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Based on Chapman's best-selling The 5 Love Languages®—a specialized resource of intentional love for families of adopted children. Adoption brings unique challenges. Love and bonding don't always come naturally. There can be emotional distress, frustration, and disappointment. In Loving Adopted Children Well, Dr. Gary Chapman along with professor and mom of adopted kids Dr. Laurel Shaler share how The 5 Love Languages® provide concrete steps to infusing love, hope, and attachment in your family.In addition to the beauty and healing you'll discover in the chapters on the love languages—Service, Gifts, Physical Touch, Quality Time, and Words of Affirmation—the authors provide essential chapters on subjects such as:When You Don't “Feel the Love”Getting Spouses on the Same PageHelp for Single ParentsStopping Sibling RivalrySupport—Why it's Needed and Where to Find It... and more.With empathy for adoptive parents, Chapman and Shaler provide an honest and invaluable resource of wisdom, joy, and healing. Apply the lessons from Loving Adopted Children Well, and you will see love grow and flourish in your home.

A companion to What White Parents Should Know about Transracial Adoption, this practical workbook guides readers to better understand transracial adoption and do the work of anti-racist, trauma-informed parenting.A must-read for white parents who have transracially adopted or prospective parents considering transracial adoption, this follow-up to What White Parents Should Know about Transracial Adoption offers a wealth of activities, templates, and questions for self-reflection. Melissa Guida-Richards, who learned at the age of 19 that she was adopted from Colombia as an infant, addresses the complexities of transracial adoption with insight, compassion, and the wisdom of lived experience. Through thought-provoking questions and activities, Guida-Richards guides you to:Consider the role of infant-mother bonding and understand developmental trauma in adopteesUnderstand the complex history of adoption; recognize illegal and unethical practices, such as trafficking operations and baby factories; and ask the important questions when working with adoption agenciesLook more deeply at implicit bias, white saviorism, and white fragilityLocate and utilize adoption-competent mental health careOffer culturally aligned education, community, and resources to your childAcknowledge the effects of racism and celebrate your child's race and cultureThroughout the workbook, Guida-Richards guides you to break free from toxic positivity, understand and drop defenses, engage in difficult conversations, and learn to listen to your child's experience. Whether you are a potential parent considering a transracial adoption, a parent of an adopted child, or a therapist or advocate working with adoptive families, this practical and engaging workbook will help you “do the work” of furthering anti-racist, child-centered, and trauma-informed parenting.

A practical roadmap for foster and adoptive familiesCaring for children is deeply important to the heart of God, and adoption and foster care are important callings that connect to God's heart for children and families. But this road isn't always easy. It's important that foster and adoptive parents prepare to address their children's history of trauma, separation, and disrupted placements, which can lead to mental health, emotional, and behavioral difficulties. It is also important to understand how this journey shapes and influences our children. We cannot ignore the deep feelings and questions that children experience as they try to understand their story. How can we help them navigate their identity, and sit with them in the unknowns of their story or the grief and loss that comes up?​Drawing on the latest science and research on trauma, attachment, sensory processing difficulties, cultural competence, and grief and loss, authors Josh and Jenn Hook provide a trauma-informed approach to help adoptive and foster families—and the church called to care for the vulnerable in our midst—to help their children heal, grow, and thrive.

A raw, often wry, memoir of mothers, mysteries, and miracles. Surrendered at birth in a closed adoption, Candi Byrne's biology and ethnicity is a secret. The impending arrival of her first grandchild ignites an urgency to identify potential genetic time bombs and confirm her ancestry. Due to arcane privacy laws, Candi is repeatedly denied access to the one person who could provide that information—her biological mother. After years of failed attempts, she resigns herself to never learning the truth about her roots; that is, until her ninety-year-old Aunt Delores has a vision and insists Candi resume efforts to find her birth family. Candi is gobsmacked when an internet search she's performed thousands of times before suddenly reveals her birth mother's identity. Within hours, she ends up on the doorstep of her birth mother—a place she's sworn never to visit. After a series of guilt-driven interactions with “Those People,” as she refers to her maternal birth family, Candi terminates contact. Although the reunion proves disastrous, it opens her eyes to truths about her relationship with her adoptive mother, Delphine. Though their relationship was difficult and contentious during Delphine's life, a series of miraculous experiences after her death guides Candi home to herself—where, she learns, she has belonged all along.

Embrace the beauty and challenges of transracial adoption.Being an adoptive parent is hard enough. But when your family is multiracial, things get even trickier. Parenting transracially doesn't come naturally, nor does it just happen with time. Love is essential—yet by itself, love isn't enough. Cross-cultural parenting also takes intentionality, listening, learning, growing, repenting, changing... then starting all over and doing it again. It's hard work! And yet, when an adoptive family honors the ethnic heritages of their children, the whole family—as well as the watching world—gets to see the beauty of a gloriously creative God.In It Takes More Than Love, Brittany Salmon shares her own family's story of transracial adoption and offers a biblically-based guide for others following the same path. Brittany recognizes that we live in divided times and there are extra challenges whenever race is part of the conversation. But with wise insight and hard-won experience, she provides guidance about topics such as:Maintaining a Gospel perspective throughout the journeyCelebrating your child's history and heritageConfronting racismResponding to comments about your familyAvoiding pitfalls in adoptionHelping your kids feel represented in your home and communityNo one is promising transracial adoption will be easy—least of all Brittany! Yet the extra effort is balanced by a beauty that images our eternal destiny. Until the day God makes all things new, the welcoming an inclusive transracial family can help fulfill Jesus's words, “on earth as it is in heaven.”

The White Fragility for transracial adoption--practical tools for nurturing identity, unlearning white saviorism, and fixing the mistakes you don't even know you're making.If you're the white parent of a transracially or internationally adopted child, you may have been told that if you try your best and work your hardest, good intentions and a whole lot of love will be enough to give your child the security, attachment, and nurturing family life they need to thrive.The only problem? It's not true. What White Parents Should Know About Transracial Adoption breaks down the dynamics that frequently fly under the radar of the whitewashed, happily-ever-after adoption stories we hear so often.Written by Melissa Guida-Richards--a transracial, transnational, and late-discovery adoptee--this book unpacks the mistakes you don't even know you're making and gives you the real-life tools to be the best parent you can be, to the child you love more than anything.From original research, personal stories, and interviews with parents and adoptees, you'll learn:What parents wish they'd known before they adopted--and what kids wish their adoptive parents had done differentlyWhat white privilege, white saviorism, and toxic positivity are...and how they show up, even when you don't mean itHow your child might feel and experience the world differently than youAll about microaggressions, labeling, and implicit biasHow to help your child connect with their cultural heritage through language, food, music, and clothingThe 5 stages of grief for adoptive parentsHow to start tough conversations, work with defensiveness, and process guilt

Provides professionals who work with birth parents insights into the support needs of this sometimes-neglected group of people in the adoption process. It shows how best to support them, and the benefits this support can provide.

Discover What Adoption and Foster Care Really Look Like If you are considering adoption or foster care or are already somewhere in this difficult and complicated process, you need trusted information from people who have been where you are. Mike and Kristin Berry have adopted eight children and cared for another 23 kids in their nine-year stint as foster parents. They aren't just experts. They have experienced every emotional high and low and encountered virtually every situation imaginable as parents. Now, they want to share what they've learned with you. Get the answers you need to the following questions, and many more: Should I foster parent or adopt? How do I know? What is the first step in becoming an adoptive or foster parent? What are the benefits of an open versus closed adoption? How and when do I tell my child that he or she is adopted? How do I help my child embrace his or her cultural and racial identity? Honestly Adoption will provide you with practical, down-to-earth advice to make good decisions in your own adoption and foster parenting journey and give you the help and hope you need.

With knowledge and compassion, Caring for Your Adopted Child offers the wisdom that adoptive parents need to provide the best possible care for their children. Whether a child joins a family through domestic adoption, international adoption, or foster care, he or she may have needs that require additional consideration. The coauthors, both adoptive parents, weave professional and personal experiences with essential information on: • Partnering with a pediatrician before adoption • Helping a child transition into a family • Understanding health issues and conditions that are more prevalent in children who are adopted • Supporting a child's emotional health and attachment • And promoting positive adoption conversation as a child matures This comprehensive resource offers trusted parenting advice from a leading adoption medicine expert and the American Academy of Pediatrics, focusing on the physical and emotional well-being of adopted children.

Practical advice and recommendations on how to parent a child with ASD for adoptive parents and foster carers. This book is split into two sections - the first details what ASD is, and the second looks at the particular issues it can cause for an adopted or fostered child. The perfect introductory guide for busy parents and carers.

Know That You Are Not Alone on This Journey Adopting or fostering a child brings its own unique set of challenges only another parent facing the same uphill climb could possibly understand. From parenting children with traumatic pasts, to dealing with attachment issues, to raising a child with special needs, it can sometimes be a struggle just getting through the day. Mike Berry knows the loneliness and isolation you can easily feel in your particular parenting role—because he's been there. He's still there, and he wants to give you the hope and encouragement you so desperately need. There are plenty of how-to guides out there on parenting, but this one-of-a-kind book is specifically designed to address your needs as a parent of an adopted or foster child. With a refreshing dose of honesty, empathy, and care, you'll discover you are definitely not alone on your journey and God has a very special plan for you and your family.

Offers straightforward advice for managing common behaviours in children who are traumatized. Designed specifically for adoptive and foster parents, this guide includes visual reference charts of therapeutic parenting strategies and conversation scripts that can be used when caring for a traumatized child.

Are you in the process of adopting and feeling out of your depth? Do you already have an adopted child and are feeling overwhelmed?Sharing the secrets that will enable you to face the challenges of adoptive parenting with confidence, Sophie Ashton offers tips and strategies which have worked for her family. She discusses preparing for the journey ahead, parenting with empathy, facilitating your child's attachment, helping your child feel listened to, and providing structure and consistency in order to successfully integrate your child into your family and go on to have a stable happy family life.An honest and reassuring account of what it can really be like to be an adoptive parent, this practical hands-on guide will help you prepare for the highs and lows of being a parent and give your child and your family the best chance to flourish.

The act of adopting children, and the processes and politics around it, have changed drastically in recent decades, mostly for the better. Still, many prospective adoptive parents remain bewildered or apprehensive, and those who have adopted find themselves struggling in ways they hadn't anticipated.Thicker Than Blood is a comprehensive yet down-to-earth look at adoptive parenting in the twenty-first century. Author Marion Crook's family includes two adopted sons; in her experience, adoptive parents need to acquire skills, knowledge, and a good sense of humor in order to deal with the emotional upheavals of raising adopted children.The book looks at all facets of adoption, including its dark history over the past one hundred years when it was seen as a lower-class option for desperate parents, or when children were taken from single mothers against their will. Today, adoption is much more open-minded?LGBT adoptive parents and adoptive single parents are now commonplace?yet challenges linger, from adoptive children suffering from PTSD to those dealing with issues of anger and abandonment. Crook gently takes adoptive parents through the process of adoption from childhood to adulthood, helping to demystify the experience with compassion and reassurance.Meticulously researched but refreshingly free of academic jargon, Thicker Than Blood will enlighten and empower adoptive parents and those who work with adopted children alike.Marion Crook is the author of twenty-one previous books which include novels and nonfiction for both adults and young people, on such subjects as women's health, teen suicide, and body image.

The period before your child joins your family can be a chaotic time. Clear and positive, Preparing for Adoption equips you with the knowledge to create a safe and secure home for your newly adopted child.

Witty and compassionate, this is a savvy adoptive parenting guide like no other, written by award-winning columnist and adoptive parent Sally Donovan.

Full of simple and effective design ideas and tips for writing adoption portfolios, this is a step-by-step guide to creating a portfolio that will present you in the best possible light and help the right birth-family to find and choose you.

Prior to 1990, fewer than five percent of domestic infant adoptions were open. In 2012, ninety percent or more of adoption agencies are recommending open adoption. Yet these agencies do not often or adequately prepare either adopting parents or birth parents for the road ahead of them!The adult parties in open adoptions are left floundering.There are many resources on why to do open adoption, but what about how? Open adoption isn't just something parents do when they exchange photos, send emails, share a visit. It's a lifestyle that may feel intrusive at times, be difficult or inconvenient at other times. Tensions can arise even in the best of circumstances. But knowing how to handle these situations and how to continue to make arrangements work for the child involved is paramount. This book offers readers the tools and the insight to do just that. It covers common open-adoption situations and how real families have navigated typical issues successfully. Like all useful parenting books, it provides parents with the tools to come to answers on their own, and answers questions that might not yet have come up.Through their own stories and those of other families of open adoption, Lori and Crystal review the secrets to success, the pitfalls and challenges, the joys and triumphs. By putting the adopted child at the center, families can come to enjoy the benefits of open adoption and mitigate the challenges that may arise. More than a how-to, this book shares a mindset, a heartset, that can be learned and internalized, so parents can choose to act out of love and honesty throughout their child's growing up years, helping that child to grow up whole.

Breeding in Captivity takes us on Stacy Bolt's journey to have a child at'advanced maternal age,'first with the help of a Really Expensive fertility specialist, and then ultimately through a local adoption agency. But this isn't your typical serious memoir about struggling with infertility; it's an entertaining, witty read that perfectly balances humor with its more poignant moments. Breeding in Captivity is about a quirky, lovable couple that you root for through their fertility struggles and adoption adventures. It's about the hundreds of Internet message boards where annoyingly perky women from Kappa Alpha Fruitcake refer to sex as'babydancing'and sprinkle virtual'baby dust'on each other. It's about meeting birthmothers and deciding on open adoptions. It's about being chosen and then having a birthmother change her mind. But ultimately, it's about hope, how life can surprise you, and laughing through the insanity.

Drawing on the hard-won wisdom gained in her own family life, Celia offers a thoughtful account of life with adopted children and examines the issues that many adoptive families encounter, including the development of children with attachment problems and how to tackle behavioural difficulties.

Why was I abandoned?Why did my parents adopt me?What if I want to meet my biological parents?Children who find out they are adopted have many questions that are difficult for a parent to answer. This book explores children's thoughts and feelings and provides parents with guidance on how to respond to difficult questions.The author covers all the common questions that children ask and provides sensitive, candid answers in a way that children will be able to understand and relate to. Each chapter is devoted to a particular issue, such as why a child is adopted, who chose the child's first name and what happens when the child grows up. The book recognizes the emotions and reactions of everyone in the family and includes separate conclusions for parents and children.This handy guide offers useful advice for parents and will also be of interest to counsellors and other professionals working with children.

Since the early 1990s, close to 250,000 children born abroad have been adopted into the United States. Nearly half of these children have come from China or Russia. Culture Keeping: White Mothers, International Adoption, and the Negotiation of Family Difference offers the first comparative analysis of these two popular adoption programs.Heather Jacobson examines these adoptions by focusing on a relatively new social phenomenon, the practice by international adoptive parents, mothers in particular, of incorporating aspects of their children's cultures of origin into their families'lives.'Culture keeping'is now standard in the adoption world, though few adoptive parents, the majority of whom are white and native-born, have experience with the ethnic practices of their children's homelands prior to adopting.Jacobson follows white adoptive mothers as they navigate culture keeping: from their motivations, to the pressures and constraints they face, to the content of their actual practices concerning names, food, toys, travel, cultural events, and communities of belonging. Through her interviews, she explores how women think about their children, their families, and themselves as mothers as they labor to construct or resist ethnic identities for their children, who may be perceived as birth children (because they are white) or who may be perceived as adopted (because of racial difference).The choices these women make about culture, Jacobson argues, offer a window into dominant ideas of race and the'American Family,'and into how social differences are conceived and negotiated in the United States.

Full of wonderful stories that give insight into a wide variety of adoption issues, now revised in light of recent developments, The Family of Adoption is a powerful argument for the right kind of openness in adoption. Joyce Maguire Pavao uses her thirty years of experience as a family and adoption therapist to explain to adoptive parents, birthparents, adult adopted people, and extended family, as well as to those who work with children professionally the developmental stages and challenges one can expect in the life of the adopted person. The Family of Adoption is truly the most insightful and healing book on the adoption shelf.

Adoptive, foster and stepmothers, like biological mothers, find their lives completely changed by motherhood although they are not always granted the rights and privileges accorded to those who give birth. Barbara Waterman explores the common experiences that are shared by all those who enter the motherhood portal. She highlights the importance of wider family, community and professional support for non-biological parents and primary care-givers of both genders, and their children. A stepmother herself and a practicing psychologist, Waterman's writing is illustrated throughout with vignettes of children and parents from a range of backgrounds. She shows the important ways in which a non-biological attachment is both more similar to and more different from a biological attachment than is currently understood. In doing this, Waterman broadens the notion of the `traditional'family, and offers a positive alternative to the myth of the perfect mother. All kinds of step-, adoptive and foster families and those coming into contact with them will find this thoroughly researched and personal book an indispensable guide.