Adoption Lifebook: A Bridge to Your Child's Beginnings [Paperback]

Cindy Probst (Author)

Book Description

ISBN-10: 0971749604 | ISBN-13: 978-0971749603 | Publication Date: May 1, 2007

'Adoption Lifebook: A Bridge to Your Child's Beginnings' is a new, easy-to-read workbook for international adoptive parents and waiting parents who wish to document their children's early lives for them, in the form of a lifebook. Through exercises and text, readers become more comfortable telling children the truth about their beginnings while emphasizing their strengths and resilience. Adoption specialist Cindy Probst guides parents through such topics as talking with children about their birth parents and orphanage or foster care experience, answering "why was I adopted?" questions, and using empowering adoption language. 'Adoption Lifebook: A Bridge to Your Child's Beginnings'is an invaluable resource for helping children feel good about who they are.

A portion of the proceeds from the sale of 'Adoption Lifebook: A Bridge to Your Child's Beginnings' will be donated to international orphanage projects.

Editorial Reviews

Review

"...Cindy's approach is warm and supportive, while imparting a wealth of knowledge about adoption and child development..." -- Joan Clark, Executive Director, ODS Adoption Community of New England

"...Probst will help a generation of children answer their questions. This is a book no adoptive family should be without." -- Susan Caughman, Publisher, Adoptive Families Magazine

"This is a great idea and you have done it beautifully. I can recommend it to adoptive parents and children!" -- T. Berry Brazelton, MD, Professor Emeritus, Harvard Medical School

About the Author

Cindy Probst, MEd, MSW, LCSW believes that the stories of children's beginnings belong to them. She has a particular talent for framing difficult truths in ways that are empowering to children, and for teaching their parents to do the same. Cindy works with parents, both individually and in groups, to help them think about how to share the stories of their children's early lives with them, in ways that nourish the spirit, while also honoring the truth. Cindy, an adoption specialist, is also an adoptive parent.

Product Details

• Paperback: 88 pages
• Publisher: Boston Adoption Press (May 1, 2007)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0971749604
• ISBN-13: 978-0971749603
• Product Dimensions: 8.3 x 8.3 x 0.4 inches
• Shipping Weight: 6.4 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.6 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (7 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #797,012 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

26 of 27 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Someone has finally done it!, April 20, 2002

By 

Deborah Flanders Grace, an adoption professional (Acton, MA United States) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Adoption Lifebook: A Bridge to Your Child's Beginnings (Paperback)

As an adoption professional I see many parents who love their children but struggle with their child's life story. Many children have joined their adoptive families through difficult or challenging circumstances and this can be hard to balance with a parent's joy of welcoming their new family member. Some parents feel that creating a lifebook for their child will focus more on the unpleasant details. I also see children who have in their minds created their own "lifebook" with details that may not be true or accurate such as "my birth mother did not keep me because I was an ugly baby".

My suggestion is always that their child has already lived this part of their life and would it not be helpful to have these memories written down in a way that the child can better understand them. It is a remarkable process to watch as a child reads their lifebook for the first time and realizes how decisions were made for them or what the circumstances of their adoption were. Each of their smiles and sighs are etched in my memory forever. They finally have a memory and a story that is their own!

It is welcoming to finally see a message I have always given to adoptive families and feel so strongly about in print. Ms. Probst's book validates and gives permission to many of the feelings that adoptive parents encounter when they begin the journey of writing their child's lifebook. Her belief of taking this journey to head and to heart and not push to just have a book is an invaluable message. By following the steps of this book, a parent is writing for their child the most loving and caring heirloom a child could ever have, a story of their beginnings before they became part of yours.

16 of 17 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars An invaluable workbook, April 17, 2002

By 

Jennifer C. Chen (Acton, MA USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Adoption Lifebook: A Bridge to Your Child's Beginnings (Paperback)

This workbook is very helpful and different from other lifebooks in that it makes the participant(s)do the important work of articulating the adoption experience. It is not a fill-in-the-blank book. It makes the parent and the child, ponder some of the tough issues associated with adoption and to write in a way that is truthful and meaningful to the child and just as importantly, in a sensitive and affirming manner. This can only be done when the participants truly grapple with the experience of adoption. Ms. Probst is conscious of the need to have this book be a special, private and honest document for the child and written from the child's perspective. I found her compassionate, straightforward style and her specific suggestions for parents to be invaluable.

24 of 28 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars OK starting point, April 4, 2002

By A Customer

This review is from: Adoption Lifebook: A Bridge to Your Child's Beginnings (Paperback)

For adoptive parents who know nothing about life stories and how to present this information to their children then this book is a reasonable place to start. In my experience though, most parents have given considearable thought to the information that their children need and they would gain no further benefit from this book which contains very little information. I'm sure that this works well in the workshops that the book originated from but without that format, it does not really stand alone.