Readers share feedback about articles published in the October 2018 issue of Adoptive Families magazine.
Ask AF: Should We Try to Adopt Our Children’s Biological Sibling?
“Our children have a younger sibling in a different foster home. Should we fight to get custody of this child, whom we’re told has a strong bond with her foster parents and foster siblings, or leave things be?”
Parents Share: Deciding What Age Child to Adopt
From newborns to teens to sibling groups, adoptive parents share the thought process behind their age preferences when adopting.
“How We Bonded with Our Child”
All prospective adoptive parents wonder whether they’ll be able to attach to heir newborn baby before adoption. AF readers describe their concerns—and what they did to alleviate them.
How Parents Can Encourage Language Skills
About 10% of children have speech and language difficulties. Help your child develop these skills with these five tips.
How Did You Prepare Your First Child for a Sibling?
We asked our readers how they introduced the idea of a second child to their first. Here’s what they shared for each age group.
Conversation Starters About Adoption: Children’s Books
A good storybook can be a great way to start an adoption discussion with a child. We asked our Reader Panel to tell us their favorite books for talking with their preschoolers.
Ask AF: Sharing Difficult Details with a Seven-Year-Old
A mother seeks advice on sharing difficult birth family details with her daughter, and how this might affect their open adoption relationship.
Parents Share: What My Child’s Friends Want to Know About Adoption
Parents share the questions their children have been asked by friends and classmates over the years, from being in an orphanage to whether they know their “real” parents.
Books and Articles for Introducing Race and Racism to Children
Want more resources on instilling a positive racial and cultural identity in kids, educating kids about racism, and learning more about your child’s ethnic heritage—and the stereotypes that accompany it? Start here.
Ask AF: How to Choose a School for Our Transracially Adopted Child?
A mother seeks advice in selecting a school for her daughter, who is biracial. How to weigh general diversity vs. specific racial representation vs. distance from the family’s home?
Parents Share: “Our Open Adoption Over the Years”
Adoptive moms and dads share how their open adoptions have changed over time — whether they became more or less open, and why.
Interview with Melissa Fay Greene
The adoptive mom and critically acclaimed author talks about her adoption of two brothers from Ethiopia, the AIDS crisis in Africa, and Haregewoin Teferra, the foster mother at the center of her book, There Is No Me Without You: One Woman’s Odyssey to Rescue Her Country’s Children.
Ask AF: When and How to Tell Our Child She Has Birth Siblings?
Our daughter knows she was adopted, but doesn’t know she has younger half-birth-siblings. I worry about telling her, but I also I don’t want her to feel like we were hiding information from her.
Parents Share: “My Best Bonding Advice”
Adoptive moms and dads share their best advice for bonding with a newly adopted child, from taking time off to never leaving a child to cry it out at night.
Letters to the Editor, RE: June 2018
Readers share feedback about articles published in the June 2018 issue of Adoptive Families magazine.
The 5 Best Adoption Books for Preteens
Middle-grade readers will appreciate receiving one (or all) of these books for a birthday or holiday gift.
Reading List: Learn About Your Child’s Birth Country
These books can help your child connect with her birth culture. Add your family’s favorites in the comments!
Letters to the Editor, RE: May 2018
Readers share feedback about articles published in the May 2018 issue of Adoptive Families magazine.
Parents Share: My “Adoption Hero”
Adoptive parents pay tribute to their “adoption heroes,” including a social worker, their child’s birth mother, or their child.