Over 150,000 people adopt children each year, and more than 2 million parents are now raising adopted children and grandchildren. While the path to parenting through adoption is rich with rewards and fulfillment, it's not without its bumps. This compassionate, illuminating, and ultimately uplifting book is the first to openly recognize the very normal feelings of stress that adoptive families encounter as they cope with the challenges and expectations of their new families. Where do parents turn when the waited-for bonding with their adopted child is slow to form? When they find themselves grieving over the birth child they couldn't have? When the child they so eagerly welcomed into their home arrives with major, unexpected needs? Until now, adoptive parents have had to struggle silently with their feelings, which can range from flutters of anxiety to unbearable sadness. At last, Karen J. Foli, a registered nurse, and her husband, John R. Thompson, a psychiatrist, lift the curtain of secrecy from "Post Adoption Depression Syndrome" (PADS). Drawing on their own experience as adoptive parents as well as interviews with dozens of adoptive families and experts in the field, the couple offers parents the understanding, support, and concrete solutions they need to overcome post-adoption blues-and open their hearts to the joy adoption can bring.

2019 High Plains Book Award (Creative Nonfiction and Indigenous Writer categories) 2021 Barbara Sudler Award from History Colorado In Bitterroot Susan Devan Harness traces her journey to understand the complexities and struggles of being an American Indian child adopted by a white couple and living in the rural American West. When Harness was fifteen years old, she questioned her adoptive father about her “real” parents. He replied that they had died in a car accident not long after she was born—except they hadn’t, as Harness would learn in a conversation with a social worker a few years later. Harness’s search for answers revolved around her need to ascertain why she was the target of racist remarks and why she seemed always to be on the outside looking in. New questions followed her through college and into her twenties when she started her own family. Meeting her biological family in her early thirties generated even more questions. In her forties Harness decided to get serious about finding answers when, conducting oral histories, she talked with other transracial adoptees. In her fifties she realized that the concept of “home” she had attributed to the reservation existed only in her imagination. Making sense of her family, the American Indian history of assimilation, and the very real—but culturally constructed—concept of race helped Harness answer the often puzzling questions of stereotypes, a sense of nonbelonging, the meaning of family, and the importance of forgiveness and self-acceptance. In the process Bitterroot also provides a deep and rich context in which to experience life.

A heartwarming story about the growing bond between a child and a new pet—inspired by the author’s experience with a rescue dog of the same name. When a young boy and his father move from one house to another, they decide to adopt a dog from the local rescue shelter. But their chosen dog, Toby, is having a tough time adjusting to his new life outside the shelter—howling all night, hiding fearfully from his new humans, forgetting where to go to the bathroom, and chasing a ball through the flower bed. The boy has promised to train his new companion, and he’s trying his best, but Dad is starting to get exasperated. Will Toby ever feel comfortable with his new family and settle into his forever home, or will Dad decide he’s not the right dog for them after all?

After perinatal or postpartum depression, the decision to have another baby can be fraught with emotion. Rebecca Fox Starr movingly shares her story and those of others who have decided to carry, adopt, or not have another child and helps readers explore their own feelings about their own baby ever after. In her last book Beyond the Baby Blues: Anxiety and Depression During and After Pregnancy Rebecca Fox Starr gave a candid account of her battle with prenatal and postpartum anxiety and depression. Rebecca’s story has touched readers deeply and, as her own journey has continued, so has her story, having veered in an unexpected direction: the decision about a future baby. What many people do not realize is that the idea of another pregnancy post-postpartum can be cripplingly frightening to a woman and her loved ones. Rebecca addresses this woefully in her first book, opening up about her sadness that her “shop is closed.” Having a baby was an option taken off the table, for a reason completely out of her control. Until it wasn’t. In 2017 Rebecca and her husband began exploring the idea of expanding their family, and, therefore consulted experts in the fields of obstetrics and gynecology, psychiatry, perinatal mental health, fertility, adoption, surrogacy, and grief (in coping with the idea that, despite all of the options, the most sound of all could be to not have another child). Books on the topic of pregnancy after postpartum depression are scarce, making it difficult to find support or advice. This book, anchored in Rebecca’s story, offers an informative guide to the expert advice and insight, alongside current research, for women who want to explore pregnancy and other family expansion options after postpartum depression. With heartfelt stories, clinical data, and a consideration of the range of options and the emotions that along with them, Rebecca’s book fills a gaping hole in an area that leaves too many women feeling abjectly alone.

One adoption social worker called In On It "the adoption book for everyone else": the grandparents and friends, neighbors and colleagues, aunts and uncles, teachers and caregivers of adoptive families. In On It contains helpful advice and instructive anecdotes from adoptive parents, adult adoptees, adoption professionals, and the friends and relatives of already established adoptive families. The author, an adoptive parent herself, has written an informative, friendly and very useful adoption guide that informs and enlightens readers even as it offers them a warm welcome into adoption.

Authors Jayne E. Schooler and Thomas C. Atwood share insights into every aspect of adoption. This powerful resource addresses the needs and concerns facing adoptive parents, while offering encouragement for the journey ahead.

This comprehensive, accessible guide leads you with confidence through every decision you'll have to make during the adoption process -- including the ones that you'd never know to expect. So you've made the decision to adopt. What's next? For starters, how do you know whether domestic or international adoption is right for you? (And what are the real differences between the two?) Adoption insider Elizabeth Swire Falker answers these questions and many more. As an attorney who practices in the area of adoption and has worked with hundreds of families, and as an adoptive parent herself, she offers expert advice on each stage of the process. Complete with checklists, tips, sidebars, and plenty of advice, it shows you how to: Identify which adoption experts you do and don't need Find the right birth mother or choose the right country for your family-and how to spot red flags in potential situations Select an attorney or agency and prepare for your home visit Finance an adoption on a budget, manage the red tape, and get around the roadblocks Navigate all of the complex emotions that surface along the way With Elizabeth Swire Falker's warm yet been-there-done-that voice, The Insider's Guide to Adoption is sure to become a tried-and-true resource for adoptive parents everywhere.

'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.

Art therapy with infants, toddlers and their families is an exciting and developing area of practice. With contributions from Australia, the United Kingdom and Spain, Art Therapy in the Early Years has an international flavour. The authors describe clinical art psychotherapy practice with children under five and their families in settings that include children in care, mental health clinics, paediatric wards, pre-schools, and early intervention programs. Divided into three sections, Art Therapy in the Early Years presents different clinical environments in which art psychotherapy with this client group is found: • individual art therapy; • group art therapy; • parent-child dyad and family art therapy. The book proposes that within these different contexts, the adaptive possibilities inherent in art psychotherapy provide opportunities for therapeutic growth for young children and their families. Art Therapy in the Early Years will be of interest to art therapists working with children; students and practitioners from creative arts therapies; psychologists and psychotherapists; social workers; pre-school teachers; child psychiatrists, clinical supervisors, and other professionals working in the early years settings.

"This is a landmark book that should be read around the world. For far too long adoption and kinship families have not received the attention that they so sorely need...The material in this book is well researched, sensitively delivered, and essential for any clinician for adoption and kinship families."—Cheryl Tatano Beck, DNSc, CNM, FAAN,Professor, School of Nursing, University of Connecticut–Storrs, From the Foreword Provides foundational knowledge on how to provide current, evidence-based, clinical best practices for the specific needs of adoption and kinship families. To be a family, and what that means in society, is undergoing dramatic changes that reflect fluidity in the definition of spouse, children, and kin. Pediatric, family, adult-gerontology, psychiatric-mental health, and other advance practice nurses increasingly serve as frontline primary care providers for the growing number of adoption and kinship families. The creation and preservation of these nontraditional families are often replete with social, cultural, and legal issues that the advanced practice nurse must recognize to provide optimal care. This groundbreaking clinical guide breaks down the adoption and kinship triads into their distinct parts—the birth parents, adoptive or kinship parents, and the child—and analyzes the relationships among them and how the nurse can assist their development. Beginning with an overview of adoption and kinship parenting, this book also discusses the specific psychosocial and health care–related needs of adoption and kinship families using detailed case studies to illustrate a variety of conditions and circumstances, along with guidance on how nurses should intervene. A clinically focused section within the case study chapters covers assessment, interventions, referrals, and follow-up considerations. Learning objectives at the beginning of each chapter relay major discussion points and sidebars embedded in each chapter provide related resources for additional information on the health care considerations of adoption and kinship families. Key Features: Addresses nursing’s specific role in the holistic assessment and care of the different members of adoption and kinship families Authored by a renowned nurse leader in adoption and kinship care Provides chapter objectives, highlights, and questions for reflection Promotes current, evidence-based best practices Includes a glossary of adoption-friendly language Discusses nursing practice within the context of a larger health care team