1st Edition
Welcome Home! An International and Nontraditional Adoption Reader
Examine the pros and cons of nontraditional adoption!
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 procedure—from 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.
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)
Welcome Home! tells the stories of:
- Naomi and Fred, an intermarried couple (she’s Jewish, he’s not) who adopted a Greek baby in 1962
- “Tina” and “Lee,” a lesbian couple, who adopted a baby from China
- Marianne, a professor of child and adolescent psychiatry at the University of Lund in Sweden, who adopted babies from Iran and Thailand—several years after her divorce
- Pamela, a divorced mother of four biological children who has adopted babies from Viet Nam and China
- All of her biological children
- Mildred—Pamela’s mother and the children’s grandmother
- Karen, adoptive mother and national chairperson for Families for Russian and Ukrainian adoption (FRUA)
- William, adoptive father of miracle sisters from Romania
- and many more!
- About the Editors
- Contributors
- Foreword
- Chapter 1. Opening the Door
- Why Adopt?
- Where Do We Begin?
- What Are Our Options?
- Other Considerations in Creating a Family
- Introducing Personal Stories
- Chapter 2. Welcome Home: From the Perspective of Research on International Adoption
- The Northeast-Northwest Collaborative Adoption Projects (N2CAP)
- The Questions: The Family Questionnaire
- Survey Findings
- Summary and Concluding Remarks
- Chapter 3. From Couple to Family
- How We Got to be a Family of Seventeen
- And We Wait and Wait and Wait . . .
- The Transatlantic Phone Call
- We Get to Go Home
- We Very Quickly Become a Family of Five
- Addendum by Deborah Johnson
- Chapter 4. Coming Home from China
- The Potential Parents
- Our Experiences en Route to the Adoption
- Becoming Gianna
- Beginning Life with Gia
- Keeping in Touch with the Chinese Culture
- Gia’s Adoption Story
- Chapter 5. The Family I Wanted
- Getting Started
- At Long Last—A Daughter
- Our Family Expands
- Taking the Plunge Once Again
- And Then There Were Four
- Suggestions for Those Contemplating a Larger Family
- Chapter 6. Our Daughters from China Have Two Mommies
- Making The Decision to Adopt
- The Adoption Process: A Circuitous Paper Chase
- Lia: Our First Daughter
- The Decision to Adopt Again: Getting Amy
- Adoptions from China Today
- Chapter 7. From One Wondrous Second to Countless Memorable Moments: Adventures In Adoption
- Adoption Wonderings
- Adoption Disappointments
- The Arrival of Zoë
- The Arrival of Zachary
- Zoë and Zachary Then and Today
- My Adoption Insights
- Reflections Today
- Addendum by Karina Barragar
- Addendum by Reese Barragar
- Addendum by Samantha Erin Barragar
- Addendum by Krista Barragar
- Addendum by Mildred Peterson
- Chapter 8. Welcome Home—Liv, Kim, and Love
- Swedish Adoption
- Why Did I Adopt a Child?
- Experiences en Route to the Adoption
- Costs of International Adoption
- My Daughter—Delivered at Stockholm Airport
- My Older Son—A Happy Encounter in “The Land of Smiles”
- My Youngest Son—A Less Dramatic Start
- Who Am I?
- Going Back: Searching for Roots
- Reflections
- Chapter 9. A Perfect Lottery
- Preadoption Considerations
- The Adoption of Carolina Martha Linnea Kaufman
- Jonathan Edgar Erik Joins the Family
- Our Three Children
- Telling Children About Their Background
- The Present
- The Adoption Process
- Chapter 10. Adopting from Eastern Europe 101
- Deciding to Adopt
- Finding a Child
- Adoption and Heritage
- Zoë Today
- Chapter 11. Miracle Sisters from Romania
- Our Decision to Adopt
- Joanna’s Half Sister Arrives
- Chapter 12. Adventures in Adoption: From Russia to America
- The Preadoption Phase
- The Adoption Is Finalized
- Peter Enters Our Hearts and Our Family
- Reflections
- Chapter 13. Four Roads Less Traveled but They All Lead Home
- Factors Leading to My Adoptions
- A Full Circle
- The Miracle Baby
- Jo Arrives on the Scene
- Charles—A Fight That Had to Be Won
- Brianna—A Very Different Story
- A Retrospective Glance
- Chapter 14. Problems, Perils, and Pleasures of Multicultural and Biracial Adoption
- Reasons for Seeking to Adopt Abroad
- Multicultural Issues
- Coping with Uncertainties and New Realities
- Reflections
- Legal Concerns
- Postscript
- Appendix. Adoption Resources
- In the United States
- Outside the United States
- Bibliography
- Index
Biography
Authored by Schwartz, Lita Linzer; Kaslow, Florence
