23 Voices Of Adopted Youth

23: Voices of Adopted Youth is a powerful glimpse of adopted youth’s thoughts on how adoption has impacted their lives. Through their own voices, twenty-three youths share heartfelt and profound stories about relationships with parents and birth parents and how, ultimately, these affect their sense of identity, self-image, relationships with siblings and friends, and expectations of self and others. They acknowledge the uniqueness of adoption and emphasize the importance of knowing who they were born to and their right to explore that option. Despite experiences of confusion, anger, frustration, and sadness, these youth were all grateful to have been adopted into their families. Each youth voice authentically displays raw wisdom, insight, and passion and provides the reader with an enhanced understanding of the adoptee experience, parenting an adopted child, and parenting in general.

Nearly forty years after researchers first sought to determine the effects, if any, on children adopted by families whose racial or ethnic background differed from their own, the debate over transracial adoption continues. In this collection of interviews conducted with black and biracial young adults who were adopted by white parents, the authors present the personal stories of two dozen individuals who hail from a wide range of religious, economic, political, and professional backgrounds. How does the experience affect their racial and social identities, their choice of friends and marital partners, and their lifestyles? In addition to interviews, the book includes overviews of both the history and current legal status of transracial adoption.

The Index to Proceedings of the General Assembly is a bibliographic guide to the proceedings and documentation of the General Assembly. This issue covers the seventieth session of the Assembly including its Main and ad hoc committees. The Index is prepared by the Dag Hammarskjöld Library, Department of Public Information, as one of the products of the United Nations Bibliographic Information System (UNBIS).

Open is a story of open adoption. It speaks to anyone who has adopted a child, has or wants to adopt a child, or who is contemplating giving a child up for adoption. Open brings an honest humanity to the people affected by open adoption, revealing the fragility and courage of the human spirit. Open will open your heart and mind to this ever-changing experience. More than anything, Open is a true story of two women whose voices will ring true, raw and triumphant, and whose love for one child will change their world forever. Ultimately, there is a third voice, the adopted child herself, speaking as an adult who reflects on her own journey and gives testimony to the power of open adoption.

"Birthdays may be difficult for me." "I want you to take the initiative in opening conversations about my birth family." "When I act out my fears in obnoxious ways, please hang in there with me." "I am afraid you will abandon me." The voices of adopted children are poignant, questioning. And they tell a familiar story of loss, fear, and hope. This extraordinary book, written by a woman who was adopted herself, gives voice to children's unspoken concerns, and shows adoptive parents how to free their kids from feelings of fear, abandonment, and shame. With warmth and candor, Sherrie Eldridge reveals the twenty complex emotional issues you must understand to nurture the child you love--that he must grieve his loss now if he is to receive love fully in the future--that she needs honest information about her birth family no matter how painful the details may be--and that although he may choose to search for his birth family, he will always rely on you to be his parents. Filled with powerful insights from children, parents, and experts in the field, plus practical strategies and case histories that will ring true for every adoptive family, Twenty Things Adopted Kids Wish Their Adoptive Parents Knew is an invaluable guide to the complex emotions that take up residence within the heart of the adopted child--and within the adoptive home.