Is Adoption for You? : The Information You Need to Make the Right Choice

Rating:
Summary: not much info--check it out of the library!
Review: I just paid full price for this book, read it in an hour or so, and came away with very little concrete information. It was very disappointing! Definitely not worth buying. It did not help me in any way to decide whether adoption is for me.

Rating:
Summary: Adoption for Beginners
Review: I thought this book gave lots of good information showing the pros and cons of adoption. If your thinking about adoption, this is the book for you. The author goes over lots of the myths and misconceptions about adoption. She also gives good resources for getting started. A must read!

Rating:
Summary: Adoption for Beginners
Review: I thought this book gave lots of good information showing the pros and cons of adoption. If your thinking about adoption, this is the book for you. The author goes over lots of the myths and misconceptions about adoption. She also gives good resources for getting started. A must read!

Rating:
Summary: A helpful "prequel" if you're unsure about adopting
Review: Most how-to books on adoption offer information and advice on how to adopt babies or older kids, assuming that readers already KNOW that they want to adopt.

But what if you're not really sure? After all, if you're not sure you want to adopt, buying a how-to-adopt book is like a person who's unsure about marriage buying a book on planning their wedding.

Is Adoption For You is a sort of "prequel," written in a friendly and helpful manner that guides you along the way, with advice on how to consider the issues involved, as well as self-tests and insightful information on adoption and adopted kids. For example, is genetics important to you? If you must have a child who looks like you, adoption won't work for you. Are you a clean freak? Children make lots of messes. It's also important to consider what your spouse or partner thinks about adoption too, one of the many key issues covered in this extremely helpful and practical book.

Rating:
Summary: Thoughtful, practical and non-dogmatic advice
Review: When I first read the title of this book I immediately thought: Who, other than my heart, can tell me whether adoption is for me? But the author asks enough questions and brings up enough issues that I see the importance of considering all these points before proceeding. This book pulled the mirror up to my face even about our own adoption 34 years ago! Fortunately, the answer is still yes, it was for us, only I didn't think about all the things the author brings up, such as ten adoption myths which are important to clear up before considering adoption. (I thought about none of them 34 years ago and dove right into adoption!) I'm glad the author mentioned the myth that adopted kids don't attach to adoptive parents. I can assure you that our daughter, adopted at age 4 days in 1969, is deeply attached to us. She has met her birthmother at age 28, and there is no doubt that her attachment to us, her adoptive parents, is unshakable.
I especially like the author's neutrality about open or confidential adoptions. She cautions the prospective adoptive parents to become as informed about the practice of openness or confidentiality as possible and only to choose one or the other after careful consideration of what they feel is right for them, not for what is pushed by anyone.
Gisela Gasper Fitzgerald, author of ADOPTION: An Open, Semi-Open or Closed Practice?