True Adoption Tales

November is National Adoption Month
Here are some amazing family stories and resources on the process of adoption.

Who are the DeBolts and Why Do They Have 19 Kids? Award-winning DVD
Not only do parents Bob and Dorothy have six kids of their own, they have also opened up their hearts and their home to thirteen disadvantage and handicapped children. What results is an amazing mix of diversity. The multi ethnic kids are heroes who belie the typical stereotype of being handicapped. They go to school, do chores, and "hang out" while simultaneously navigating the difficulties of their disabilities.




The Family Nobody Wanted
Helen Doss's charming, touching, and at times hilarious chronicle tells how each of the children, representing white, Chinese, Japanese, Filipino, Korean, Mexican, and Native American backgrounds, came to her and husband Carl, a Methodist minister. She writes of the way the "unwanted" feeling was erased with devoted love and understanding and how the children united into one happy family. Her account reads like a novel, with scenes of hard times and triumphs described in vivid prose.

The Family Nobody Wanted, which inspired two films, opened doors for other adoptive families and was a popular favorite among parents, young adults, and children for more than thirty years. Now this edition will introduce the classic to a new generation of readers. An epilogue by Helen Doss that updates the family's progress since 1954 will delight the book's loyal legion of fans around the world.


Are those kids yours? American families with children adopted from other countries
The mother of two Korean-born daughters discusses intercultural and interracial adoption, addressing the special problems and social considerations.


Love in the Driest Season
Foreign correspondent Neely Tucker and his wife, Vita, arrived in Zimbabwe in 1997. After witnessing firsthand the devastating consequences of AIDS on the population, especially the children, the couple started volunteering at an orphanage that was desperately underfunded and short-staffed. One afternoon, a critically ill infant was brought to the orphanage from a village outside the city. She’d been left to die in a field on the day she was born, abandoned in the tall brown grass that covers the highlands of Zimbabwe in the dry season. After a near-death hospital stay, and under strict doctor’s orders, the ailing child was entrusted to the care of Tucker and Vita. Within weeks Chipo, the girl-child whose name means gift, would come to mean everything to them.

Parenting Your Internationally Adopted Child : From Your First Hours Together Through the Teen Years
With the proliferation of international adoptions, a specialized guide looks at the special challenges of parenting youngsters adopted from a foreign country, addressing such issues as how to help children deal with the adoption, bond with new parents, become an integral part of the family, and develop a positive self image that combines an American identity and ethnic origins.

The Post-Adoption Blues: Overcoming the Unforeseen Challenges of Adoption
Where do parents turn when the waited-for bonding with their adopted child is slow to form? When they find themselves grieving over the birth child they couldn't have? When the child they so eagerly welcomed into their home arrives with major, unexpected needs? Until now, adoptive parents have had to struggle silently with their feelings, which can range from flutters of anxiety to unbearable sadness.

At last, Karen J. Foli, a registered nurse, and her husband, John R. Thompson, a psychiatrist, lift the curtain of secrecy from "Post Adoption Depression Syndrome" (PADS). Drawing on their own experience as adoptive parents as well as interviews with dozens of adoptive families and experts in the field, the couple offers parents the understanding, support, and concrete solutions they need to overcome post-adoption blues-and open their hearts to the joy adoption can bring.

Adoptive Families Magazine
The library has the current 2 years of this practical periodical which address trends and issues related to adoption.

Many more resources are available at the library.

For additional information about adoption in Virginia, see also:
http://virginia.adoption.com/