Adoption Journeys: Parents Tell Their Stories [Hardcover]

Carole S. Turner (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: December 1, 1999 | ISBN-10: 0756754046 | ISBN-13: 978-0756754044

Chronicles 11 stories of adoptive parents -- from married couples struggling with infertility, to single women, a gay couple, & foster parents -- all of them helping to reshape what ''family'' means today. Yearning parents follow varied paths to their adopted children: through U.S. adoption, through orphanages abroad, through foster care. But the search often presents thorny questions -- from practical to philosophical -- about race, money, power, prejudice, & social class. Poignant stories reveal the difficult but miraculous odysseys undertaken by adoptive parents, celebrate adoptive families, & dislodge lingering prejudices about adoption. ''A riveting set of stories.''

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

The primal desire to love and parent a child binds these adoption narratives, based on detailed interviews with 20 adoptive parents, including heterosexual, gay and single parents, those involved in transracial adoptions and foster parents. Turner, who with her husband adopted a baby girl from Thailand, probes the different motivations for adopting, from infertility to altruism, as well as the frustrations with maladroit social workers and numb bureaucrats that adoptive parents can encounter in the process. One couple, Mark and Allison, advocate the practice of "open adoption," in which the adoptive parents and the birth parents meet one another and are all involved in the baby's birth. Looking back on the experience after their adoption was finalized, however, they both discuss their fears that the birth mother would change her mind. Another couple, Carrie and Alex, decided to adopt a child from Lebanon because they had an affinity for the culture, though Alex stated that, he "did not want the birth mother to become part of our family." Limited to descriptive anecdotes with happy endings, this study will inspire those seeking to adopt, although it does not address the complex issues that arise as adoptive children grow older, which are explored in recent books such as Joyce Pavo's The Family of Adoption and Lynn C. Franklin's May the Circle Be Unbroken. Agent, Carolyn Krupp.
Copyright 1999 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an alternate Hardcover edition.

Review

''With a marvelous mix of stories about some disparate families who have adopted, Carole S. Turner has told that story that the Defords know so well-about parents and children coming together, despite all the pain, all the obstacles. She shows so beautifully how sometimes it is but the hope of love that conquers all.'' --Frank Deford of Sports Illustrated, NPR's Morning Edition, author of Alex: The Life of a Child, and Chairman of the Cystic Fibrosis Foundation

''Carole Turner's well-written, well-documented book provides a collection of soulful insights into the reality of adoption, which will help us all-parents, professionals, extended family and friends-understand what is really meant by adoption. This is a book for all those who care to be sensitive to the intimate nature of adoption.'' --Frederick Mandell, M.D., Senior Associate in Medicine at Children's Hospital, Boston, Associate Clinical Professor at Harvard Medical School

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Hardcover: 237 pages
• Publisher: McBooks Press (December 1, 1999)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0756754046
• ISBN-13: 978-0756754044
• Product Dimensions: 9.1 x 6 x 1.2 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.2 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (4 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #4,942,839 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

12 of 12 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A touching chronicle of families created through adoption, April 14, 1999

By A Customer

This review is from: Adoption Journeys: Parents Tell Their Stories (Hardcover)

Carole Turner's book is a wonderful, moving work. Her sensetive interviews with these 11 families bring the reader into their lives without intrusion. Each account of the preparation for and travel through the adoption process is both heartwarming and heartbreaking. These families' experiences are so varied; their reasons for deciding to adopt so diverse, yet the underlying desire to build a family is common among them. I was particularly moved by the courage of the parents. They worked so hard to achieve their goals. The single parents are so brave to take on such a challenge, and the couples had their own sets of hurdles to overcome, from infertility to taking older children who were traumatized by their pasts, to travel to a foreign country to meet their children. My hat goes off to Carole Turner for being able to enable the families to open up, to her own daugher, Emma, for being the inspiration for the book, and most of all, to the families featured, for sharing their lives selflessly and being such wonderful people. I highly recommend this book for anyone whose life has been touched by adoption, or for anyone interested in family.

11 of 11 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A heartwarming book for anyone contemplating adoption., July 13, 1999

By A Customer

This review is from: Adoption Journeys: Parents Tell Their Stories (Hardcover)

My husband and I are just starting on our own adoption journey. I just finished reading Carole's book last week and now my husband is now reading it. I cried tears of joy throughout the entire book! I cannot thank the author enough for writing this book; Reading everyone's story gives us the understanding that though we are in for our own roller coaster, there will be pure joy in the end. The stories also answered so many questions that other books fail to address and gave me greater insight into other issues such as the heartache birthmothers go through. We, too, believe that God will lead us to our child, but the couples' words in this book reinforced and strengthened our instinct.

5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A Must-Read for anyone contemplating adoption, May 4, 2000

By 

Ann Jones - See all my reviews

This review is from: Adoption Journeys: Parents Tell Their Stories (Hardcover)

Reading this book was like joining an adoption support group! The author deftly tells the stories of several adoptive parents in different circumstances, describing their joys, frustrations, hopes and fears with such sensitivity that I found I couldn't put the book down. I was also surprised to find that I am now open to other, less-traditional forms of adoption.

I recommend it highly.