Sacred Heart, Minnesota, 1934: Born in the Great Depression to a sadly mismatched couple, a child is moved from one small town to another in her family's quixotic search for affluence. She is neglected, abused, kept penniless in a middle-class family. She dreams of helping children find the stable family she is denied. Forced out of her home at sixteen, she's a runaway, a child bride, a battered teenage mother. While she observes major events of the twentieth century, she wins her private struggle for independence.

Through romance with a former World War II German soldier during the social revolution of the 1960s, to moving to Texas in the 1980s, Jean Erichsen becomes an innovator in international adoptions and a widely acclaimed and emulated agency director, social worker, and author. On an international journey spanning three decades, she and her husband raise children while traveling abroad and shaping ethical adoption practices for the benefit of thousands of orphans.

"Inside the Adoption Agency" provides a glimpse inside the fascinating world of international adoption and explains the Hague Convention on Protection of Children and Co-operation in Respect of Intercountry Adoption, which is revolutionizing a process that was previously uncontrolled and marred by scandal. "Jean Erichsen gives order to the often overwhelming mix of foreign and domestic requirements and provides the reader with many heart-warming and humorous moments as well." -Laura Kalish, attorney "Jean Erichsen has a lively and entertaining style of writing that makes this book hard to put down." -Sandra Carlson, LCSW "What I really appreciated about this book was how clearly it spelled out the total dependence of agencies and adoptive parents on the whims of the host countries." -Ruth Arnold, adoptive parent "This fascinating book will give the reader a renewed appreciation of the dedication and hard work by which trustworthy adoption professionals arrange for homeless children overseas to join their new American families. The Erichsens' unique historical perspective provides an understanding of why the Hague Convention on Intercountry Adoption will be coming into effect in this decade, in an effort to insure sound adoption agency practices with well prepared adoptive parents." -Deborah McCurdy, founder and supervisor of social work, Beacon Adoption Center Jean Erichsen is one of the leading pioneers of intercountry adoption. Part history lesson and part "how-to guide," this book provides valuable insights and information from someone who has witnessed and shaped intercountry adoption practice for the past twenty-five years. -Thomas Atwood, President and CEO, National Council For Adoption