Product Description

Tens of thousands of children in the United States alone are waiting in foster care for parents, and many Americans, single and married, want to open their hearts and homes to these children who wait. A landmark 1980 federal law made adopting and raising special needs children affordable even for people of limited means. What could be easier than matching these kids to these families? The reality is that many prospective adopters never complete the adoption process because of red tape, regulations, and institutional lethargy. Among the adults who complete a homestudy or placement, lack of support services and advocacy training sometimes leads to heartbreak and adoption failure--not a happy ending. Adopting and Advocating for the Special Needs Child bridges the gap between the desire to help a waiting child and the reality of America's special needs adoption system. It is designed to be used by adoption professionals and adoptive parents, to help them get started, keep going, and locate whatever additional information and support they need. The authors are adoption professionals, long-time support volunteers, child advocates, and mothers of a total of 23 children, 14 of them adopted children with special needs.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #913689 in Books
• Published on: 1997-05-30
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Hardcover
• 280 pages

From Library Journal
Across the country, thousands of children with special mental, physical, emotional, or placement needs wait in foster care or institutions for families to adopt them. Unfortunately, a system encumbered by red tape, outdated regulations, and institutional inefficiencies often slows, if not discourages, their adoption by families eager to give them a home. Babb and Laws offer here a practical guidebook to assist prospective adopters. The authors are adoption professionals with Ph.Ds. in psychology who between them have a total of 14 adopted children with special needs. Their book offers a wealth of practical advice on getting started, becoming a family, facing realities (finances, education, transracial adoption), and coping when things go wrong, plus an extensive appendix full of valuable resources. A nice addition to any adoption collection.?KellyJo Houtz Griffin, Auburn, Wash.
Copyright 1997 Reed Business Information, Inc.

From Booklist
Although definitions vary from state to state, special needs children include those with mental, physical, and emotional disabilities and those with problems due to their age, sibling status, race, and such risk factors as exposure to drugs in utero. Completely frank and remarkably compassionate, this detailed, comprehensive guide to the issues, participants, process, and outcomes involved in adopting children who will require special support is an important, sorely needed addition to the current informational literature on adoption. Babb and Laws bring professional and personal experience to the task of demystifying special needs adoption, and they cover such key topics as how to find a child, prepare for adoptive parenthood, anticipate early placement experiences, manage finances, advocate within the educational system, and cope when things go wrong. Tables, checklists, and frequent references to additional resources add value to their informed advice to prospective adoptive parents. Kathryn Carpenter

Review
“Completely frank and remarkably compassionate, this detailed, comprehensive guide to the issues, participants, process, and outcomes involved in adopting children who will require special support is an important, sorely needed addition to the current informational literature on adoption. Babb and Laws bring professional and personal experience to the task of demystifying special needs adoption, and they cover such key topics as how to find a child, prepare for adoptive parenthood, anticipate early placement experiences, manage finances, advocate within the educational system, and cope when things go wrong. Tables, checklists, and frequent references to additional resources add value to their informed advice to prospective adoptive parents.”–Booklist

“A wealth of practical advice on getting started, becoming a family, facing realities (finances, education, transracial adoption), and coping when things go wrong, plus an extensive appendix full of valuable resources. A nice addition to any adoption collection.”–Library Journal

“A strong overview of issues, beginning with making the decision to adopt a child with special needs right through to launching such a child into adulthood....There are few, if any, topics related to adopting special needs children that are not at least brought up here, and resources direct readers to more in-depth materials on nearly all topics raised....An essential addition to a basic adoption library.”–Adoption Quarterly

Customer Reviews

Written by authors who love children
Love is not all a child needs to make an adoption work, and the authors show us this truth in their vast personal and professional experience in adopting special needs children. Prospective adoptive parents of special needs children, both domestic and international, will greatly benefit from the important information and insights into critical emotional, educational and criminal issues dealt with in this wonderful book. I heartily recommend it to everyone.
Gisela Gasper Fitzgerald, author of ADOPTION: An Open, Semi-Open or Closed Practice?

A must read for all fost/adopt parents!
Adopting and Advocating for the Special Needs Child is well written, interesting and knows its audience (written in layman's terms). This book should be given to all parents of foster children who are considering adoption.

An excellent guide through the process of adoption.
If you are going to read only one book on adopting children with special needs let this be the one. With their vast personal and professional experience in adopting special needs children, Babb and Law clearly explain the most important information and most critical emotional issues which pre-adoptive parents need to consider. My husband and I have adopted three special needs children. This book helped us understand how to advocate for ourselves as we moved through the process of adoption, how to advocate for the children both before and after the adoption and how to address some of the many complex emotional issues faced by a family which chooses to care for and love special needs children. My hearfelt thanks go out to Rita Law and Anne Babb for this wonderful gift of book.