Danielle spoke only in grunts and yelps, walked on her tiptoes, was not toilet-trained and drank from a bottle. She was almost seven years old. But hope and help were waiting for this little girl. In October 2007, Bernie and Diane Lierow, a hard-working couple with five boys of their own, adopted her and utterly transformed her life. This book tells the moving story of how the Lierows rescued Dani and helped her recover to the point where she can not only communicate, something once thought impossible, but can say of herself, "I pretty." Dani's Story was featured on Oprah and the subject of a Pulitzer Prize-winning article published by the St. Petersburg Times. The Lierows describe their struggle to adopt Dani, how they bonded with her and made a home for her, how they satisfied her craving for contact and stimuli, how Dani began to overcome her severe learning disabilities, how she learned she no longer had to steal food, and how their son Willie may be the greatest brother ever. Charting a perilous journey from hardship to hope, a new family, and a second chance at life, Dani's Story is a book you cannot put down and will never forget.

    There she meets Marta Bayer, a mysterious lay-midwife who desperately needs help after an Amish client and her baby die.Lexie steps in to assume Marta’s patient load even as she continues the search for her birth family, and from her patients she learns the true meaning of the Pennsylvania Dutch word demut, which means “to let be” as she changes from a woman who wants to control everything to a woman who depends on God.A compelling story about a search for identity and the ability to trust that God securely holds our whole life—past, present, and future.

    It may be something said or done by an adult who hardly thinks about it: a hug, a compliment, an intriguing question, a sincere applause. But in that moment, the child discovers who they are, what is important to them, why they matter, and sometimes even what their destiny will be. Most of us want to help encourage and build into this next generation, most of us see the need all around, but we just have no idea where to begin.Now, with this book, you know where to begin and you know that it only takes Just a Minute. Follow along as Dr. Wess Stafford, president of Compassion International, shares stories and experiences to introduce you to the difference you can actually make anywhere on the spectrum of child development. From helping meet physical needs to breaking down emotional barriers and from discovering latent talents to equipping with spiritual insights, these stories are a catalyst for action.You don't have to be a teacher, a parent, a pastor, or a doctor to make a difference in the life of a child. You only have to be willing!

    At 38, Carolyn Nash had a good job, no apparent struggles and few conscious regrets—save, perhaps, her weight and her childlessness. She remedies the latter by fostering and then adopting 3-year-old Abel, a victim of unspeakable parental abuse, most of it sexual. The consequences are predictable and agonizing. Abel is charmingly innocent yet uncontrollably violent, and as he grows, so do his PTSD symptoms. He refuses to bathe, he fails in school. Thrown toys become thrown punches, then smashed windshields. Psychiatrists are consulted, police called. Special education, home-schooling, hospitalizations, meds—all resources are tried and exhausted. Yet Nash remains indefatigable, wrestling with her son (literally) and with her inner demons and repressed memories, haltingly revealed in sessions with her therapist. Through the lens of Abel's trauma, Nash peers into her own nightmares—she too feels deformed and unlovable—and learns their sick source. The book is structured almost entirely in short, dramatic episodes, a technique Nash uses skillfully, though the dialogue at times grows repetitive and similar scenes tend to pile up. A bit of condensing and narrative summarizing would have propelled events more quickly and provided perspective on this 18-year saga. And although Nash faithfully records Abel's words and behavior, for much of the book he remains a cipher. Only late in the story, when the troubled teen turns violently on Nash herself, do we get a penetrating glimpse into Abel's beating heart, where his triggers, his alienation and his lifelong struggle come into searing focus. Here Nash gives us Abel in full, and we see with our own eyes how the measure of this young man is also the measure of the woman who raised him—with pure, dogged, unrelenting, overwhelming, at times selfish, often desperate, boundless, evergreen love. This was her treatment and her cure. We know it by its common term—mothering.A sobering but uplifting tale of love that never gives up; dramatically told, ultimately rewarding.

    Managing Emotional Mayhem lays a conceptual foundation, explores limiting beliefs, presents new adult skills and teaches us how to coach children in this transformative self-regulation process. 168 pages.

    dollars, four Guatemalan "orphans," one nonprofit evangelical Christian adoption agency, a family-run child-trafficking ring, one infant cut from her unconscious mother's womb, two tiny missing sisters, and a nine-member Tennessee family who believed wholeheartedly in Christian love and faith-until the dark side of international adoption shattered their trust. Siegal reveals the heart wrenching story of how one poor Guatemalan woman, Mildred Alvarado, ultimately reunited with her kidnapped daughters against all odds-and how the American housewife slated to adopt one of those children, Elizabeth Emanuel, accidentally became a reformer dedicated to an ethical adoption system.FINDING FERNANDA sheds light on the highly politicized landscape of Guatemala's adoption industry, a multi-million dollar trade that was both highly profitable and barely regulated. Children have been stolen, sold, and placed as orphans in corrupt international adoptions to well-intentioned Western parents ever since the industry began in the 1980s, yet the governments of Guatemala and the United States repeatedly proved unwilling and incapable of regulating the baby trade. Of the 100,000 children adopted into the United States between 2004 and 2008, over 20,000 were Guatemalan.With help of documents obtained via Freedom of Information Act requests, leaked emails, and key sources inside both the Guatemalan and U.S. governments, Siegal's research traces one compelling case of corruption in detail from start to finish. Along the way, the mechanisms surrounding "orphan laundering" are illuminated, including the roles of baby-finders, caretakers, judges, government officials, and more. This cadena perpetua, or perpetual chain, involves everyone from Guatemalan judges to U.S. embassy officials. Provocative as it is captivating, FINDING FERNANDA an overdue, unprecedented look at how adoption corruption occurs-- and a poignant, riveting human story about the power of hope, faith, and determination.

    You'll see a breadth of ways to care with biblical perspective and reasons why we must. Heartwarming, personal stories and vivid illustrations from a growing network of families, churches, and organizations that cross culture show how to respond to God's mandate. The book empowers: - churches--to plan preaching, teaching, ministering, missions, funding adoption, supporting orphans; - individuals and families--to overcome challenges and uncertainties; - every believer--to gain insights to help orphans in numerous ways. Discover how to - adopt; - assist orphans in transition; - engage in foster care; - partner with faith-based fostering agencies; - become orphan hosts. Along with their families' adoption stories, Merida and Morton give steps for action and features on churches doing orphan ministry, faith-based children's homes, orphan-hosting groups, and other resources.

    Among the stories is the remarkable transformation of nine year old Sarah, who comes into Becky’s life when she is beaten half to death by her mother’s violent boyfriend. Then there’s Liam, a tall and gangly young teen who has cut himself off from the world after being thrown out of home by his drug-addicted mother when he was just ten years old. Becky also tells the story of Jade and Jasmine, toddler twins who had been locked in a freezing, bare room for weeks on end, with just one filthy blanket to share. Sometimes these children are so vulnerable it becomes a situation of life and death, and Becky has been there and taken them to a place of safety. Although some of the stories are at times heartbreaking, Becky’s determination that no child should be forgotten makes this remarkable book an unforgettable and inspiring read.

    He felt unloved, uncared for, unsafe, sad, lonely and extremely angry. As he grew up, he, like most Reactive Attachment Disordered kids, acted out, exhibiting severely antisocial, even violent, behavior. You'll travel back in time to view a young child's life through his own eyes. You'll see an innocent boy become a severely emotionally disturbed teen. Then, against all odds, you'll read about miracles few ever thought possible.

    But is it true love if they haven’t made love? Lauren pushes Ebban to consummate their relationship, but he hesitates and won’t tell her why. Meanwhile, Ebban is engaging in behavior he knows he shouldn’t be, and hates himself for it. It’s a terrible secret he keeps from Lauren and his family, and prays they’ll never discover it. But when Sebastian, Lauren’s best friend, is grabbed and brutally beaten, he decides to get revenge by digging up dirt and blackmailing the boys who assaulted him. Unfortunately, those boys happen to be Ebban and his teammates. One by one, Sebastian sets each boy up and takes him out. Now, the closer Sebastian comes to discovering Ebban’s involvement in the horrific beating, the closer he comes to revealing Ebban’s tortured secret, and telling Lauren. If found out, everything, and everyone Ebban holds dear could be lost.

    Bennett provides a sturdy theological foundation for a ministry to the disenfranchised--the orphan--and then shows how churches can build on these biblical foundations to implement or improve an orphan care program and to equip care-givers. With "how-to" practicality, this book focuses on total orphan care ministry and not just adoption, including a wide range of activities intended to get the whole church involved: domestic and international adoption, foster care, counseling, congregational funding, overseas mission trips, prayer ministry, and so on. The temptation in a church can be to see orphan care as a ministry for couples of child-bearing age. This approach fails to make wise use of the incredible resources of energetic young people, empty-nesters with newfound freedom, or older saints who have some time with which they desire to be good stewards. A Passion for the Fatherless includes practical and encouraging stories of how other churches and believers have cared for orphans, and each chapter contains a study guide so that a group leader could use the book in a small-group bible study. It encourages the church to retain "its strong biblical philosophy of ministry while simultaneously being obedient in so-called social ministries, like orphan care." "This book is based on a careful study of what the Bible has to say about [orphan care] (and the answer, is plenty!), and why we cannot ignore the most helpless and abandoned of God's creation without grieving the heart of God. All who are in Christian ministry should read it and ask: How should we get involved?" --Dr. Erwin Lutzer, Moody Church, Chicago

    These findings posit that many of the learning and behavior problems seen in children—from poor school performance to patterns of impulsivity often diagnosed as ADHD—are both treatable and preventable. The book first traces the history of fetal malformation back to the time of Aristotle, then presents a resounding call for integrated systems of care for high-risk children and their families. Methods for applying behavior management and treatment techniques are included for health care practitioners, social workers, early childhood intervention specialists, special education teachers, and parents, whether for use at home, at school, or in the clinical setting.

    Hughes, a leading practitioner in his field, specializes in an attachment-oriented approach to family therapy. Applying his model to children and families with a range of psychological problems, this book distills just the clinical strategies, offering practitioners a host of practical exercises and interventions on the core skills of his treatment program.

    Scared and alone, she has to protect her endangered nephew. If she can find Garrett's father, perhaps he'll keep the boy safe and learn to love the child she'd trade her life to keep. Jesse McTavish has lost his family. Abandoning his faith, the seeds of destruction are sown. As he struggles with grief, the last thing he needs is a woman showing up with a child who's the mirror image of his dead son. But he can neither ignore nor reject the woman and child who threaten to break through the protective shield he's built around his heart.Through the ensuing storm of pain and loss, Christmas teaches Dea and Jesse about faith and forgiveness. Sanctuary may be what we ask for, but God gives us so much more.

    Following the invisible thread of connection between people who are seemingly intended to become family, journalist Jennifer Grant shares the deeply personal, often humorous story of adopting a fifteen-month-old girl from Guatemala when she was already the mother of three very young children. Her family's journey is captured in stories that will encourage not only adoptive families but those who are curious about adoption or whose lives have been indirectly touched by it. Love You More explores universal themes such as parenthood, marriage, miscarriage, infertility, connection, destiny, true self, failure and stumbling, and redemption.

    For the twenty-five contributors to Somebody’s Child, the topic of adoption is not—and perhaps never can be—a neutral issue. With unique courage, each of them discusses their experience of the adoption process. Some share stories of heartbreak; others have discovered joy; some have searched for closure. Somebody’s Child captures the many unforgettable faces and voices of adoption.The third book in a series of anthologies about the twenty-first-century family, Somebody’s Child follows Nobody’s Mother and Nobody’s Father, two essay collections from childless adults on parenthood, family and choices. Together, these three books challenge readers to reexamine traditional definitions of the concept of “family.”

    After he overcomes the challenges of existential angst, bureaucratic roadblocks, and unemployment, the phone call to his first mother releases a torrent of long-buried feelings. During a sometimes turbulent long-distance unfolding, he absorbs her shocking revelations and comes out as gay once again.Their eventual reunion creates a profound bond, even as he navigates waves of conflicting emotions, merges past with present, and embarks on a new future rooted in truth and insights into the universal quest for identity and human connection. He isBecoming Patrick."

    Instead she is granted with a wise old teacher from China who appears at her bedside! With his magic cane and his gentle ways, Laoshi takes Mei Li on an adventure to China and back to the day she was born to show her how her story began. Together they perch on a shaky pagoda and look at the Great Wall of China, a flowing river, and even pandas as the wise old Laoshi guides her through some hard questions she has been holding in her heart. Laoshi teaches Mei Li that a family is not just about who you were born to, but can also be created through the amazing gift of love.

    Layers of red tape dissolved as the American Embassy there smoothed the way for the adoption. Within a few weeks, Margaret Ward and Thomas de Witt were the parents of a toddler they named Nelson—an adorable boy whose prior life seemed as mysterious as the fact that government officials in two countries had inexplicably expedited his adoption. In Missing Mila, Finding Family, Margaret Ward tells the poignant and compelling story of this international adoption and the astonishing revelations that emerged when Nelson’s birth family finally relocated him in 1997. After recounting their early years together, during which she and Tom welcomed the birth of a second son, Derek, and created a family with both boys, Ward vividly recalls the upheaval that occurred when members of Nelson’s birth family contacted them and sought a reunion with the boy they knew as Roberto. She describes how their sense of family expanded to include Nelson’s Central American relatives, who helped her piece together the lives of her son’s birth parents and their clandestine activities as guerrillas in El Salvador’s civil war. In particular, Ward develops an internal dialogue with Nelson’s deceased mother Mila, an elusive figure whose life and motivations she tries to understand.

    They have rescued about 1,000 children to date. In 1998 the Hills planned to leave. Instead they felt God calling them to stay in China and set up a foster home for unwanted babies. The couple - with their two youngest children - moved into a tiny apartment miles outside Beijing, setting up the first cot in the dining room. In October 2000 Hope Foster Home received its first children. Many needed medical assistance and would be unlikely to survive under the existing state system. Some were abandoned on the streets or left under bridges. As news spread, so help arrived - including support from singer/songwriter Steven Curtis Chapman. Now directors of Child Welfare Institutes across China have asked Joyce and Rob to step in. This is a riveting example of how one couple have changed hundreds of lives.

    . . I have my own.But someone loved me just the way I am, and someone loves you just the way you are.Meet Reggie Dabbs.Born as the result of a heart-wrenching decision made by his then sixteen-year-old mom, Reggie offers hope and inspiration to those who are stuck in the despair of their broken beginnings and are crying out for help. It is this first chapter in his life that sets Reggie on the journey of a lifetime—one filled with fear, regret, sorrow, and, ultimately redemption. Taking a chronological look at his life, Reggie reveals the transforming power of faith, weaving in personal anecdotes, biblical principles, and ten ways to discover everything from your voice and your name to your hero and your passion. Prepare to discover, as Reggie did, that although you cannot change your past, you can change your future.“Reggie Dabbs is one of the strongest, most influential voices God has raised up to speak to this generation.”—Jentezen Franklin“Reggie not only will inspire you but also will lead you on a journey to the core elements of life—and the potential therein to change.”—Mark Batterson

    Together, they explore the concept of personal identity from the perspective of someone who was erased completely by adoption in The State of New York."The Last Invisible Continent is an important book, a superb mixing of the personal and the political." — The Columbus Free Press

    When he is hired to work for Sienna and Jonathan Driscoll, his life changes more drastically than he could have ever imagined. Before long, Drew learns that this is not an ordinary job. There is definitely something unusual about the Driscoll family. Especially their son, Justice Quinn. Drew is introduced to the Driscolls’ daughter, Bella Maura, with whom he shares a special bond. As his relationship with Bella develops, Drew learns that he is not the only one hiding a secret. Each new day brings with it shocking revelations about the unique spiritual gifts of the Driscolls, and their God-given obligation to people suffering at the hands of the darkness and evil of the world. Where is God’s justice? Does anyone hear the prayers of the abused, those too broken and weak to defend themselves? Why does it seem that so often the unjust escape punishment on the earth? Justice Quinn deals with each of these questions, as well as the concept of intercessory prayer, in order to help us understand why God’s timing must be reverenced.

    Stewart reveals a journey of having a dream, experiencing the death of that vision, and seeing God fulfill it in His time. If you are waiting on God to answer a prayer or feel like God will never answer your prayer--for a child, for a mate, for some other need or desire or dream--then this book will show you how one family trusted God to walk with them through the dark, scary, unknown valleys as they waited on Him. If you are anywhere in the adoption process--from thinking about it to preparing to go pick up your child to dealing with attachment disorder--then this book will offer you insights, faith, and peace for the journey. If you are trying to get pregnant or have experienced a miscarriage, then this book may give you hope and encourage you to hang on. "For the vision is yet for the appointed time; It hastens toward the goal and it will not fail. Though it tarries, wait for it; For it will certainly come, it will not delay" (Habakkuk 2:3 NASB).