Elizabeth Trinder & Julia Feast 
The Adoption Reunion Handbook [PDF ebook] 

The book describes the experiences that people have had when tracing their birth parents, as well as offering practical advice on how to go about searching and what to expect emotionally. Each section has an advice box which summarizes key points, notes issues to pay particular attention to, or offers draft letters that readers can adapt for their own needs. The appendix contains useful addresses and weblinks, and includes checklists for searching and for the reunion. Chapters include reunion with birth fathers and birth siblings, as well as with birth mothers, the relationship with the adoptive family and dealing with reunions that break down.

Jadual kandungan

About the Authors vi

Preface vii

Foreword ix

Acknowledgements xi

1 Introduction 1

2 Taking the first step: Birth record information 5

3 On the search trail 19

4 Reunions with birth mothers 33

5 Reunions with birth fathers 57

6 Reunions with siblings 69

7 The adoptive family and reunion 79

8 Rejection and reunions that break down 97

9 The search and reunion journey 111

Appendix: Information on search and reunion in the UK, Ireland, Australia, New Zealand, Canada and the USA 131

Further reading 153

Index 155

Mengenai Pengarang

DR LIZ TRINDER is a researcher into family relationships. Most of
her work is in the area of contact after divorce, e.g. the recent
report for the Joseph Rowntree Foundation on Making Contact.
This is the first time she has written about adoption. She was
herself adopted.

JULIA FEAST currently works at the British Association of
Adoption and Fostering (BAAF), London, as the Policy, Research and
Development Consultant. In the past she managed the post-adoption
and care counselling research project, The Children’s Society
and has counselled a number of people who have been adopted and
also those who were brought up in Care through the search and
reunion process. She has published many articles on the subject of
Adoption Search and Reunion and also the information needs of
children conceived as a result of donor-assisted conception. She is
co-author of Preparing for Reunion: Experiences from the
Adoption Circle (The Children’s Society, 1994; new
edition 1998) and Adoption, Search and Reunion: The Long-Term
Experience of Adopted Adults (The Children’s Society,
2000; now published by BAAF), and Searching Questions: Origins,
Identity and Adoption (BAAF, 2003).

DR DAVID HOWE has a long-standing interest in all aspects of
adoption. He is the author of many books, including Half a
Million Women: Mothers who Lose their Children by Adoption
(Penguin), Adopters on Adoption (BAAF), Patterns of
Adoption: Nature, Nurture and Psychosocial Development
(Blackwell Science), and, with Julia Feast, Adoption, Search and
Reunion: The Long-Term Experience of Adopted Adults (The
Children’s Society, 2000; now published by BAAF).