The International Adoption Handbook

For anyone involved in, or thinking about, adopting a child from abroad, The International Adoption Handbook is an essential guide. The process of international adoption can sometimes seem complex, frustrating, and endless. This step-by-step guide, which provides the necessary hard facts and information — as well as support through the experiences of the author and others — will help smooth the way. After a general discussion of who may adopt and what restrictions may apply, the book goes into the nitty-gritty of what the process entails: choosing where to adopt and how to go about it; using an agency or facilitator; initiating the home study; assembling a dossier; working with the U.S. Immigration and Naturalization Service; knowing the topes of expenses that can be anticipated; and many other issues. In addition, the book provides up-to-date information on resources, including what is available today on the Internet, information that was previously difficult for adoptive parents to find out on their own. Equally informative are the author's interviews of a number of adoptive families whose stories are interspersed throughout the book. By sharing their experiences, they help to make the process work for others.

Adoption is practiced globally yielding a multidimensional area of study that cannot be characterized by a single movement or discipline. This handbook provides a central source of contemporary scholarship from a variety of disciplines with an international perspective and uses a multifaceted and interdisciplinary approach to ground adoption practices and activities in scientific research. Perspectives of birth/first parents, adoptive parents, and adopted persons are brought forth through a range of disciplinary and theoretical lenses. Beginning with background and context of adoption, including sociocultural and political contexts, the handbook then addresses the diversity of adoptive families in terms of family forms, attitudes about adoption, and characteristics of adopted children. Next, research examining the lived experience of adoption for birth parents, adoptive parents, and adopted individuals is presented. A variety of outcomes for internationally and domestically adopted children and adoptive families is then discussed and the handbook concludes by addressing the development, training, and implementation of adoption competent clinical practice. With cutting-edge research from top international scholars in a diversity of fields, The Routledge Handbook of Adoption should be considered essential reading for students, researchers, and practitioners across the fields of social work, sociology, psychology, medicine, family science, education, and demography. Interviews with chapter authors can be accessed as podcasts (https://anchor.fm/emily-helder) or as videos (https://bit.ly/2FIoi0a).

Offers information and advice about adopting a foreign child, from who may adopt to working with the U.S. Immigration and Naturalization Service

Choice Outstanding Academic Title of 2018 International adoption is in a state of virtual collapse, rates having fallen by more than half since 2004 and continuing to fall. Yet around the world millions of orphaned and vulnerable children need permanent homes, and thousands of American and European families are eager to take them in. Many government officials, international bureaucrats, and social commentators claim these adoptions are not "in the best interests" of the child. They claim that adoption deprives children of their "birth culture," threatens their racial identities, and even encourages widespread child trafficking. Celebrity adopters are publicly excoriated for stealing children from their birth families. This book argues that opposition to adoption ostensibly based on the well-being of the child is often a smokescreen for protecting national pride. Concerns about the harm done by transracial adoption are largely inconsistent with empirical evidence. As for trafficking, opponents of international adoption want to shut it down because it is too much like a market for children. But this book offers a radical challenge to this view—that is, what if instead of trying to suppress market forces in international adoption, we embraced them so they could be properly regulated? What if the international system functioned more like open adoption in the United States, where birth and adoptive parents can meet and privately negotiate the exchange of parental rights? This arrangement, the authors argue, could eliminate the abuses that currently haunt international adoption. The authors challenge the prevailing wisdom with their economic analyses and provocative analogies from other policy realms. Based on their own family's experience with the adoption process, they also write frankly about how that process feels for parents and children.

'Handbook of Adoption' addresses topics in adoption that reflect the many dimensions of theory, research, development, race adjustment and clinical practice which can affect adoption triad members.

The go-to guide for everything you want to know about international adoption From the initial decision—Is adoption right for you?—through returning home with your child—How can you ease the transition?—The Complete Book of International Adoption takes parents step by step through the entire process of adopting a child from another country. You will find: • An easy-to-understand analysis of the differences between domestic and international adoption • Advice on choosing a country, including 25 important factors to consider, such as the waiting times involved and the estimated costs for each of the top placing countries, with charts for easy comparison • A detailed discussion of the potential health issues based on the latest research and interviews with doctors who specialize in international adoption • Worksheets and a suggested system for preparing and organizing the extensive paperwork involved • Parenting tips to enhance attachment and suggestions for addressing the issues that come up in raising an internationally adopted child • Real parents’ stories and advice at every stage of the process • Plus all of the information you need to select your agency, plan financially, prepare for the home study, travel sensibly, evaluate your child’s health and integrate your new family More than just provide the facts, The Complete Book of International Adoption also helps parents manage the emotional rollercoaster that comes with the territory. Sensitive, wise, and often witty, this book is a must-have for any parent considering building their family through adoption.

Adopting a child can be one of life's most rewarding experiences. Unfortunately, complex policies, legal risks, and fewer available children can make a domestic adoption difficult. International adoption offers a solution to parents yearning for a child of their own. American parents are now adopting over 6,000 children a year from China and Korea. John Maclean's The Chinese Adoption Handbook is a comprehensive guide to adopting a child from China and Korea. From pitfalls to practical advice, the rewards to the risks, The Chinese Adoption Handbook leads parents through the international maze, including: How the international adoption process works. How to start the process. What you need to know before traveling to China or Korea. Making the most out of your trip-the inside scoop on customs, hotels, and shopping. The children's homes, the U.S. Consulate visit, and the questions that need to be asked. Medical issues, special adoption doctors, and travel requirements. Post-adoption procedures and much, much more. Practical, accurate, and written with a father's sense of humor, The Chinese Adoption Handbook is the most comprehensive and up-to-date guide to adoption from China and Korea.

Since 1989, more than 165,000 children have been adopted by American parents. Every indication suggests that this number will increase in the years to come. Many of these children arrive with complex medical and behavioural problems. These children require specialized medical attention to help them get well and adjust to their new lives and surroundings. The Handbook of International Adoption Medicine presents an overview of the medical and developmental issues that affect internationally adopted children, offering guidelines for families and physicians before, during, and after adoption. Laurie Miller has comprehensively researched these topics and also draws from over fifteen years of experience in international adoption and orphanages throughout the world. This book shows how to advise families prior to an international adoption, how to perform an effective initial screening assessment of the newly arrived child, how to manage common behaviour problems, and how to recognize and manage developmental and other more long-term problems as they emerge. Sections cover such subjects as the risks of prenatal exposures, problems in growth and development, infectious diseases, and other medical conditions such as inherited disorders, uncertain age, and precocious puberty. This information has never been available in one place, making the book an invaluable resource for families and professionals in the field of international adoption.