The Adoption Reunion Survival Guide: Preparing Yourself for the Search, Reunion, and Beyond (Paperback)

by Julie Jarrell Bailey (Author), Lynn N. Giddens (Author) "With the prospect of an adoption-based reunion comes time for a reality check..." (more)
Key Phrases: passive registry, contact veto, adoption triad members, Ghost Kingdom, Department of Human Services, Department of Social Services (more...)

Editorial Reviews

Product Description
Using real-life examples, this compassionate guide helps adoptees and their birth mothers decide whether or not to try to locate each other, prepare for a reunion, survive the emotional turbulence of the initial meeting, and avoid common pitfalls. Since the legal issues surrounding the process can vary greatly from one state to another, the book includes an overview of pertinent laws, along with practical suggestions for navigating through them.

Product Details

• Paperback: 150 pages
• Publisher: New Harbinger Publications (March 2, 2001)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1572242280
• ISBN-13: 978-1572242289
• Product Dimensions: 9 x 6 x 0.5 inches
• Shipping Weight: 8 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars See all reviews (5 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #297,999 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

19 of 21 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars ABSOLUTELY, A MUST READ..., May 25, 2001

By	Chandler (West Virginia) - See all my reviews

...for anyone in search, or hoping to have a reunion, this book is an incredible guide! It's filled with a lot of common sense and logic, humor, sadness, great stories used as examples for the "DO" and "DO NOT" approaches to reunion. I especially loved the "REUNION AEROBICS" advice, and the chapter explaining the "Stages of Reunion." This book gave me the strength and preparation I needed to avoid some major mistakes as I approached reunion. It also gave me a great deal of "food for thought," and helped me fine-tune the reasons why I wanted a reunion, which helped to decrease my anxiety and focus on what I really needed to accomplish by meeting my birth family. I think that this book is a "MUST READ" before someone makes contact, because in the end, the advice contained in the pages of THE ADOPTION REUNION SURVIVAL GUIDE will save all parties involved a lot of heartache.

15 of 17 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Adoption Reunion Survival Guide, February 1, 2001

By	Wanda Howell (N.C.) - See all my reviews

For anyone considering searching; for anyone who is involved in a search, or for anyone simply wishing to understand the issues at hand ~ this book is good reading. Bailey & Giddens have explored "adoption reunion" with insight, compassionate, and obvious experience! It gives honest insight into some of the feelings which people in the adoption triangle are experiencing.

I highly recommend it!!

28 of 36 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Good advice among the touchy-feely stuff, July 30, 2001

By	David W. Kramer (Atlanta, GA USA) - See all my reviews

This book has some good guidelines if you're somewhere along the search for your birth parents, but is cluttered with New Age gobbledegook which, in my opinion, got in the way of the authors' more practical advice.

I was adopted as an infant (5 months), and at age 47 began a search for my birth parents. I was surprised at how easy it was, and how quickly I located my birth mother's name and her whereabouts, as well as finding out about her two additional children. I had been advised by a woman who had guided others in making initial contact. I followed her advice but never got a response. After reading this book, I discovered I probably should have handled a couple things differently. The authors of Survival Guide have good advice on making initial contact, and include examples of letters and commication tips, as well as testimonials from others as to what worked and what didn't. This was helpful.

However, you have to wade through a great deal of the authors' presumptive characterizations of adopted people to glean the advice and guidance that the title of this book suggests. That is, the authors spent a good bit of time doing such inconsequential things as attempting to generalize what drives adoptees to seek out their birth parents. They tend to characterize adoptees as people with a lack of something or a missing piece in their life's puzzle - people with a yearning of which they may not be aware or of which they are in denial (!!). Personally, I never felt any lack of anything as a result of being adopted, emotional or otherwise. I'd just like to know who gave me my genes, what my parents look like now so I know what to expect, and whether I can look forward to any physiological challenges, such as predisposition to conditions or diseases. It would have suited my needs better if the authors had kept more focus on the title of this book, and dropped the quasi-analytical "who are we adoptees and why are we doing this" business.

Having said all that, however, I found the book helpful.