Lifelong Issues in Adoption
by Deborah N. Silverstein and Sharon KaplanAdoption is a lifelong, intergenerational process which unites the triad of birth families, adoptees, and adoptive families forever. Adoption, especially of...
View ArticleAdoption and Recovery: Solving the Mystery of Reunion
1 This is the first book to explain the dynamics of adoption reunion within a grief framework.
View ArticleAnger, Peace, and Restful Sleep
Before I worked on 6W full-time the fall of 1991, I spent the summer working on an oncology unit. For some reason, I felt the need to work among those walking towards death. There was a sense of...
View ArticleStages of Anger
Stages of grieving are DABDA: Denial, Anger, Bargaining, Depression, Acceptance. (Kubler-Ross) I learned this in Nursing School, and used it A LOT when I worked with cancer patients on an oncology...
View ArticleInfant/Child Response to Grief
When a child is adopted, I believe many (poorly prepared) APs will (wrongly) assume the variety of unwanted behaviors exhibited by the adopted child will only indicate and prove just how neglected that...
View ArticleA Mom, and Her Donna
Donna was the youngest patient I recall being on 6 West. The Respiratory and Renal unit no longer exists. Funny how things disappear once I leave... Six-West was a nightmare of a floor. I called it...
View Articlereal people, real grief
Video clips like these should be mandatory viewing for prospective infant adopters. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bQbtxhvsKA0&NR=1 Good Byehttp://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ENMZZdaHI64&NR=1Real...
View Article"Honesty" is not so easy, is it?
RealKris asked in almost human's grief-related thread:I always worry how I can be honest withouth portraying these harsher aspects of their firstfamilies? How can I encourage them to be open to express...
View ArticleDenial About Adoption is Pathological
From: luminaria, "Empty Cereal Box"September 24, 2008For the life of me I can’t understand adoptees with their “I’m so much better off because I was adopted” mantras. Here’s one I snagged from a...
View ArticleWhy after waiting years for a baby, I gave my adopted son back
She had years of fertility treatment. When that failed she went through endless vetting for adoption. Finally, Yvette and her husband were given the baby of their dreams. So why, after just two weeks,...
View ArticleEvery Life A Story
Children "touched" by child placement services (adoption/foster care) discuss how they cope with rage, fear, and lonliness (among other things).For more aout the programs found at The Bridge, please...
View ArticleAll-around support: Group encourages people touched by adoption
By Kathy MillenMarch 4, 2009 / The Beacon NewsJody Moreen was a 21-year-old college student in Chicago when long-repressed emotions typically experienced by people who are adopted began to churn inside...
View ArticleReal life: What makes a good adoptive parent?
Are some people just not suitable to be adoptive parents and when deciding, do social workers have too much power?June 8, 2009 / Independent.ieEnglish parents Phil and Amanda Peak were recently turned...
View ArticleBetter, without
The man who impregnated the woman who birthed me, aka my bio-father, was better without me.My birth-mother, aka, first mom, was better without me.My Aparents, aka my saviors, were better without me and...
View ArticleAdoption, Abuse, and Comments From the Peanut Gallery
I admit it, every time I see an article that includes with the word "adoption", I take a look. Today's find-worth-a-response was titled, "‘Real Housewife’ on adoption, insecurity". I don't know who...
View ArticleWithdrawal in a relationship
For those of us who feel as though we're addicted to (or can't control) bad patterns and behaviors in our lives, the term 'withdrawal' carries a dread that goes well beyond the physical discomforts...
View ArticleMother's Day: What are we celebating?
Last year, I wrote Adapting to Mother's Day, After Adoption, a piece that introduces readers to the heartbreak some must endure when one person's loss becomes some other person's gain, thanks to...
View ArticleWhen dysfunctional APs affect the next generation
Today I received a phone call from my oldest who is away at college. She was very upset and in need of some extra support and empathy. The trigger? She received an e-card from my Amother... a Valentine...
View ArticleShe's leaving... Again
My oldest is leaving for her second year of college this Sunday.I have been bracing for this week, since May.Thankfully, last year's experience was a very positive one. My daughter made frequent...
View ArticleMourning the Mommy that could never be
One of the saddest realities I have learned through my own experience is life without a Mommy.I cringe when people assume adoption will provide that missing maternal-link for a child, because the truth...
View ArticleParallel Dialogues- Based On Two Separate Life Stories
Parallel Dialogues- Based On Two Separate Life Stories Arun Dohle & anonymous Indian BirthmotherI want my baby back!! But nineteen years later she is not the baby I had to give up. Will I ever have...
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