From the category archives:

Self-esteem

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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National Adoption Awareness Month: “Build Capacity to Make Lasting Change”

November 10, 2011

The first major effort to promote adoption, by Massachusetts Governor Mike Dukakis in 1976, was for the purpose of educating people about the need for permanent families for children in the foster care system. The idea grew and spread throughout the nation. President Reagan created National Adoption Week through a presidential proclamation in 1984, and [...]

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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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The Core Issue of Rejection

May 29, 2011

Has your child, in some manner, asked you “Why me?” If so, she is acting on a core issue inherent in adoption, one she likely doesn’t understand and yet is trying to cope with—rejection.
Your child is aware (consciously or unconsciously) of the losses she has suffered and she is now, in a child’s true-to-form ego-centric [...]

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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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Romancing the Culture

February 11, 2011

Parents who adopted internationally used to be told that assimilation was best. It was believed that love would be enough and that the child, adopted from another country and often of a different race, would eventually become part of, assimilated into, the majority culture. To focus or mention differences might create extreme discomfort and issues [...]

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