| Contents: |
pt. 1. A look at the issues and their impact. Secrecy in adoption and the high cost it required -- Lifelong psychological presence : can family members really be invisible? / Deborah L. Fravel -- pt. 2. Focus on the adopted person. Growing up in closed adoption -- A walk into the wilderness : learning of your adoption as an adult -- pt. 3. Focus on the birthparent. Birthmothers and birthfathers : the lifelong journey begins : discovery, disclosure, decisions -- Birthmothers and birthfathers : the journey continues : the lifelong impact of relinquishment in closed adoption -- pt. 4. Focus on understanding adoptive parents in search and reunion. Communicating the decision to search to your adoptive parents -- pt. 5. The process of search. Making the decision : to search or not to search -- Preparing emotionally for and initiating the search -- Patchwork siblings : adoptees in postreunion relationships / LaVonne H. Stiffler -- Synchronicity in reunion / LaVonne H. Stiffler -- pt. 6. Dealing with special issues within the search. When the pieces don't fit : finding dead ends or death -- Revisiting an old wound : encountering denial or rejection -- Facing a history of abuse or neglect -- Searching in midlife : what are the implications? -- Postreunion relationships : now what? new beginnings -- Changing times -- Appendix 1. Growing up in open adoption : an essay of life experience / Sara VanderHaagen -- Appendix 2. Growing up in transracial adoption : an essay of life experience / Ai Loan Nguyen -- Appendix 3. Search and reunion etiquette : the guide Miss Manners never wrote / Monica M. Byrne -- Appendix 4. Making contact after the search / Curry Wolfe -- Appendix 5. Resources and recommended readings. |
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