Adoptees Come Of Age

Ronald Nydam acquaints the pastoral counselor with some of the struggles that adopted people confront in their development and in their adult lives. Drawn from the compelling stories of people who have been adopted, this book provides an intelligent and accessible description of the distinct emotional and spiritual challenges faced by adoptees and their families. The purpose of the Counseling and Pastoral Theology series is to address clinical issues that arise among particular populations currently neglected in the literature on pastoral care and counseling. This series is committed to enhancing both the theoretical base and the clinical expertise of pastoral caregivers by providing a pastoral theological paradigm that will inform both assessment and intervention with persons in these specific populations.

How do adoptions really turn out? How do adopted children feel about the family they were given and the opportunities they were offered? To what extent do they fulfil their new parents’ expectations of them? And does it matter whether their adoption grew out of a fostering relationship or was considered right from the start as a permanent arrangement? Originally published in 1980, the major follow-up study on which this book is based sought to answer these questions. The research involved 160 sets of parents and over 100 of their adopted children, now young adults. This was, in fact, the largest group of adult adoptees anywhere in the world to be interviewed and studied in a systematic way. As they look back over their life together, the parents and the young people explain what adopting or being adopted was like for them. This title offers glimpses of adoptive family life over a period of more than twenty years, compares the views of the young people with those of their adopters and measures the factors which influenced the various outcomes. Particular attention is paid to the basis on which the child was originally placed, in order to shed light on the controversial subject, at the time, of whether a preliminary fostering period represents a useful safeguard. The information gathered by Lois Raynor and her colleagues provided the feedback so long sought by social work teachers and by those practising social workers who had the responsibility for making long-term plans for children and for approving foster home or adoption applications at the time. Readers with personal experience of adoption will be interested in making their own comparisons, while prospective adopters will learn to avoid some pitfalls and to enjoy an adopted child as their own.

Originally published in 1993, this classic piece of literature on adoption has revolutionised the way people think about adopted children. Nancy Verrier examines the life-long consequences of the 'primal wound' - the wound that is caused when a child is separated from its mother - for adopted people. Her argument is supported by thorough research in pre- and perinatal psychology, attachment, bonding and the effects of loss.

Simple text and ample pictures describe the what adoption is and how it works.

"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.

More than 70 adoptees share their stories and questions concerning adoption. A great resource for adult adoptees.

A NATIONAL BESTSELLER This beloved memoir "is an extraordinary, honest, nuanced and compassionate look at adoption, race in America and families in general" (Jasmine Guillory, Code Switch, NPR) What does it means to lose your roots—within your culture, within your family—and what happens when you find them? Nicole Chung was born severely premature, placed for adoption by her Korean parents, and raised by a white family in a sheltered Oregon town. From childhood, she heard the story of her adoption as a comforting, prepackaged myth. She believed that her biological parents had made the ultimate sacrifice in the hope of giving her a better life, that forever feeling slightly out of place was her fate as a transracial adoptee. But as Nicole grew up—facing prejudice her adoptive family couldn’t see, finding her identity as an Asian American and as a writer, becoming ever more curious about where she came from—she wondered if the story she’d been told was the whole truth. With warmth, candor, and startling insight, Nicole Chung tells of her search for the people who gave her up, which coincided with the birth of her own child. All You Can Ever Know is a profound, moving chronicle of surprising connections and the repercussions of unearthing painful family secrets—vital reading for anyone who has ever struggled to figure out where they belong.