Download or read book Finding Hope A Birthmother s Journey Into the Light written by Hope O. Baker and published by . This book was released on 2019-10-29 with total page 158 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: At twenty-one years old, Hope O Baker made one of the hardest decisions a person can make: she placed her son for adoption. She lived with her son's adoptive mother while she was pregnant and pursued an open adoption. After her son was born, Hope tried to resume her life. But the difficulty of letting her child go gnawed at Hope. Even though she had it together on the outside--graduating college and excelling in her career--on the inside she was battling a destructive cycle of depression and addiction. When life was at its darkest, Hope managed to find her way back to the light. It's a journey she continues to this day. Now, in this love letter to her son, Hope shows how messy and chaotically beautiful adoption can be, by sharing the authentic details of her remarkable story. From her struggles, you'll see how community can help you rebuild and be reminded of how important it is to find your voice and speak up for what you need when life hands you unexpected difficulties.
Download or read book God and Jetfire written by Amy Seek and published by Farrar, Straus and Giroux. This book was released on 2015-07-14 with total page 353 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A searching, eloquent memoir about the joys and hardships of open adoption God and Jetfire is a mother's account of her decision to surrender her son in an open adoption and of their relationship over the twelve years that follow. Facing an unplanned pregnancy at twenty-two, Amy Seek and her ex-boyfriend begin an exhaustive search for a family to raise their child. They sift through hundreds of "Dear Birth Mother" letters, craft an extensive questionnaire, and interview numerous potential couples. Despite the immutability of the surrender, it does little to diminish Seek's newfound feelings of motherhood. Once an ambitious architecture student, she struggles to reconcile her sadness with the hope that she's done the best for her son, a struggle complicated by her continued, active presence in his life. For decades, closed adoptions were commonplace. Now, new laws are guaranteeing adoptees' access to birth records, and open adoption is on the rise. God and Jetfire is the rare memoir that explores the intricate dynamics and exceptional commitment of an open-adoption relationship from the perspective of a birth mother searching for her place within it. Written with literary poise and distinction, God and Jetfire is a story of a life divided between grief and gratitude, regret and joy. It is an elegy for a lost motherhood, a celebration of a family gained, and an apology to a beloved son.
Download or read book The Light Between Oceans written by M.L. Stedman and published by Simon and Schuster. This book was released on 2012 with total page 339 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A cloth bag containing ten copies of the title.
Download or read book The Primal Wound written by Nancy Newton Verrier and published by British Association for Adoption and Fostering (Ba. This book was released on 2009 with total page 0 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Originally published in 1993, this classic piece of literature on adoption has revolutionised the way people think about adopted children. Nancy Verrier examines the life-long consequences of the 'primal wound' - the wound that is caused when a child is separated from its mother - for adopted people. Her argument is supported by thorough research in pre- and perinatal psychology, attachment, bonding and the effects of loss.
Download or read book The Lucky Few written by Heather Avis and published by Zondervan. This book was released on 2017-03-21 with total page 224 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: When life looks radically different than the plan we have for ourselves, it's the lucky few that recognize God's plan is best. That's what adoptive mom Heather Avis learned, and that's the invitation of this book. As the mother of three adopted children - two with Down syndrome - Heather Avis has learned that it's truly the lucky few who get to live a life like hers, who actually recognize that God's plans are best, even when they seem so radically different from the plans we have for ourselves. When Heather started her journey into parenthood she never thought it would look like this, never planned to have three adopted children, and certainly never imagined that two of them would have Down syndrome. But like most things God does, once she stepped into the craziness and confusion that comes with the unknown and the unplanned, she realized that they were indeed among the lucky few. Discover in this book what 70,000+ followers of Heather's hit Instagram account @macymakesmyday already know: the power of faith and family can help us stay strong in the toughest times. This book will also be especially touching to those with adopted family members or children with Down syndrome in their lives.
Download or read book A Little Piece of Light written by Donna Hylton and published by Hachette Books. This book was released on 2018-06-05 with total page 204 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Random Family meets Orange Is the New Black in A Little Piece of Light, a memoir of survival, redemption, hope, and sisterhood from a bold new voice on the front lines of the criminal justice reform movement. Like so many women before her and so many women yet to come, Donna Hylton's early life was a nightmare of abuse that left her feeling alone and convinced of her worthlessness. In 1986, she took part in a horrific act and was sentenced to 25 years to life for kidnapping and second-degree murder. It seemed that Donna had reached the end--at age 19, due to her own mistakes and bad choices, her life was over. A Little Piece of Light tells the heartfelt, often harrowing tale of Donna's journey back to life as she faced the truth about the crime that locked her away for 27 years...and celebrated the family she found inside prison that ultimately saved her. Behind the bars of Bedford Hills Correctional Facility, alongside this generation's most infamous criminals, Donna learned to fight, then thrive. For the first time in her life, she realized she was not alone in the abuse and misogyny she experienced--and she was also not alone in fighting back. Since her release in 2012, Donna has emerged as a leading advocate for criminal justice reform and women's rights who speaks to politicians, violent abusers, prison officials, victims, and students to tell her story. But it's not her story alone, she is quick to say. She also represents the stories of thousands of women who have been unable to speak for themselves, until now.
Download or read book Twice a Daughter written by Julie Ryan McGue and published by Simon and Schuster. This book was released on 2021-05-11 with total page 286 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Julie is adopted. She is also a twin. Because their adoption was closed, she and her sister lack both a health history and their adoption papers—which becomes an issue for Julie when, at forty-eight years old, she finds herself facing several serious health issues. To launch the probe into her closed adoption, Julie first needs the support of her sister. The twins talk things over, and make a pact: Julie will approach their adoptive parents for the adoption paperwork and investigate search options, and the sisters will split the costs involved in locating their birth relatives. But their adoptive parents aren’t happy that their daughters want to locate their birth parents—and that is only the first of many obstacles Julie will come up against as she digs into her background. Julie’s search for her birth relatives spans eight years and involves a search agency, a PI, a confidential intermediary, a judge, an adoption agency, a social worker, and a genealogist. By journey’s end, what began as a simple desire for a family medical history has evolved into a complicated quest—one that unearths secrets, lies, and family members that are literally right next door.
Download or read book Hope Nicely s Lessons for Life written by Caroline Day and published by . This book was released on 2021-03 with total page 0 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In learning to write about her life, will Hope Nicely finally learn how to live it?
Download or read book Searching for Mom written by Sara Easterly and published by . This book was released on 2019-11-19 with total page 318 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Sara Easterly spent a lifetime looking for the perfect mother. As an adoptee she had difficulties attaching to her mother and struggled with perfectionism, suicidal ideations, and fantasy mothers. When she became a mom, her search to find and become "the perfect mother" intensified ... until her mother's death launched a spiritual epiphany.
Download or read book Redefining Family written by A. K. Snyder and published by . This book was released on 2020-01-25 with total page 338 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In an unconventional blend of poetry and prose, a birthmother shares her experience of an open adoption. The fear and uncertainty in planning. The heartbreak of losing her child. And the work of healing and building a life after placement. This memoir hits every emotion on the way to the happy and hopeful ending.
Download or read book The Open Hearted Way to Open Adoption written by Lori Holden and published by Rowman & Littlefield Publishers. This book was released on 2015-05-15 with total page 0 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This book covers common open adoption situations and how real families have navigated typical issues successfully. Like all useful parenting books, it provides parents with the tools to come to answers on their own, and answers questions that might not yet have come up.
Download or read book Birthmothers written by Merry Jones and published by Open Road Distribution. This book was released on 2016-08-23 with total page 316 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Birthmothers presents intimate and stirring accounts of more than seventy women who surrendered babies for adoption. It follows their lives long-term, from discovery of their pregnancies through the present, and identifies the Birthmother Syndrome--a pattern of behavior and emotions resulting from surrender. With heartwarming candor, Birthmothers reveals the stories of the invisible side of the adoption triangle, and touches everyone involved in adoption, as well as anyone interested in motherhood, family, and women in our society.
Download or read book Fostered written by Tori Hope Petersen and published by B&H Publishing Group. This book was released on 2022-10-18 with total page 135 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: If you’re wondering if God can truly move in the life of someone with all the odds stacked against her, look no further than Tori Hope Petersen. Tori grew up in the foster care system, a bi-racial child in a confusing and volatile world. Growing up with a mentally ill mother and living in twelve different foster homes, nothing was in her favor. And yet, even with a minuscule chance of graduating college and a great risk of being homeless, jobless, and on drugs, Tori overcame every negative stereotype and assumption that attacked her identity. However, Tori will tell you she did not overcome. Christ did. In the face of the storm, Jesus made a way for Tori to find profound hope, deep faith, renewed purpose, and a loving family, too. After so many years of being on one side of foster care as a child, Tori is now on the other side as a foster mom, adoptive mom, and biological mom. On top of that, she became a Track and Field All-American in college and now works with nonprofits, ministries, and beyond advocating for foster care reform, adoption advocacy, and help for vulnerable populations. If you want to hear the true tale of an unlikely overcomer, this book is for you. If you want to learn more about the foster care system from a former foster youth’s perspective, this book is for you. If you want to better dwell in the reality of your own spiritual adoption by our Heavenly Father and better understand the orphan and the widow that He loves dearly, this book is for you. Ultimately, if you want to remember who God is, and what He can do through the most unlikely of people, Fostered is for you.
Download or read book Who Am I Really written by Damon Davis and published by . This book was released on 2019-04-20 with total page 208 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: "Who Am I Really?" is a question many adoptees ask when they realize they have another family of genetic relation. Damon L. Davis shares his journey through life as an adoptee to becoming an adoptive parent himself. He explores his desire to find his birth family as sparked by the flood of emotions that accompanied the birth of his son, Seth -- the first blood relative he had ever known. In his story, you'll follow his introspection when considering a search for his birth family, while coping with the heartbreak of his adoptive mother's mental illness. Within months of taking his post in the Obama Administration in 2009, Damon found his birth mother working only two blocks away and years later, his real birth father's identity was revealed unexpectedly on AncestryDNA. You'll be amazed by the coincidences that brought Damon face to face with his birth mother in a tearful, yet joyous, reunion. And your heart will be warmed by the acceptance of his birth father who didn't even know he existed.
Download or read book The Last Hope in Hopetown written by Maria Tureaud and published by Little, Brown Books for Young Readers. This book was released on 2022-10-04 with total page 183 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Stranger Things meets Fake Blood in this deliciously charming and spooky debut novel about one girl’s choice to save her vampire parents or do what’s right for the greater good. Twelve-year-old human Sophie Dawes lives a good life in Hopetown. There, vampires and humans live in harmony and Sophie and her adoptive vampire moms are living (or unliving) proof. There are a lot of rules that vampires must follow to keep the humans they live around feeling safe, but if regular visits from child protective services and abiding by a nightly curfew keeps their family together, Sophie will do anything to stay with her loving vampire parents. But then, normal, law-abiding vampires begin to go rogue. After Sophie’s own mother— the sweetest person she knows— goes rogue, Sophie decides it’s up to her to find a cure. But taking matters into her own hands might be way more than she bargained for if it means braving a secret council of vampires, executing epic heists, and facing the true bad guys head on. With her best friend by her side, Sophie will fight for hope, freedom and a family bonded by a love that’s thicker than blood.
Download or read book Finding Family written by Richard Hill and published by Abrams. This book was released on 2017-09-29 with total page 247 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Finding Family: My Search for Roots and the Secrets in My DNA is the highly suspenseful account of an adoptee trying to reclaim the biological family denied him by sealed birth records. This fascinating quest, including the author's landmark use of DNA testing, takes readers on an exhilarating roller-coaster ride and concludes with a twist that rivals anything Hollywood has to offer. In the vein of a classic mystery, Hill gathers the seemingly scant evidence surrounding the circumstances of his birth. As his resolve shores up, the author also avails of new friends, genealogists, the Internet, and the latest DNA tests in the new field of genetic genealogy. As he closes in on the truth of his ancestry, he is able to construct a living, breathing portrait of the young woman who was faced with the decision to forsake her rights to her child, and ultimately the man whose identity had remained hidden for decades. Finding Family offers guidance, insight, and motivation for anyone engaged in a similar mission, from ways to obtain information to the many networks that can facilitate adoption searches. The book includes a detailed guide to DNA and genetic genealogy and how they can produce irrefutable results in determining genetic connections and help adoptees bypass sealed records and similar stumbling blocks.
Download or read book Mother Mother written by Jessica O'Dwyer and published by Apprentice House. This book was released on 2020-10 with total page 306 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A married couple in California grapples with race, betrayal, love, and loss when their son comes home from a Guatemalan orphanage. Contemporary art museum curator Julie Cowan achieves her dream of motherhood through adoption, but her life is far from perfect. Her pathologist husband, Mark, is distracted by his gorgeous, young intern, while her hotshot new museum director boss doubts Julie's curatorial chops. And Julie's six-year-old son, Jack (born Juan), may never recover from trauma inflicted by early life spent in a Guatemalan orphanage. Then Jack suffers a major health crisis, and everything pales next to saving his life. As much as Julie clings to being Jack's "only" mother, she needs to find his Guatemalan mother to unlock his medical history. Julie hires a professional searcher, and what she learns turns her world upside down. At the same time, Jack's birth mother, an indigenous Ixil Maya, navigates her own tumultuous path, beginning with surviving a horrific massacre. In this gripping tale told from alternating perspectives, both mothers must draw on fierce inner strength to reckon with their life choices.
