment. This unvarnished story recounts the tumultuous road to recovery of two six-year-olds adopted from Ukraine and takes the reader through a mosaic of emotions from anger and frustration to laughter and bewilderment.
This action-packed drama of the family's first seven years reads like fiction, but it's real. The high-stakes adventure is replete with volatile behaviors, love, intrigue, sadness, police intervention, unwavering faith, doggedness, emotional fluctuations, and humor. Three main characters emerge, along with a large supporting cast of friends, family, neighbors, and community: 1) Alec, born prematurely to a substance-abusing mother, who spent the early part of his life swathed in a blanket cocoon almost devoid of human touch; 2) Alyona, found on the streets at age four or five and returned to the orphanage by her Italian adoptive family after only six weeks due to her aggressive behavior; 3) Nancy, a single, early fiftyish professional who feels called to adopt these children. The antagonist in this saga is the history of abuse and abandonment, but the real heroes are the children, who emerge from the abyss of hopelessness to live lives of confidence, love, and expectation.
"Healing Emotional Wounds-A Story of Overcoming the Long Hard Road to Recovery from Abuse and Abandonment "affirms the hope of healing through commitment, hard work, extensive family and friend support, a "never quit" attitude, and an unyielding resilience and focus.

The story every mother in America needs to read. As featured on NPR and the TODAY Show. All moms have to deal with choosing baby names, potty training, finding your village, and answering your kid's tough questions, but if you are raising a Black child, you have to deal with a lot more than that. Especially if you're a single Black mom... and adopting. Nefertiti Austin shares her story of starting a family through adoption as a single Black woman. In this unflinching account of her parenting journey, Nefertiti examines the history of adoption in the African American community, faces off against stereotypes of single Black moms, and confronts the reality of what it looks like to raise children of color and answer their questions about racism in modern-day America. Honest, vulnerable, and uplifting, Motherhood So White is a fantastic book for mothers who have read White Fragility by Robin DiAngelo, Stamped from the Beginning by Ibram X. Kendi, Why Are All The Black Kids Sitting Together in the Cafeteria? by Beverly Daniel Tatum, or other books about racism and want to see how these social issues play out in a very personal way for a single mom and her Black son. This great book club read explores social and cultural bias, gives a new perspective on a familiar experience, and sparks meaningful conversations about what it looks like for Black families in white America today.

Each adoption is a unique event for the people who are personally involved, or for those who feel connected to the parents-to-be. The adoption period takes you to a new world and can wear you down emotionally if you are not prepared for what can be expected. It is not the regular pregnancy with which some people like to compare it. It is a pregnancy between cold bureaucracy on one side and the daily feelings of vulnerable tenderness on the other. Many books have been written about the ins and outs of pregnancies but there was never a book to prepare oneself for that very special time we call adoption. Geeri Bakker takes you there with her positive attitude and her sense of humor. She takes you along the unpredictable, uncomfortable and sometimes seemingly endless path that is the adoption procedure. THE ADOPTION HANDBOOK teaches adoptive parents-to-be how to face stress in its many appearances during the sometimes dark and winding road that leads to their adoptive child. To illustrate the book, Geeri Bakker shares her own story of the procedures that she and her husband endured when adopting their two children. It is not the (Dutch) procedure that makes this story so touching and at times breathtaking. It is the way that stress burrows into hearts that desperately wish to adopt a child; something that anyone going through an adoption procedure will recognize. THE ADOPTION HANDBOOK helps adoptive parents acknowledge their feelings of stress during their long-term 'pregnancy' and deal with them: facing the main goal, and feeling energetically able, both physically and mentally, to 'conceive' their child when the time is right. It is only normal that pregnant couples gather information to prepare themselves. So now it is time that adoptive parents prepare themselves, as well. For the well-being of this special child, given to you to have, hold, love, cherish, and to let it grow and grow up in your family.