Welcome Home!

<p>Examine the pros and cons of nontraditional adoption! <br><br> Welcome Home! An International and Nontraditional Adoption Reader is an essential guide to the process, pros, and cons of adopting children from outside the United States, with special needs, and/or from a different racial/cultural background. The book documents every aspect of the adoption procedurefrom working with facilitators, adoption agencies, and attorneys to mixed reactions over a child’s possible loss of heritage as the result of a transracial or multicultural adoption. Parents and adoptees offer unique, firsthand perspectives on the cautions and benefits of nontraditional adoption. <br><br> Americans adopted more than 20,000 children from other countries in 2001, a number that reflects humanitarian motives, the desire to adopt a child from a specific country, and/or frustration with the domestic adoption system. Including a foreword by United States Representative Ted Strickland, Welcome Home! is a practical resource for anyone thinking of establishing a family or adding to their own. The book provides insight into the adoption process, open adoption, biracial adoption, adopting a special needs child, cultural attitudes, and how to handle an adopted child’s questions in later years. It also addresses specific adoption issues, including: how to verify an agency’s credentials; how an agency negotiates with the birth mother; state and country laws and practices; tax benefits; and expenses, including legal and medical costs; and includes research findings on the Northeast-Northwest Collaborative Adoption Projects (N2CAP) <br><br> Welcome Home! tells the stories of:</p><ul> <li> Naomi and Fred, an intermarried couple (she’s Jewish, he’s not) who adopted a Greek baby in 1962 </li> <li> Tina and Lee, a lesbian couple, who adopted a baby from China </li> <li> Marianne, a professor of child and adolescent psychiatry at the University of Lund in Sweden, who adopted babies from Iran and Thailandseveral years after her divorce </li> <li> Pamela, a divorced mother of four biological children who has adopted babies from Viet Nam and China </li> <li> All of her biological children </li> <li> MildredPamela’s mother and the children’s grandmother </li> <li> Karen, adoptive mother and national chairperson for Families for Russian and Ukrainian adoption (FRUA) </li> <li> William, adoptive father of miracle sisters from Romania </li> <li> and many more! </li> </ul><p>Welcome Home! is an invaluable source of unusual insight for psychologists, psychiatrists, marriage and family therapists, adoption agencies, counselors, social workers, attorneys, physicians, academics, and, of course, anyone considering adoption.</p> <ul> <li> About the Editors </li> <li> Contributors </li> <li> Foreword </li> <li> Chapter 1. Opening the Door </li> <li> Why Adopt? </li> <li> Where Do We Begin? </li> <li> What Are Our Options? </li> <li> Other Considerations in Creating a Family </li> <li> Introducing Personal Stories </li> <li> Chapter 2. Welcome Home: From the Perspective of Research on International Adoption </li> <li> The Northeast-Northwest Collaborative Adoption Projects (N2CAP) </li> <li> The Questions: The Family Questionnaire </li> <li> Survey Findings </li> <li> Summary and Concluding Remarks </li> <li> Chapter 3. From Couple to Family </li> <li> How We Got to be a Family of Seventeen </li> <li> And We Wait and Wait and Wait . . . </li> <li> The Transatlantic Phone Call </li> <li> We Get to Go Home </li> <li> We Very Quickly Become a Family of Five </li> <li> Addendum by Deborah Johnson </li> <li> Chapter 4. Coming Home from China </li> <li> The Potential Parents </li> <li> Our Experiences en Route to the Adoption </li> <li> Becoming Gianna </li> <li> Beginning Life with Gia </li> <li> Keeping in Touch with the Chinese Culture </li> <li> Gia’s Adoption Story </li> <li> Chapter 5. The Family I Wanted </li> <li> Getting Started </li> <li> At Long LastA Daughter </li> <li> Our Family Expands </li> <li> Taking the Plunge Once Again </li> <li> And Then There Were Four </li> <li> Suggestions for Those Contemplating a Larger Family </li> <li> Chapter 6. Our Daughters from China Have Two Mommies </li> <li> Making The Decision to Adopt </li> <li> The Adoption Process: A Circuitous Paper Chase </li> <li> Lia: Our First Daughter </li> <li> The Decision to Adopt Again: Getting Amy </li> <li> Adoptions from China Today </li> <li> Chapter 7. From One Wondrous Second to Countless Memorable Moments: Adventures In Adoption </li> <li> Adoption Wonderings </li> <li> Adoption Disappointments </li> <li> The Arrival of Zoë </li> <li> The Arrival of Zachary </li> <li> Zoë and Zachary Then and Today </li> <li> My Adoption Insights </li> <li> Reflections Today </li> <li> Addendum by Karina Barragar </li> <li> Addendum by Reese Barragar </li> <li> Addendum by Samantha Erin Barragar </li> <li> Addendum by Krista Barragar </li> <li> Addendum by Mildred Peterson </li> <li> Chapter 8. Welcome HomeLiv, Kim, and Love </li> <li> Swedish Adoption </li> <li> Why Did I Adopt a Child? </li> <li> Experiences en Route to the Adoption </li> <li> Costs of International Adoption </li> <li> My DaughterDelivered at Stockholm Airport </li> <li> My Older SonA Happy Encounter in The Land of Smiles </li> <li> My Youngest SonA Less Dramatic Start </li> <li> Who Am I? </li> <li> Going Back: Searching for Roots </li> <li> Reflections </li> <li> Chapter 9. A Perfect Lottery </li> <li> Preadoption Considerations </li> <li> The Adoption of Carolina Martha Linnea Kaufman </li> <li> Jonathan Edgar Erik Joins the Family </li> <li> Our Three Children </li> <li> Telling Children About Their Background </li> <li> The Present </li> <li> The Adoption Process </li> <li> Chapter 10. Adopting from Eastern Europe 101 </li> <li> Deciding to Adopt </li> <li> Finding a Child </li> <li> Adoption and Heritage </li> <li> Zoë Today </li> <li> Chapter 11. Miracle Sisters from Romania </li> <li> Our Decision to Adopt </li> <li> Joanna’s Half Sister Arrives </li> <li> Chapter 12. Adventures in Adoption: From Russia to America </li> <li> The Preadoption Phase </li> <li> The Adoption Is Finalized </li> <li> Peter Enters Our Hearts and Our Family </li> <li> Reflections </li> <li> Chapter 13. Four Roads Less Traveled but They All Lead Home </li> <li> Factors Leading to My Adoptions </li> <li> A Full Circle </li> <li> The Miracle Baby </li> <li> Jo Arrives on the Scene </li> <li> CharlesA Fight That Had to Be Won </li> <li> BriannaA Very Different Story </li> <li> A Retrospective Glance </li> <li> Chapter 14. Problems, Perils, and Pleasures of Multicultural and Biracial Adoption </li> <li> Reasons for Seeking to Adopt Abroad </li> <li> Multicultural Issues </li> <li> Coping with Uncertainties and New Realities </li> <li> Reflections </li> <li> Legal Concerns </li> <li> Postscript </li> <li> Appendix. Adoption Resources </li> <li> In the United States </li> <li> Outside the United States </li> <li> Bibliography </li> <li> Index </li> </ul>