Adoption Voices

Online Adoption Courses - Created by Adoption Learning Partners, these e-learning courses are provided as a public service to the adoption community.  The courses have been designed for families in the adoption process to help prepare them for parenting an internationally adopted child.  Dillon International requires all of its adoptive families to complete the first three courses while waiting for their child to arrive home.

• Let's Talk Adoption: A Lifetime of Family Conversations 

• Conspicuous Families

• Journey of Attachment

• Medical Issues in International Adoption

• With Eyes Wide Open: A Preparation Guide to International Adoption

• Adopting the Older Child

• Lifebooks: Creating and Telling Your Child's Story

• Finding the Missing Pieces: Helping Adopted Children Cope with Grief and Loss

After completing each online course, please apply for a Certificate of Completion and submit a copy of the certificate to your case manager or home study provider.

www.findingyourchild.com - radio talk show "Creating a Family" is live every Wednesday from 12:00 Noon - 1:00 PM EST on this website.  The show is intended as an educational resource for anyone interested in the topics of adoption and infertility.  Listeners can call into the show to ask questions; the call-in telephone number is posted on the website.  Individual shows are also archived and available after they air either by clicking the link of the archived show on www.findingyourchild.com or by downloading them as a free podcast from iTunes.

Pre-adoption Articles --

• Choosing an Adoption Agency

• Adoption Terminology

• How to Finance an Adoption

• The Adoption Tax Credit Explained

• How to Lobby Your Employer for Adoption Benefits

• A Social Worker's View on the Home Study

• Top 10 Secrets for Successful Adoption Travel

• Understanding the Difference Between Orphanage and Family Cultures

• Health Insurance for Adopted Kids - It's the Law

Post-adoption Articles --

• When You Adopt Under the Laws of Another Country:
  U.S. Readoption Explained

• Post-Arrival Evaluations by Dana Johnson, M.D.

• Enhancing Attachment & Bonding with Your Child

• Using an Adoption Lifebook

• How I Explained Adoption to the First Grade

• Adoption in the Classroom - A Teacher Handout

• Success Factors of Adoptive Families

• JCICS 30th Anniversary Gala Speech by Melanie Chung-Sherman, LMSW

• Important Reminders About Your Child's Citizenship

• Three Decades of Adoptive Parents Speak Out:  An Adoptive Parent Survey

• Talking to Your Child about the Olympic Torch Protests by Jeri Okamoto Floyd

RAISING ADOPTED CHILDREN by Lois Melina
      Easy-to-follow advice on how to raise children who have joined their family through adoption with realistic insights for each stage of the adoptive family life cycle.

REAL PARENTS, REAL CHILDREN by Holly Van Gulden and Lisa M. Bartels-Rabb
      Offers practical advice for parents on how to talk with their children about adoption and how to help their children through the rougher times of growing up adopted.

TODDLER ADOPTION by Mary Hopkins Best, Ed.D.
      Provides suggestions and strategies to help parents undertaking the challenges of caring for newly arrived toddlers through the practical advice, personal insights, and shared experiences of other adoptive parents.

ATTACHING IN ADOPTION by Deborah Gray
      Proper attachment is the most fundamental issue in a successful adoption, but what exactly does the term mean? Attaching in Adoption answers that question thoroughly, and it provides solutions to a variety of specific attachment problem

Understanding the Differences
Between an Orphanage Culture and
a Family Culture

• Poverty, governmental policies, lack of staff education, lack of medical sophistication, etc. may cause an atmosphere in which the meeting of physical needs prevails.  Meeting psychological needs is not necessarily a priority.

• The parent's desire to have and raise a child within an environment of caring and sharing leads to the meeting of the child's physical needs and psychological needs.
  
   

• Caretakers may not provide nurturing.  They change with shifts, leave to pursue other employment, or may be a source of abuse.  Peers leave as a result of adoption, a move to a different orphanage or illness.  Peers may also be a source of abuse.  From this the child learns that people go away, those who should provide affection do not, those who should protect me do not --therefore, "I must rely on and trust myself."
• Often there is less focus on the child's future due to the demands of meeting the day-to-day basic needs.  The child internalizes a one day at a time attitude in that he/she may see no need to care for possessions, complete homework, build friendships, etc. as tomorrow his/her caregivers, peers, and residence may be totally different -- in other words, nothing stays the same.

• Parents instill trust and safety through consistently meeting the child's needs.  From this the child learns that my parents behave toward me in predictable ways  -- therefore, "I can rely on my parents."  The child transfers this knowledge to other spheres of life such as "I can rely on my teachers, community members, etc."
• There is an emphasis on the child's future and providing the education, funding, experiences, etc. to carry out career goals, marriage and family life, etc.  The child internalizes the family's values and views investment in the future as valuable and worthwhile.  As such, the child becomes a functioning member of society.

• Orphanages often utilize a regimented routine to provide for children.  That is, children eat on a schedule, go to the bathroom on a schedule, sleep on a schedule, etc.  This schedule is based on a timeline created by the staff.  As such, the child does not learn to regulate bodily functions.  The child may thus not be able to express needs to other caregivers.  The child's belief of self-reliance may also be further ingrained as the child learns that he/she must meet his/her own needs in order to survive.
  
   

• While families utilize routines to carry out daily tasks, the routines are more flexible and are based on meeting  individual needs.  For example, an infant is fed as the infant expresses a cry of hunger.  An older child may be provided three meals a day with snacks on request to meet his needs.  The family accommodates its members, rather than the members accommodating the routine.  From this the child learns many valuable life skills -- such as, reliance on parents, delaying gratification if parents are involved in meeting the needs of another family member, internal regulation of bodily functions, interdependence, cooperation, mutuality, etc.

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