Download or read book Out of the Box a Memoir of an Adoptee written by Patricia Bauer Collins RN and published by iUniverse. This book was released on 2021-11-16 with total page 273 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: After years of childhood curiosity, a woman adopted as an infant decides to find her birth mother. It took her years to finally decide to hire a “Search Angel.” She got her call only three days later—but she found out that her birth parents had already passed on. However, her birth mother’s husband was a joyful fount of information and treated her like his own lost daughter. In Out of the Box: A Memoir of an Adoptee, author Patricia Bauer Collins shares her journey to discover her birth parents, as she faces new challenges yet undergoes a great deal of emotional growth. Patricia shares actual letters between her birth mother, Shirley, and Shirley’s mother and grandmother regarding “Shirley’s problem” when she was just twelve years old. Patricia also tells the story of how she was able to connect with her half-siblings and other relatives—something more exciting than she had ever imagined—even traveling to her Spanish ancestors’ 1842 family adobe outside Santa Barbara. For Patricia, connecting with her origins and with her past made her realize that her ancestors were far more important to her than she had thought. Not only did she discover more about her history and the talents and skills she shared with them; she also discovered more about herself, being rewarded along the way with an astounding epiphany of connection.
Download or read book Out of the Box a Memoir of an Adoptee written by Patricia Bauer Collins and published by . This book was released on 2021-11-16 with total page 276 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: After years of childhood curiosity, a woman adopted as an infant decides to find her birth mother. It took her years to finally decide to hire a "Search Angel." She got her call only three days later--but she found out that her birth parents had already passed on. However, her birth mother's husband was a joyful fount of information and treated her like his own lost daughter. In Out of the Box: A Memoir of an Adoptee, author Patricia Bauer Collins shares her journey to discover her birth parents, as she faces new challenges yet undergoes a great deal of emotional growth. Patricia shares actual letters between her birth mother, Shirley, and Shirley's mother and grandmother regarding "Shirley's problem" when she was just twelve years old. Patricia also tells the story of how she was able to connect with her half-siblings and other relatives--something more exciting than she had ever imagined--even traveling to her Spanish ancestors' 1842 family adobe outside Santa Barbara. For Patricia, connecting with her origins and with her past made her realize that her ancestors were far more important to her than she had thought. Not only did she discover more about her history and the talents and skills she shared with them; she also discovered more about herself, being rewarded along the way with an astounding epiphany of connection.
Download or read book Surviving the White Gaze written by Rebecca Carroll and published by Simon & Schuster. This book was released on 2021-02-02 with total page 320 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A stirring and powerful memoir from black cultural critic Rebecca Carroll recounting her painful struggle to overcome a completely white childhood in order to forge her identity as a black woman in America. Rebecca Carroll grew up the only black person in her rural New Hampshire town. Adopted at birth by artistic parents who believed in peace, love, and zero population growth, her early childhood was loving and idyllic—and yet she couldn’t articulate the deep sense of isolation she increasingly felt as she grew older. Everything changed when she met her birth mother, a young white woman, who consistently undermined Carroll’s sense of her blackness and self-esteem. Carroll’s childhood became harrowing, and her memoir explores the tension between the aching desire for her birth mother’s acceptance, the loyalty she feels toward her adoptive parents, and the search for her racial identity. As an adult, Carroll forged a path from city to city, struggling along the way with difficult boyfriends, depression, eating disorders, and excessive drinking. Ultimately, through the support of her chosen black family, she was able to heal. Intimate and illuminating, Surviving the White Gaze is a timely examination of racism and racial identity in America today, and an extraordinarily moving portrait of resilience.
Download or read book The Guild of the Infant Saviour written by Megan Culhane Galbraith and published by Mad Creek Books. This book was released on 2021 with total page 288 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: "A hybrid memoir-in-essays with photographs that confronts the realities of growing up as an adoptee born before Roe v. Wade, searching for birth records, examining the Domecon baby experiments, and interrogating the idea of traumatic memory itself"--
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 The Shoebox Effect written by Marcie J. Keithley and published by Marcie J Keithley. This book was released on 2019-11-12 with total page 196 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Many of us have one--a place where we store mementos that remind us of an earlier period in our lives--either happy or sad. Those ties to our past are commonly found in a similar place, hidden in a shoebox buried at the back of a closet shelf. It's called The Shoebox Effect--where you "forget", intentionally or unintentionally, about the contents of the box and what they represent. Marcie Keithley's shoebox contained a secret, one she kept for decades, one released when her shoebox was unexpectedly revealed in a moment of grief. A flood of memories and emotions were unleashed when the lid was knocked off. No longer able to deny what she had sequestered away in her closet and in her spirit, the revelation created challenges for Marcie, but it also did something positively unexpected. Releasing the truth began a cascade that resulted in a freedom Marcie did not know was possible. The dramatic story of this long-kept secret, which has been reported globally on major networks and in newspapers across America, will intrigue and enthrall you. But Marcie Keithley doesn't just make her story all about her. Now known as The Shoebox Sherpa, she helps people unpack their own shoeboxes, and teaches us how to face our truths, heal our pasts, and find the freedom we deeply desire. Be prepared to consider Marcie's question to all of us, "What's in your shoebox?"
Download or read book My Family A Symphony written by Aaron Eske and published by St. Martin's Press. This book was released on 2010-12-07 with total page 258 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Before Madonna and Angelina Jolie made international adoption fashionable, Aaron Eske grew up in rural Nebraska with four siblings his parents adopted from around the globe. Each one arrived with severe health issues: Meredith was born without toes and was never supposed to walk; Jamie weighed two pounds and had cerebral palsy; and Jordan had his first heart catheter when he was five. His sister Michelle had suffered abuse in India and experienced trauma as a teenager. As an adult, trying to make sense of how his global family came to be, Eske bought a round-the-world plane ticket and journeyed in search of his siblings' origins. He visited the orphanages where they had lived, met the people who had cared for them, and immersed himself in the the world of international adoption with visits to a slum school in India, the landmine-loaded North Korean border, and a tribal prom in an Ethiopian rainforest. The result is a harrowing, complex, and ultimately triumphant story of international adoption that highlights the issues surrounding this increasingly popular parenting option.
Download or read book Adoption Detective written by Judith Land and published by Wheatmark, Inc.. This book was released on 2011 with total page 301 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A passionate love affair between high school sweethearts creates an accidental pregnancy during a sultry night on the shore of Lake Michigan. Rebecca's unforgiving parents banish her to an unwed mother's home where she secretly gives birth to a baby girl. Her daughter Judy is placed in the loving care of foster parents before being callously given to Mario and Rosella Romano for adoption on her first birthday. Reoccurring visions and fantasies of her birthmother plague Judy's consciousness for three decades until a life-changing passage into adulthood causes her to question why she was abandoned. What begins as a simple investigation into her medical and ancestral history slowly evolves into a passionate quest to discover her roots. Through good timing, perseverance, and a few small miracles, Judy eventually solves the mystery of her origins. But will the woman she has been seeking welcome Judy back into her life? About the Authors Judith and Martin Land live in Colorado and Arizona. They told the entire story of Judith Land's adoption, from her birth through adulthood, to provide the reader with unique insights into the mind of an adoptee at various stages of her life.
Download or read book Young Love written by Bonnie Parsons and published by FriesenPress. This book was released on 2019-12-03 with total page 201 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Young Love: An Adoptee’s Memoir describes the author’s lifelong, innate curiosity about her adoption. She was born in Catherine Booth Hospital in Montreal, Quebec, Canada and relinquished into foster care by her birth mother at six weeks. Adopted and raised in a family with love and support, she nevertheless became frustrated not knowing anything about her biological family and her heritage—and further frustrated when she learned what it means to have a “closed” adoption. As a young mother, she finally decided to ask for answers and began a 35 year search for her birth parents. The story unfolds with non-identifying information, library research, internet research, and DNA! Adoption search angels provide invaluable assistance and encouragement. Bonnie Parsons’ style is open and fresh. She shares her love for both her adoptive and biological families. This memoir will inform and inspire adoptees who are searching. The answers are out there. Never give up!
Download or read book Twins Found in a Box written by Janine Vance and published by Createspace Independent Publishing Platform. This book was released on 2017-06-05 with total page 290 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The secret "limited edition" book no one knows about just yet. A confidential tale literally kept in the closet for more than twenty years. This narrative, set from the 1970s through the late 90s in the Pacific Northwest, exposes how the personal issues of adoptive parents can take precedence over the truth of origin and fundamental human rights of transracial and intercountry adoptees--even into adulthood. In this particular case, hoarding, a traumatic brain injury, recovery, a divorce battle, a life-altering family secret, and cancer consume the adoptive parents time and leave absolutely no room to deal with the true legal status of their two adopted daughters. Instead, the twins persevere by using teamwork to overcome the adoptive family struggles. Kept private for more than two decades, this narrative provides understanding on the twins' innate nature to protect and uplift the innocent and those they love. (Sometimes the box of limitations can be found within the adoptive home.) This confidential book peeks into the personal young lives of twins who now as adults inform government officials, attorneys, university professors and the public on the crisis of adoption trafficking. But back in the 1980s and in the perspective found in this book, the twins were just trying to honor and obey their American parents-like everyone else in junior high and high school.Janine is now the founder of a confidential and worldwide resource to prevent adoption trafficking; however, she merely considers herself to be just another proud product of the X Generation. Her twin, Jenette, has worked in the healthcare field for more than 20 years and co-authoring books on energy therapy and meditation. Vance's second book The Search For Mother Missing: A Peek Inside International Adoption reveals why she acknowledges parents and siblings of adoption-loss. An absolute must-read to caution and protect uninformed parents, families, indigenous communities, and nation-states on the crisis of adoption trafficking. This updated version includes a postscript: What do you do when you find out you're an alien?
Download or read book Twins Found in a Box written by Jeannine Vance and published by . This book was released on 2003-02 with total page 300 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Twins were found on a Korean street. They search for a sense of belonging within their adopted American family. The journey begins in 1984 with their father's accident and continues through a maze of uncertainty, inner turmoil, and mysterious triumphs.
Download or read book Daring written by Gail Sheehy and published by Harper Collins. This book was released on 2014-09-02 with total page 392 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The author of the classic New York Times bestseller Passages returns with her inspiring memoir—a chronicle of her trials and triumphs as a groundbreaking “girl” journalist in the 1960s, to iconic guide for women and men seeking to have it all, to one of the premier political profilers of modern times. Candid, insightful, and powerful, Daring: My Passages is the story of the unconventional life of a writer who dared . . . to walk New York City streets with hookers and pimps to expose violent prostitution; to march with civil rights protesters in Northern Ireland as British paratroopers opened fire; to seek out Egypt’s president Anwar Sadat when he was targeted for death after making peace with Israel. Always on the cutting edge of social issues, Gail Sheehy reveals the obstacles and opportunities encountered when she dared to blaze a trail in a “man’s world.” Daring is also a beguiling love story of Sheehy’s tempestuous romance with and eventual happy marriage to Clay Felker, the charismatic creator of New York magazine. As well, Sheehy recounts her audacious pursuit and intimate portraits of many twentieth-century leaders, including Hillary Clinton, Presidents George H. W. and George W. Bush, and the world-altering attraction between Margaret Thatcher and Mikhail Gorbachev. Sheehy reflects on desire, ambition, and wanting it all—career, love, children, friends, social significance—and lays bare her major life passages: false starts and surprise successes, the shock of failures and inner crises; betrayal in a first marriage; life as a single mother; flings of an ardent, liberated young woman; her adoption of a second daughter from a refugee camp; marriage to the love of her life and their ensuing years of happiness, even in the shadow of illness. Now stronger than ever, Sheehy speaks from hard-won experience to today’s young women. Her fascinating, no-holds-barred story is a testament to guts, resilience, smarts, and daring, and offers a bold perspective on all of life’s passages.
Download or read book The Search written by Titia Ellis PhD and published by iUniverse. This book was released on 2010-11-15 with total page 233 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: “A compelling story of an adopted woman’s search for her truth and a mother lost, found, and lost again. The Search is a poignant memoir of the reality of an adoptee’s life. I couldn’t put it down.” JOE SOLL, LCSW, PSYCHOTHERAPIST, AUTHOR OF ADOPTION HEALING...A PATH TO RECOVERY _ Titia Ellis remembers the exact moment her life changed forever. Her mother, still in her dressing gown, sat in the chair opposite five-year-old Titia and her older sister, twisting a handkerchief between her hands, while her father paced the floor behind her. Titia’s stomach rolled over as her mother announced, “Daddy and I want to tell you something important about when you were born.” As soon as she learns the story of her birth parents’ untimely deaths and her subsequent adoption, Titia realizes that her adoption is to be kept a secret—never to be discussed again out of fear of upsetting her mother. Wanting to be loved and to fit in, she obeys her parents’ wishes—until a mid-life crisis shatters her illusion of being the perfect daughter, wife, and mother. As Titia chronicles her poignant journey to find her birth mother, she details how she jeopardizes her relationship with her adoptive parents and threatens the privacy of unsuspecting strangers—all without any guarantee of a happy outcome. When Titia embarks on her quest to find her birth family, she immerses herself deep into her past, not knowing that what she discovers in the end will transform her entire life.
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 Send A Little Love written by Bonnie Parsons and published by FriesenPress. This book was released on 2023-04-27 with total page 170 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Bonnie was adopted as an infant. As a young mother, curiosity about her birth parents led to a 35-year search for them. Fortunately, she held on to every scribbled note and document along the way. After a successful search, Bonnie decided to tell her story. Her memoir, Young Love – An Adoptee’s Memoir is a legacy for her family. It is also a story that supports fellow adoptees searching for family. For over a year, prior to the publication of Young Love – An Adoptee’s Memoir, Bonnie posted short stories on her website. She chose stories from her childhood and life experiences. They were fresh and untold and did not spoil the anticipation for her memoir. Overall, creating and maintaining a blog site while fine tuning Young Love – An Adoptee’s Memoir for publication was an exciting and rewarding experience. Send A Little Love is a collection of her blogs. It also includes updates on her adoption story and newfound extended family! Bonnie’s journey was not easy—there is sorrow in the loss felt by adoptees. However, with sensitivity and humor, she moves forward to recapture connections to her original family and heritage. This book will inspire adoptees of all ages and anyone touched by adoption.
Download or read book A Beautiful Moon Waiting written by Ashley Banion and published by . This book was released on 2020-11-30 with total page 174 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: "...more than anything, I want her to know that her past is a part of her story she could not control, but her future can be anything she wants it to be."Since she was just a teenager, Ashley Banion knew that she would some day adopt a baby. Adoption was always something she felt called to do. She wasn't sure where this feeling was coming from or why she felt it, but in the summer of 2017, she would finally have some of the answers she had been praying for.A Beautiful Moon Waiting is a story about Ashley and her high school sweetheart, Vince, and their journey through international adoption. It is a true roller coaster ride, with ups and downs and twists and turns all along the way. This story is filled with excitement, joy, and love, with a touch of sorrow, grief, and heartbreak, truly drawing at every possible emotion. Ashley will talk about her experience of dealing with anxiety and depression, and how she was able to conquer those demons that tried to destroy her during her journey to meet her beautiful daughter, Everly. There will be moments when you laugh out loud and moments that have you reaching for the tissue box. Ashley very candidly shares her story of becoming a first-time mom in a foreign country and learning on the fly, a sentiment that can be shared with any first-time parent."...sometimes a stormy sky can be beautiful, but even when it's not, remember that once those storm clouds roll out, there is always a beautiful moon waiting."
Download or read book All You Can Ever Know written by Nicole Chung and published by Catapult. This book was released on 2018-10-02 with total page 253 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A NATIONAL BESTSELLER This beloved memoir "is an extraordinary, honest, nuanced and compassionate look at adoption, race in America and families in general" (Jasmine Guillory, Code Switch, NPR) What does it means to lose your roots—within your culture, within your family—and what happens when you find them? Nicole Chung was born severely premature, placed for adoption by her Korean parents, and raised by a white family in a sheltered Oregon town. From childhood, she heard the story of her adoption as a comforting, prepackaged myth. She believed that her biological parents had made the ultimate sacrifice in the hope of giving her a better life, that forever feeling slightly out of place was her fate as a transracial adoptee. But as Nicole grew up—facing prejudice her adoptive family couldn’t see, finding her identity as an Asian American and as a writer, becoming ever more curious about where she came from—she wondered if the story she’d been told was the whole truth. With warmth, candor, and startling insight, Nicole Chung tells of her search for the people who gave her up, which coincided with the birth of her own child. All You Can Ever Know is a profound, moving chronicle of surprising connections and the repercussions of unearthing painful family secrets—vital reading for anyone who has ever struggled to figure out where they belong.
