The Whole Life Adoption Book: Realistic Advice for Building a Healthy Adoptive Family
May 4, 2010 by Adoption Information and Laws
Filed under Adoption Products & Books
- ISBN13: 9781600061653
- Condition: NEW
- Notes: Brand New from Publisher. No Remainder Mark.
Product Description
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 ah… More >>
The Whole Life Adoption Book: Realistic Advice for Building a Healthy Adoptive Family
If you are considering older child adoption – from U.S. foster care, an international orphanage, or even your own family, please read this book. It gives a great outline of what to think about before choosing adoption- what kind of adoption, what kind of child, and what kind of agency – is a good fit for your family. Also positive suggestions on how to explain adoption to your family before adopting and to your community after adopting and to your children throughout the entire process.
This book seemed very “overview”; while there were good suggestions, I’d like to read more detailed information about many of the topics.
The book seemed to focus on adoption of older children, which might seem more unusual to your family or community. There was also a lot of talk about adopting a child after already having biological or adopted children in your home.
While the book is published by a Christian company, and does reference some Christian ideas (explaining adoption to your child’s sunday school teacher, explaining to your child that we are all children of God) it’s not a religiously focused book. Any adoptive family can learn from it.
Rating: 4 / 5
Adoption can be a happy and natural process, or it can lead to untold crisis for both parent and adopted child. Now in a newly revised and thoroughly updated edition, “The Whole Life Adoption Book: Realistic Advice for Building a Healthy Adoptive Family” is a guide for parents on for what to do before, during, and after the long process of adoption. Building a healthy relationship and making that child feel like your own is the goal of adoption, and many tips are presented from everything from special needs children to dealing with a child who wants to find their birth parents. “The Whole Life Adoption Book” is a strong consideration for any adoptive family.
Rating: 5 / 5
This book gives real life practical suggestions. It is well written, easy to read, and comprehensive. Anyone who wants to learn more about adoption should definitely pick this up.
Rating: 5 / 5
Adoption can be a wonderful and rewarding way to grow a family. But, like anything that is life changing, it is often a good idea to go into it with as much information as possible. Or, following an adoption, parents may still have questions that need answers. Enter The Whole Life Adoption Book.
In this revised and updated book (original was published in 1993), people exploring or living life as an adoptive family can find many answers they seek. Topics range greatly and cover most, if not all, aspects of adoption. A few are: what to consider before you adopt, adopting and parenting a child with special needs, understanding attachment and the impact of trauma, how to communicate about adoption from infancy through adolescence, and searching for birthparents.
They discuss positive word choices and negative family responses. And this revised version explores more thoroughly the aspects of international adoption and transcultural adoption in response to the adoption boom in those areas.
I found this book to be highly informative if not a little dry. It is fact filled, and when discussing so many different aspects of the adoption process, there probably wasn’t much room for feel-good fluff-though it did seem to focus on the problems one encounters when adopting. Again, good information to have, but it occasionally left me panicky. It might very well scare off people just beginning to explore the idea of adopting.
I suppose what I’m trying to say is that though this book is all encompassing, it is by no means a one stop adoption resource. Those looking into domestic infant adoption or foster adoption or international adoption will want to also look for resources that cover those specific aspects more in depth. Why? Because sometimes we adoptive parents also want the beautiful warm fuzzies.
Armchair Interviews says: Excellent resource, but be aware, it is mostly about the possible problems, none of the joys and successes of adoption.
Rating: 4 / 5
Jayne Schooler’s book is well written and easy to read. She offers many suggestions the adoptive family needs as they grow together as a family. Our family recommends this book to all parents beginning the adoption process.
Rating: 5 / 5