Table of Contents: Winter 2016

 

Features

Everything You Ever Wanted

In this excerpt from her candid, hilarious, inspiring adoption memoir, Jillian Lauren explains how she and her husband addressed their son’s trauma and special needs and turned things around for him at home and at school. PLUS: A Q&A with the author.

Adoptees on Open Adoption: “I Have All My Pieces”

Teen and young adult adoptees who grew up in fully open adoptions discuss their relationships with their adoptive and birth families and the many benefits openness has brought them.

Going “Home” to China, Again

After a birth country visit that was too much, too soon for my seven-year-old daughter, she and a friend returned to China on their own terms as teens. The trip helped the two Chinese adoptees imagine what their lives might have been and explore their identities.


Personal Essays

“To the White Parents of My Black Son’s Friends”

If you tell your kids racism happened a long time ago but now it’s over and use my family as an example of how we can all get along, you are not doing me any favors.

“Bringing Him Home”

Adoption is opening your heart to a baby, then waiting six months to meet him. Adoption is worrying who rocks him at night, then just hoping someone comes when he cries.

“Here’s How You Can Support Us”

Friends and family who don’t know much about adoption may welcome education about sensitive language, understanding attachment, and helping a child adjust. In hindsight, here’s what I wish I’d said.

“An Open Letter to Gramma B.”

After cautiously opening our hearts to a relationship and learning as we went, we’ve come to realize how much we need our child’s birth grandmother in our lives—we hope, not too late.


News

Expert Recommends Screening Adoptive Parents for Depression

State Adoption Law Updates

Intercountry Adoption Updates

Surrogate Sues to Keep Genetically Unrelated Baby


The Experts

Raising a Sound Sleeper

Dreaming of a good night’s rest? An adoption medicine expert shares sleep strategies for parents who have adopted a newborn or an older child.


Departments

ASK AF

PARENT-TO-PARENT: “The Hardest or Most Unexpected Part of the Adoption Process”

Readers Share: “My Child’s Funniest Comments About Adoption”

AF PICKS: Noteworthy New Reads

Holiday Photo Contest Winners


Thank You to This Issue’s Sponsors:

Adoption by Shepherd Care
Bethany Adoption
National Background Check, Incorporated
The Year the Trees Didn’t Die
World Links

Adoptions from the Heart
Cleveland Clinic Children’s
Cono Christian School
Texas Children’s Health Center for International Adoptions

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