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Books > Health, Home & Family > Family & health > Family & other relationships > Adoption & tracing birth parents
From Torey Hayden, the number one Sunday Times bestselling author of
One Child comes Lost Girl, a poignant and deeply moving account of a
lost little girl and an extraordinary educational psychologist's
courage and determination.
Jessie is nine years old and looks like the perfect little girl, with
red hair, green eyes and a beguiling smile. She even has a talent for
drawing gorgeous and intricate pictures. But Jessie also knows how to
get her own way and will lie, scream, shout and hurt to get just
exactly what she wants.
Her parents say they can't take her back, and her social workers
struggle to deal with her destructive behaviour and wild mood swings.
After her chaotic passage through numerous foster placements, Jessie
has finally received a diagnosis of an attachment disorder. Attachment
disorders arise when children are deprived of the all-important close
bonds with trustworthy adults that allow them to develop emotionally
and thrive. Finally educational psychologist Torey Hayden is called in
to help. Torey agrees to weekly meetings with Jessie to try and uncover
why she is acting out. Torey's gentle care and attention reveal
shocking truths behind Jessie's lies. Can Torey and the other social
workers help to provide the consistent loving care that has so far been
missing in Jessie’s life, or will she push them away too?
The Foster Parenting Manual is a comprehensive guide offering
proven, friendly advice for novice and experienced parents alike.
Distilling many years' experience into one book, John DeGarmo
combines his own wisdom with that of fellow foster parents. He
describes what to expect from the process, how to access help and
how to ensure the best care for your child. He tackles thorny
issues such as children's use of the Internet and social media,
managing contact with birth parents and how to support your child
at school. Most importantly, he provides advice designed to help
your child feel safe, secure and loved. The Foster Parenting Manual
offers seasoned, sympathetic advice that will be valued by foster
parents and the professionals who support them.
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.
"Impossible to put down, makes you laugh and cry, Sophie's story is
inspirational. It gives us so much hope and encouragement. I don't
think we would be where we are on our own journey without her
advice." OLLIE LOCKE "A read so twisty your heart pounds as you
turn the pages." THE SUNDAY TIMES Brave, funny and honest,
columnist Sophie Beresiner takes us on her complex journey to
parenthood and shows us that there's more than one way to become a
mother. Sophie's journey to motherhood began aged 30 with a cancer
diagnosis that stole her fertility. Today, Sophie is older, wiser
(and agonisingly excellent at hindsight), and somewhat battered.
Through interminable cycles of hope and failure, her infertility
story spanned three countries, five surrogates and a debt she'd
rather not dwell on. Part memoir, part manifesto, The Mother
Project is the epic story of Sophie's quest for happiness.
Exploring the complexities, expectations and injustices faced by
millions of women across the world, it is a book that is both
personal and universal.
A family built, a family lost. Truth Has a Different Shape is a
story of the power of compassion, of love and loss, revelations and
relationship, and the evolution of self. Growing up in the 1970s
and 1980s, Kari O'Driscoll was taught that strength and stoicism
were one and the same. She was also taught that a girl's job was to
take care of everyone else. For decades, she believed these ideas,
doing everything she could to try and keep the remaining parts of
her family together, systematically anticipating disaster and
fixing catastrophes one by one. Truth Has a Different Shape is one
woman's meditation on how societal and familial expectations of
mothering influenced her sense of self and purpose, as well as her
ideas about caretaking. As an adult, finding herself a caretaker
both to her own children and to her aging parents, O'Driscoll
finally reckons with the childhood trauma that shaped her world.
Adoption, loss, and divorce defined her approach to motherhood, but
in Truth Has a Different Shape, O'Driscoll finally pushes back.
This memoir tracks her progress as she discovers how to truly care
for those she loves without putting herself at risk, using
mindfulness and compassion as tools for healing both herself and
her difficult relationships.
The inspirational story of an American woman who moved mountains to
secure medical treatments-and eventually a home-for a young Iraqi
girl severely burned in a roadside terror attack. This is a story
of the astonishing power of self-sacrificial love. On a typical
Sunday morning in 2006, Barbara Marlowe saw a photo that changed
her life: a photo of four-year-old Teeba Furat Fadhil, whose face,
head, and hands had been severely burned during a roadside bombing
in the Diyala Province of Iraq. Teeba's eyes captivated Barbara,
and she yearned to help this child who had already endured more
pain and suffering than anyone should bear. Because surgeons were
fleeing the war-torn country, Teeba would be unable to receive
much-needed treatments if she stayed in Iraq. With powerful faith
and determination, Barbara overcame obstacle after obstacle to
bring Teeba from Iraq to the United States for medical treatments.
A Brave Face explores the connection forged between Barbara and
Teeba's Iraqi mother Dunia over the past decade-a deep bond between
two mothers that has flourished despite the distance, the strife of
war, and the horrors of Al-Qaeda and ISIS. With chapters written by
Teeba, now a young woman, and Dunia, the three women recount the
story of courage and sacrifice that bound them together. A Brave
Face contains the messages that: Tremendous trust can cross borders
and war zones Tragedies can turn into miracles Love can be found in
the most unexpected of places In the end, this is a story of hope.
A story of building bridges. A story of the always astonishing
power of self-sacrificial love.
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