Foster the Family

Foster the Family
Author: Jamie C. Finn
Publisher: Baker Books
Total Pages: 240
Release: 2022-02-15
Genre: Religion
ISBN: 149343442X

There are great rewards that come along with being a foster parent, yet there are also great challenges that can leave you feeling depleted, alone, and discouraged. The many burdens of a foster parent's day--hurting children, struggling biological parents, and a broken system--are only compounded by the many burdens of a foster parent's heart--confusion, anxiety, heartache, anger, and fear. With the compassion and insight of a fellow foster parent, Jamie C. Finn helps you see your struggles through the lens of the gospel, bringing biblical truths to bear on your unique everyday realities. In these short, easy-to-read chapters, you'll find honest, personal stories and practical lessons that provide encouragement and direction from God's Word as you walk the journey of foster parenting.

Race in Transnational and Transracial Adoption

Race in Transnational and Transracial Adoption
Author: Vilna Bashi Treitler
Publisher: Springer
Total Pages: 492
Release: 2014-07-22
Genre: Social Science
ISBN: 1137275235

When parents form families by reaching across social barriers to adopt children, where and how does race enter the adoption process? How do agencies, parents, and the adopted children themselves deal with issues of difference in adoption? This volume engages writers from both sides of the Atlantic to take a close look at these issues.

The Ethics of Transracial Adoption

The Ethics of Transracial Adoption
Author: Hawley Fogg-Davis
Publisher: Cornell University Press
Total Pages: 168
Release: 2018-10-18
Genre: Family & Relationships
ISBN: 1501724118

Transracial adoption is one of the most contentious issues in adoption politics and in the politics of race more generally. Some who support transracial adoption use a theory of colorblindness, while many who oppose it draw a causal connection between race and culture and argue that a black child's racial and cultural interests are best served by black adoptive parents. Hawley Fogg-Davis carves out a middle ground between these positions. She believes that race should not be a barrier to adoption, but neither should it be absent from the minds of prospective adopters and adoption practitioners. Fogg-Davis's argument in favor of transracial adoption is based on the moral and legal principle of nondiscrimination and a theory of race-consciousness she terms "racial navigation." Challenging the notion that children "get" their racial identity from their parents, she argues that children, through the process of racial navigation, should cultivate their self-identification in dialogue with others. The Ethics of Transracial Adoption explores new ground in the transracial adoption debate by examining the relationship between personal and public conceptions of race and racism before, during, and after adoption.

Belonging in an Adopted World

Belonging in an Adopted World
Author: Barbara Yngvesson
Publisher: University of Chicago Press
Total Pages: 261
Release: 2010-06-15
Genre: Social Science
ISBN: 0226964485

Since the early 1990s, transnational adoptions have increased at an astonishing rate, not only in the United States, but worldwide. In Belonging in an Adopted World, Barbara Yngvesson offers a penetrating exploration of the consequences and implications of this unprecedented movement of children, usually from poor nations to the affluent West. Yngvesson illuminates how the politics of adoption policy has profoundly affected the families, nations, and children involved in this new form of social and economic migration. Starting from the transformation of the abandoned child into an adoptable resource for nations that give and receive children in adoption, this volume examines the ramifications of such gifts, especially for families created through adoption and later, the adopted adults themselves. Bolstered by an account of the author’s own experience as an adoptive parent, and fully attuned to the contradictions of race that shape our complex forms of family, Belonging in an Adopted World explores the fictions that sustain adoptive kinship, ultimately exposing the vulnerability and contingency behind all human identity.

The Grammar of Untold Stories

The Grammar of Untold Stories
Author: Lois Ruskai Melina
Publisher: Shanti Arts Publishing
Total Pages:
Release: 2020-09-22
Genre: Literary Collections
ISBN: 1951651421

Sixteen essays ranging from lyric essays to narrative journalism address how we make sense of what we cannot know, how we make change in the world, how we heal, and how we know when we are home. Collectively, these essays convey the longing for agency and connection, particularly among women. They will resonate with readers of all ages, but perhaps especially with women in the second half of life, those dealing with aging parents, retirement, illness, and accompanying vulnerabilities. Here readers will find comfort within keen reflection upon life's ambiguities.

Inside Transracial Adoption

Inside Transracial Adoption
Author: Gail Steinberg
Publisher: Jessica Kingsley Publishers
Total Pages: 306
Release: 2013-05-28
Genre: Family & Relationships
ISBN: 0857006517

Is transracial adoption a positive choice for kids? How can children gain their new families without losing their birth heritage? How can parents best support their children after placement? Inside Transracial Adoption is an authoritative guide to navigating the challenges and issues that parents face in the USA when they adopt a child of a different race and/or from a different culture. Filled with real-life examples and strategies for success, this book explores in depth the realities of raising a child transracially, whether in a multicultural or a predominantly white community. Readers will learn how to help children adopted transracially or transnationally build a strong sense of identity, so that they will feel at home both in their new family and in their racial group or culture of origin. This second edition incorporates the latest research on positive racial identity and multicultural families, and reflects recent developments and trends in adoption. Drawing on research, decades of experience as adoption professionals, and their own personal experience of adopting transracially, Beth Hall and Gail Steinberg offer insights for all transracial adoptive parents - from prospective first-time adopters to experienced veterans - and those who support them.

What White Parents Should Know about Transracial Adoption

What White Parents Should Know about Transracial Adoption
Author: Melissa Guida-Richards
Publisher: North Atlantic Books
Total Pages: 257
Release: 2021-10-05
Genre: Family & Relationships
ISBN: 1623175836

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 differently What white privilege, white saviorism, and toxic positivity are...and how they show up, even when you don't mean it How your child might feel and experience the world differently than you All about microaggressions, labeling, and implicit bias How to help your child connect with their cultural heritage through language, food, music, and clothing The 5 stages of grief for adoptive parents How to start tough conversations, work with defensiveness, and process guilt

The Interracial Adoption Option

The Interracial Adoption Option
Author: Marlene Fine
Publisher: Jessica Kingsley Publishers
Total Pages: 170
Release: 2013-09-21
Genre: Family & Relationships
ISBN: 0857007173

The perfect starting point for parents of transracially adopted children and those who are considering adopting transracially. The Interracial Adoption Option is a personal guide to interracial adoption which draws on the lives and experiences of the authors, a white US couple, who adopt two African-American children. Starting from their decision to adopt their first child interracially, it describes the situations and decisions that followed as a result of their child's racial background. The authors' combine their personal experiences with practical advice. They address common issues like where to live, how to choose a doctor and how to take care of your child's hair and skin. They also tackle difficult questions such as, 'Does race matter?' 'Why is a healthy racial identity important?' and 'What do I do if I suspect my child is being treated unfairly because of his/her race?' An accessible introduction to the complex world of interracial adoption, this book is the first book you need to read if you are thinking of adopting transracially or have done so already.

Adoption, Race, and Identity

Adoption, Race, and Identity
Author:
Publisher: Transaction Publishers
Total Pages: 245
Release:
Genre: Social Science
ISBN: 1412816467

Adoption, Race, and Identity is a long-range study of the impact of interracial adoption on those adopted and their families. Initiated in 1972, it was continued in 1979, 1984, and 1991. Cumulatively, these four phases trace the subjects from early childhood into young adulthood. This is the only extended study of this controversial subject. Simon and Altstein provide a broad perspective of the impact of transracial adoption and include profiles of the families involved in the study. They explore and compare the experiences of both the parents and the children. They identify families whose adoption experiences were problematic and those whose experiences were positive. Finally, the study looks at the insights the experience of transracial adoption brought to the adoptive parents and what advice they would pass on to future parents adopting children from different racial backgrounds. They include the reflections of those adopted included in the 1972 first phase, who are now adults themselves. This second edition includes a new concluding chapter that updates the fourth and last phase of the study. The authors were able to locate 88 of the 96 families who participated in the 1984 study. Bringing together all four phases of this twenty-year study into one volume gives the reader a richer and deeper understanding of what the experience of transracial adoption has meant for the parents, the adoptees, and children born into the families studied. This landmark work, will be of compelling interest to social workers, policy makers, and professionals and families involved on all sides of interracial adoption. Rita J. Simon is university professor in the School of Public Affairs at the Washington College of Law at American University. She is editor of the journal Gender Issues and author of The American Jury, The Insanity Defense: A Critical Assessment of Law and Policy in the Post-Hinckley Era (with David Aaronson), In the Golden Land: A Century of Russian and Soviet Jewish Immigration, Social Science Data and Supreme Court Decisions (with Rosemary Erickson), and Abortion: Statutes, Policies, and Public Attitudes the World Over. Howard Altstein, a professor in the School of Social Work at the University of Maryland, is the co-author of Intercountry Adoption: A Multinational Perspective. He has also collaborated with Rita Simon on their twenty-year study of transracial adoption.

Adoption, Race, and Identity

Adoption, Race, and Identity
Author: William Laufer
Publisher: Routledge
Total Pages: 244
Release: 2017-09-04
Genre: Political Science
ISBN: 1351533835

Adoption, Race, and Identity is a long-range study of the impact of interracial adoption on those adopted and their families. Initiated in 1972, it was continued in 1979, 1984, and 1991. Cumulatively, these four phases trace the subjects from early childhood into young adulthood. This is the only extended study of this controversial subject.Simon and Altstein provide a broad perspective of the impact of transracial adoption and include profiles of the families involved in the study. They explore and compare the experiences of both the parents and the children. They identify families whose adoption experiences were problematic and those whose experiences were positive. Finally, the study looks at the insights the experience of transracial adoption brought to the adoptive parents and what advice they would pass on to future parents adopting children from different racial backgrounds. They include the reflections of those adopted included in the 1972 first phase, who are now adults themselves.This second edition includes a new concluding chapter that updates the fourth and last phase of the study. The authors were able to locate 88 of the 96 families who participated in the 1984 study. Bringing together all four phases of this twenty-year study into one volume gives the reader a richer and deeper understanding of what the experience of transracial adoption has meant for the parents, the adoptees, and children born into the families studied. This landmark work, will be of compelling interest to social workers, policy makers, and professionals and families involved on all sides of interracial adoption.