From the category archives:

Identity

Lost and Found: The Adoptee’s Voice

January 13, 2012

To be found implies you have been lost. Many adoptees express that they feel or have felt lost, due to loss.
Adult adoptees’ insights and experiences should not be ignored or disregarded; however they often are. Adult adoptees’ stories, sometimes painful or joyful or mixed, are valid. They should be invited to the “table” and encouraged [...]

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Can We Heal? Can We Help To Heal?

November 3, 2011

By Presidential proclamation November is again Adoption Awareness Month. In regard to this, two-time adoptee Jennifer Lauck, author of the best sellers Blackbird, Still Waters and Found, has launched an initiative to open up a national conversation about adoption.
Jennifer believes, as I do, that there is a way to heal and transcend the experience of adoption [...]

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Now on Sale: What To Expect From Your Adopted Tween

August 1, 2011

Parenting is the most exciting, challenging, rewarding, emotionally taxing, and, hopefully, joyous role you will ever undertake. (I’m sure you have a host of words to describe parenting that I didn’t use…) My new e-guide, What To Expect From Your Adopted Tween, offers a balanced approach to understanding and supporting adolescents who have been adopted [...]

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Tools: Lifebooks

April 26, 2011

Most likely you have a number of books in your home related to adoption—age appropriate stories, information aboutyour child’s birth country and culture (if applicable), adoptive parenting books, and parenting books. But there is another book you should have: a lifebook.
A lifebook is an actual book that you create. Of course, the best lifebook is [...]

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Adoption “Invisible”

April 16, 2011

The adoptive status of children must be addressed early on, and be ongoing. How children view and process adoption changes as they move through the developmental stages.
Children who are the same race as their adoptive parents comprise a healthy percentage of adoptions, regardless if their adoption was domestic or international. Children who are the same [...]

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Your Adolescent’s Job

March 10, 2011

The “job” of an adolescent is two-fold: discovering who they are while establishing their identity. It sounds easy, doesn’t it? But this job is complex, involving identification of their gender and what that encompasses, as well as defining and understanding their beliefs, values and expectations of themselves. This all-important task requires years of time, independence [...]

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