Journeys After Adoption: Understanding Lifelong Issues [Paperback]

Jayne E. Schooler (Author), Betsie L. Norris (Author)

Book Description

ISBN-10: 0897898168 | ISBN-13: 978-0897898164 | Publication Date: July 30, 2002

What can we learn about the experience of adoption from those who have taken that journey? How can those touched by adoption navigate successfully through the issues of search, reunion, and aftermath? Will those answers have a positive impact on adoption today? Drawing upon the experiences of dozens of triad members—adopted persons, birth parents, and adoptive parents—the authors offer insight into the concerns, issues, joys, and pain experienced by those who lives are framed by adoption.

The book explores such questions as:

.How do I make the decision to search for my parents?

.How do I prepare emotionally?

.What are my adoptive parents feeling and thinking?

.What if I am rejected, encounter death, or reach a dead end?

.How do I develop a relationship with siblings I've never known?

The authors deal sensitively with these and many other issues. Attention is also given to the needs and concerns of adoptive parents as their children grow into adults. Practical advice helps prepare triad members to deal emotionally and psychologically with the process of search and reunion.

Editorial Reviews

Review

“Norris is a thorough contribution to the discussions of an important subject....[O]ffers an exhaustive amount of information and stands one essential reference for anyone touched by afoption or working with people who are.”–Ohioana Quarterly

Book Description

The authors offer insight into the concerns, issues, joys, and pain experienced by those who lives are framed by adoption.

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Paperback: 312 pages
• Publisher: Praeger (July 30, 2002)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0897898168
• ISBN-13: 978-0897898164
• Product Dimensions: 9 x 6.5 x 0.9 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.2 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (1 customer review)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,873,379 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

We invite you to visit our website for training schedule: www.jayneschooler.com
AND our blog dandjschooler.blogspot.com

Jayne E. Schooler, an enthusiastic supporter of families formed by adoption or foster care currently serves as a international trainer, consultant, and curriculum writer with the Institute for Human Services in Columbus, Ohio. She has partnered with Casey Family Programs, the National Foster Parent Association, Spaulding for Children and the National Council for Adoption in writing and training projects. Her unique experience as both a foster/adoptive parent and adoption professional offers her audiences credible experience and support.

Jayne has over 25 years of experience in working with and speaking to families and professionals in child welfare, first as a foster parent, then as an adoptive parent, adoption professional and educator. Jayne's first book, The Whole Life Adoption Book,(1993 and revised 2008) is required reading for adoption agencies around the country. She is also the author of Searching for a Past,(1995) and co-author of an award-winning book, Telling the Truth to Your Adopted or Foster Child.(2000) and Journeys after Adoption (2002) and Mom, Dad, I'm Pregnant" When Your Daughter or Son Faces an Unplanned Pregnancy.(2004) Her newest book project, Wounded Children, Healing Homes: How Traumatized Children Impact Adoptive and Foster Parents was released January, 2010.

Since 1989, Jayne has been a keynote speaker and workshop presenter on family life issues as well as foster and adoptive parent issues on state, national, and international levels for both families and professionals. She has made guest appearances on over three dozen radio talk shows across the country, speaking on adoption and family life issues. She was selected as the 2006 Trainer of the Year for the Ohio Child Welfare training program and also awarded the Distinguished Service in Training award (2006) by the National Staff Development and Training Association.

Jayne's international work has taken her to Ukraine, Kyrgyzstan, and in 2010, her speaking and consultation expands to Poland and New Zealand. This is cooperation with the International Leadership and Development Center headquartered in Canada. One of her books have been translated into Russian (Telling the Truth) and plans are in the works for two others - in Russian and Polish.

In addition to her training and writing responsibilities, Jayne also serves as a faculty member in the Life Issues Counseling Department of the Master's International School of Divinity in Evansville, Indiana. She and her husband, Dr. David Schooler, are the parents of two adult children, Ray, age 43 who joined their family by adoption at age 16, and a daughter, Kristy, 33 and grandparents of three.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

11 of 11 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Invaluable, July 16, 2008

By 

Alyssa A. Lappen (Earth) - See all my reviews
(TOP 1000 REVIEWER)    (VINE VOICE)   

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This review is from: Journeys After Adoption: Understanding Lifelong Issues (Paperback)

I was fortunate enough to hear Jayne Schooler speak this past spring. Before attending, I ordered a copy of this book, and several of her others, and I've found them all invaluable.

This one, though, is particularly helpful as it covers many of the issues not considered in books for new or prospective adoptive parents.

Central to this book is the theme of whether or not to search for one's birth parents, and the various emotional issues that arise before the search, during and after discovering the biological family. This has been particularly helpful for our family, during and after the search process. Many adoptees and birth parents were interviewed, and their perspectives on this unsettling and exciting time is extremely reassuring.

One young woman who located her step sister in Korea, and subsequently her birth mother, says "My search was connected to deep feelings that evoked a wide range of responses. Each new discovery was attached to an emotion, excitement, anticipation, fear, sadness, happiness and confusion. I think my most defining emotion was fear. I was going into the unknown. I had no control over the process or over how it would turn out."

This correctly describes the experience, from our perspective as adoptive parents, and that of our teenage child. Susan, the young Korean woman, discovered her birth mother had died 14 years earlier, but she had two half brothers who were happy to learn of her, and to welcome her into their family.

Our case is much happier.

But the process of meeting has just begun, and the emotional roller coaster ride continues. Fortunately, this book has helped us to expect and cope with the wide range of emotions we are all experiencing at this exciting time. And the healing for all parties will take a long long time.

The book deals with the wounds of all parties to the adoption, including the child, who had no say in the decision, the birth parents, and the adoptive parents. It's fantastic, and worth every cent.