Adoption Development

Healing isn't possible, though, without first uncovering the hurts—starting with adoption's central players: adoptees, who are so often in pain, suffering from what the latest brain science validates as the long-term emotional effects of separation trauma. By encouraging others to vulnerably share their stories, the authors discover that adoptees aren't the only ones in the adoption constellation who are hurting. Birth parents regularly shut down after being shut out by adoptive parents.

Do you want to take a step towards confidence, acceptance, and well-being? This audiobook is my inward look at adoption trauma with some helpful tips that I have used over the past six years to help me overcome the feelings of unworthiness, anger, fear, and rejection that plagued me for 50 years.

Dani and her husband Tate’s life together is almost perfect. But Dani is haunted by guilt for causing a terrible car accident that left her unable to have children. She can’t remember why she was driving so fast that day or where she was going. Her therapist says she should try to move on.

In this unique book, the reader is provided with a description of the unfolding of the adoptee's personality from birth, detailing each developmental milestone along the way, followed by different methods of healing the adoptee's wounds, including inner child work, visualizations, healing affirmations, and anger management. Every chapter includes a Myths and Realities of adoption section, a summary of the chapter and exercises to do one's own.

If you are considering adoption or foster care or are already somewhere in this difficult and complicated process, you need trusted information from people who have been where you are. Mike and Kristin Berry have adopted eight children and cared for another 23 kids in their nine-year stint as foster parents. They aren't just experts. They have experienced every emotional high and low and encountered virtually every situation imaginable as parents. Now, they want to share what they've learned with you.

Can writing your story save your life? I should have come with a manual. My parents thought they were getting one thing when they adopted me - a baby of their own - when what they got was a human being with a story of her own. As a child, I traded safety for silence. As an adult, I had no idea who I was, why I quit nearly everything I started, why I struggled with things that came more easily to my friends (jobs, relationships, finances, self-esteem), why I seemed hell-bent on throwing myself away.

This book is a conversation starter. It shines a light on what adoption really looks like today: complex, layered, and deeply human. Whether you’re an adoptee, adoptive parent, birth parent, kinship caregiver, teacher, employer, spiritual leader, policymaker, or simply someone who wants to be an ally or advocate, this book offers the language, insight, and practical steps to make adoption a visible and respected part of how we live and relate to one another.

In this practical guide, adoptive parent Helen Oakwater helps you to understand the ins and outs of adoption. Using Helen’s insights and tips, you will become better at understanding what makes you tick, and learn how to become calmer, kinder to yourself, and identify what helps or hinders. Only when you have learned how to look after yourself can you nurture a hurt child.

Adopting or fostering a child brings its own unique set of challenges only another parent facing the same uphill climb could possibly understand. From parenting children with traumatic pasts, to dealing with attachment issues, to raising a children with special needs, it can sometimes be a struggle just getting through the day. Mike Berry knows the loneliness and isolation you can easily feel in your particular parenting role - because he's been there.

Adoption is often framed by happy narratives, but the reality is that many adoptees struggle with unaddressed trauma and issues of identity and belonging. Adoptees often spend the majority of their youth without the language to explore the grief related to adoption or the permission to legitimize their conflicting emotions. Adoptee and counselor Cameron Lee Small names the realities of the adoptee's journey, narrating his own and other adoptees' stories in all their complexity.

The Twenty Things Adoptive Kids Wish devotional gives adoptive families encouragement as they seek God to work through the emotions unique to their family. Powerful prayer prompts help you navigate through difficult topics such as rejection, the missing faces in their lives, and much more. As you pray together through these tough topics, you will become the greatest prayer warrior for your adopted child and God will knit your hearts together in his love.

Open adoption isn't just something parents do when they exchange photos, send emails, share a visit. It's a lifestyle that may feel intrusive at times, be difficult or inconvenient at other times. Tensions can arise even in the best of circumstances. But knowing how to handle these situations and how to continue to make arrangements work for the child involved is paramount. This book offers listeners the tools and the insight to do just that.

Das Buch ist ein Wegweiser und gleichzeitig ein Mutmacher für Frauen mit unerfülltem Kinderwunsch, die neue Strategien, Perspektiven und Sichtweisen gewinnen möchten, nach anderen Wegen und Möglichkeiten suchen oder sich eventuell im Leben neu orientieren möchten. Das Buch beinhaltet nicht nur die persönlichen Erfahrungen der Autorin, sondern auch viele Erkenntnisse aus ihrem Wirken als Kinderwunschberaterin und Paartherapeutin.

Belonging Matters is meant to support the adoption community, while creating a conversation with those not directly touched by adoption.

Adoption is often painted as a happy, inspirational act—a baby finds a family and lives happily ever after. But the truth is that adopted children experience displacement and rupture from their mother and that trauma can impact an individual for a lifetime. Adoption can lead to feelings of loss and grief not just for the adoptee, but for the biological and adoptive parents as well. This startling fact comes vividly to life in Janet Sherlund’s heartbreaking memoir, Abandoned at Birth.

Everybody knows what adoption is, but adoption has changed dramatically over recent decades. Open adoptions create an opportunity for biological parents to remain connected with the child even after the adoption takes place. Emotionally, this is still largely uncharted territory for everybody involved and relationships can be difficult to navigate. Told from the point of view of an adoptive father, the journey the Elkins took is such a roller coaster ride you would think this true story was fiction.

This addition to the Adoption Healing series contains information that was not included in the two originals. As in the originals, the listener is provided with a description of the aftermath of the separation of mother and child to adoption and the profound effects on their lives. This is followed by additional methods of healing the subsequent wounds, including more inner child work, new visualizations, healing affirmations, anger management and other thoughts and suggestions for healing. Every chapter includes a summary and exercises to do on one’s own.

Everybody knows what adoption is, but adoption has changed dramatically over recent decades. Open adoptions create an opportunity for biological parents to remain connected with the child even after the adoption takes place. Emotionally, this is still largely uncharted territory for everybody involved and relationships can be difficult to navigate. Told from the point of view of an adoptive father, the journey the Elkins took is such a roller coaster ride you would think this true story was fiction.

This book is a wake-up call to those impacted by adoption and to those who interact with them. Adoption and Suicidality will speak to anyone with direct experience of adoption and suicide or suicidal ideation, plus anyone who wants to know how to better help adopted people (and others in the adoption constellation) who are struggling.

In CCEF's Helping Your Adopted Child: Understanding Your Child's Unique Identity you'll learn from counselor and adoptive father Paul David Tripp how to help adopted children understand their identity and place in God's world.