Our Own: Adopting and Parenting the Older Child

Front Cover
Snowcap Press, 1999 - Family & Relationships - 283 pages
Children adopted when they are older come with histories, fully formed personalities, and intense anger over what they have lost. Drawing on stories of families who have adopted older children, as well as research, interviews with professionals, and opinions of adults who were adopted as children, this book explores the joys and challenges of adopting an older child. It covers both domestic and international adoption, and adopting of children from preschool age through puberty. Topics covered include the following: (1) what parents wish their adoption agencies had told them; (2) what social workers wish adoptive parents would do; (3) adoptees' advice to adoptive parents; (4) building attachment; (4) preparing siblings for the new arrival; (5) dealing with school officials; (6) handling behavior such as tantrums and lying; (7) helping kids learn a new language; (8) recognizing grief in children; (9) birth families and cultural ties; (10) identity, control, and other lifelong issues of adoption; (11) symptoms of attention deficit disorder, posttraumatic stress, sensory integration dysfunction, and fetal alcohol syndrome; and (12) medical conditions such as hepatitis and parasites. A list of organizational print and online resources concludes the book. (Contains 78 references.) (HTH)

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Contents

The Decision to Adopt
15
Want to Adopt Across Racial or Ethnic Lines?
38
Finding Your Child in the United States
46
Copyright

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