Showing titles in Adoption & Fostering

A raw, often wry, memoir of mothers, mysteries, and miracles. Surrendered at birth in a closed adoption, Candi Byrne’s biology and ethnicity is a secret. The impending arrival of her first grandchild ignites an urgency to identify potential genetic time bombs and confirm her ancestry. Due to arcane privacy laws, Candi is repeatedly denied access to the one person who could provide that information—her biological mother.

Life for Ariana is not a ribbon floating through time collecting happy memories; it is a rope she clings to that transforms into a noose when she becomes a foster child. Not every child born is given a stable home. Some face tragedy and are often severed from family ties.

If you need hope, you need to listen to this audiobook. You Are Me is a fascinating, heartening true story of one person's journey from becoming crippled with amnesia by a car accident to recovering and becoming a parent to children who each needed a second chance at life. Miracles happen when you least expect them. After seven years of trying, failing, giving up, and trying again, our protagonist eventually recovered much of what the car accident took away.

Hieu escaped from Vietnam to the United States at age thirteen and alone. This experience, as well as his experience adapting to an entirely new culture and language, taught him about the strength in each person and about the power of the mind. One of his goals in life is to motivate people, young and old, to live up to their full potential.

In a family memoir that reads like a detective novel, Rhonda Noonan recounts her 30-year quest to find the truth of her own background - and what she uncovered will surprise listeners as much as it did her. Rhonda was born and adopted in Oklahoma, a state with closed adoption records. And, although she was cherished by her adoptive family, she - like so many adoptees - felt a burning desire to find and make contact with her birth parents.

Looking for an inspiring story? As you listen to this story, I hope it will encourage you. In this true story, you will cry and laugh. This story is about a little girl that grew into a woman at the age of six. Writing this book has been a challenge for my family and me. Writing my story has brought healing to my family and me.

Baby Rosemary - born to an Italian teen and a married black man in Detroit in 1946 - is adopted from an agency by a black couple in Saginaw, Michigan. The adoptive mother's abuse instills in the girl, whom they name Marylin Elnora, ambition to achieve great things on her own. At age 19, Marylin sparks a racial and religious scandal by marrying former Roman Catholic priest Thomas Lee Atkins, who is white and 25 years older.

Lorilyn Roberts' hopes of motherhood came to a devastating end when her husband left her for his pregnant girlfriend. Eight years later, Children of Dreams reveals God's restoration of her dreams through the international adoption of her two daughters. Written as creative nonfiction, an analogy is drawn between the physical adoption of children and God's spiritual adoption as recounted in the Bible.

In this memoir by Flannery O’Connor Award winner Debra Monroe, the soon-to-be divorced Debra buys a dilapidated Texas cabin miles from her teaching job. While waiting to adopt a child, she refurbishes and expands the rude dwelling. She soon finds herself in the strange new world of single motherhood, complicated by her being white and her adopted daughter being black.

When Lisa Faulkner learned that she wouldn’t have biological children, her plans and expectations for her life were derailed. But, in the months and years that followed, she discovered that there was more than one way to build a family - and that there is a lot of joy to be found in life’s unexpected detours. In a raw and inspiring story of one woman’s journey through motherhood, family life and self-discovery, Lisa explores the many forms that family can take and discovers the power of embracing your plan B.

When struggling photojournalist Harper tries to return a dress she bought that morning for a job that's fallen through something catches her eye: the same little girl who was waiting there that morning is still there. The sales assistant doesn't know whose she is. The security guard at the mall hasn't had anyone come looking for her. Same goes for the local police, and the media. In fact, no one seems to be looking for little May at all....

When their adoption attorney told Denise and her husband that they would be responsible for finding a woman willing to give them her baby, Denise was horrified. But horrified quickly turned into obsessed. She advertised across the country, fielding and vetting potential birth moms by phone. The first to contact Denise had been raped, twice. Ashamed and depressed, she spent her pregnancy doing coke and drinking vodka to knock herself out. "Do you want to adopt my baby?" she asked.

Two years before adopting seven-year-old Keydell from a group home for young boys, Kim made a vow before the Dalai Lama to become a bodhisattva: one who cultivates an enlightened mind, is free from delusion, and practices kindness and compassion above all else. However, she struggles with this practice as her new son's challenged mind sends him into fits of rage and violence, while seemingly allowing him to feel no remorse for his actions. His behaviors go against everything Kim believes in, but she is determined to keep her chocolate-eyed boy safely in the home she has created with her ...

Foster families are unsung heroes, willing to stand on the front lines for children who can’t stand up for themselves. But fostering can also be a lonely journey as friends and family members pull away from the fear of the unknown. We all have a job to do, and it starts by stepping forward and wrapping around those who are sacrificing so much.

When life doesn't work out as planned, Katherine faces one decision after the next - all leading up to the most painful decision of her life. Will she keep her baby? River Children is the story of a birth mother's journey through the heartbreaking choices of her life to the place of redemption and healing. Follow Katherine as she encounters the twists and turns of life, the breakup of relationships, and the brokenness that results.

This is the third book in a series about adoptees finding themselves in a world full of misdirection and intentional obfuscation. But, more than that, a saga of love and life as it grows before you—the listener. With a backdrop of motorhome adventures, accompany reunited adoptees as they explore the universe, the visible and invisible world before us all.

In Lost and Found, I use my expertise to provide a behind-the-scenes experience and a firsthand account of the vulnerabilities presented for caregivers raising an intellectually disabled child when information is not readily accessible. In this book you will learn how to determine the level of intellectual disability for your child and understand what this may mean for your family.

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.

Two women. One secret. Will they be able to keep it under wraps? It was a stormy evening in 1920s London. When newly qualified almoner, Alice, stepped into the home of Charlotte, a terrified teenager who had just given birth out of wedlock, she did not expect to make a pact that would change her...

Caught in a paranoid delusion that she's a bionic spy responsible for 9/11, adoptee Laura Dennis must fight her perfectionist, self-destructive tendencies to regain her sanity. Adopted Reality is a September 11 memoir unlike any you've read. This thrilling psychological adventure follows the ups and downs of bipolar, and examines relationships biological and circumstantial. Laura had always been Miss Perfect - making excellent grades, showing promising dance ability, trying her best to be there for her friends and family.