Product Description

What becomes of women who give up their children for adoption? Why do so many adopted people feel such a strong desire to seek out their families of origin? In what ways are families with adopted children different from other families? This book by Evelyn Robinson provides the answers to these questions and many others.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #457259 in Books
• Published on: 2003-09
• Binding: Paperback
• 250 pages

Nancy Verrier, author
I highly recommend this book as a wonderful addition to adoption literature.

Lea Stevens, MP, Member of South Australian State Parliament, April, 2000.
The book is far more than a sensitive account of one person's experiences: it challenges our thinking about the practices of adoption.

Barb Maison, Origins Newsletter, Victoria, April, 2000.
I have read this book and found it excellent. In my opinion it is the best Australian book ever on adoption issues.

Customer Reviews

Great book.
As a mother who relinquished her son to adoption in 1973, I found this book extremely helpful and interesting. All of the emotions and questions I have lived with for the past 32 years were addressed in a manner which gave my feelings validity and reassurance. It is remarkable how similar my experience is to that of Ms. Robinson. From pregnancy to reunion I feel like I have lived a parallel life on the other side of "the pond", or the world as it turns out. I particularly enjoyed her "Part Three, What does it all mean?". I can certainly ruminate about my life quite well on my own, without the book, but this third part offered me empowerment to say, "Hey, I'm not the bad guy here, what was society thinking?" It's not a transfer of blame, but it is a challange to take another look at established adoption and ask some pretty important questions. I certainly would recommend this book to any natural mother separated from her child at birth, no matter where they are in their grieving process, as well as adoptees, as a means of trying to understand why they came to be adoptees. Adoptive parents should also read this in an effort to offer "our" children support for their whole person, and to become aware that the adoption story is not as simple as they might believe.

Thank you Evelyn Burns Robinson, your book is great!!

Excellent Resource
This book provides three ways of looking at losing a child to adoption: the personal story of a mother, the psychological disenfranchised grief that grows over time for all mothers who lose their children to adoption, and the political dimensions of these losses in society. It is an excellent resource for those who want to understand the effects of taking children from mothers for the benefit of others.

True Insight into the Adoption Process
Evelyn's book provides a rare insight into the mind of a mother who has given her child to adoption. It details the tremendous pain suffered because of this action and the life long grief it leaves. The book records the life of the author from the time of her birth till the present, and it is an honest and candid exposé of her thoughts and feelings about the conception, gestation, birth, and finally the reunion with her son Adam (later renamed Steven by the adoptive parents). Evelyn's story is one that has, in many ways, mirrored the experiences of many other women who have lost their children to adoption. It is a story that needs to be told and one that needs to be heard.

Evelyn raise the question of `acquiescence' for the natural mother and then dispels it by revealing the truth about the coercion involved in gaining consent for adoption. Evelyn also acknowledges the pain and hidden grief suffered by adopted people and lifts the veil of secrecy that surrounds adoption. She examines adoption's dark underbelly and the [idea] of silence that often works to maintain the spiritual, intellectual and physical separation between natural mother's and their children.

This book is highly recommended and a `must read' both for professionals working in the area of adoption and all of those many millions of people, worldwide, who have been touched by adoption. This book will be especially valuable to adoptive parents because it provides an account of the (often unacknowledged) experiences of birthmothers and their children. Many of these individuals have in the past, and will continue in the future, to be consumed by adoptions unresolved grief.