Twenty Things Adopted Kids Wish Their Adoptive Parents Knew

"Birthdays may be difficult for me."

"I want you to take the initiative in opening conversations about my birth family."

"When I act out my fears in obnoxious ways, please hang in there with me."

"I am afraid you will abandon me."

The voices of adopted children are poignant, questioning. And they tell a familiar story of loss, fear, and hope. This extraordinary book, written by a woman who was adopted herself, gives voice to children's unspoken concerns, and shows adoptive parents how to free their kids from feelings of fear, abandonment, and shame.

With warmth and candor, Sherrie Eldridge reveals the twenty complex emotional issues you must understand to nurture the child you love--that he must grieve his loss now if he is to receive love fully in the future--that she needs honest information about her birth family no matter how painful the details may be--and that although he may choose to search for his birth family, he will always rely on you to be his parents.

Filled with powerful insights from children, parents, and experts in the field, plus practical strategies and case histories that will ring true for every adoptive family, Twenty Things Adopted Kids Wish Their Adoptive Parents Knew is an invaluable guide to the complex emotions that take up residence within the heart of the adopted child--and within the adoptive home.

• The Primal Wound: Understanding the Adopted Child
• 20 Things Adoptive Parents Need to Succeed..Discover the Unique Need of Your Adopted Child and Become the Best Parent You Can
• The Connected Child: Bring hope and healing to your adoptive family
• Being Adopted: The Lifelong Search for Self (Anchor Book)
• In On It: What Adoptive Parents Would Like You To Know About Adoption. A Guide for Relatives and Friends. (Mom's Choice Award Winner)
• Raising Adopted Children, Revised Edition: Practical Reassuring Advice for Every Adoptive Parent
• Coming Home to Self: The Adopted Child Grows Up
• 20 Life-Transforming Choices Adoptees Need to Make, Second Edition
• Wounded Children, Healing Homes: How Traumatized Children Impact Adoptive and Foster Families
• Attaching in Adoption: Practical Tools for Today's Parents