Based on a poem the author wrote immediately after the arrival of their first adopted child, this story is perfect for anyone who has adopted or is going to adopt.

Rhyming text and illustrations celebrate the joys of family as parents welcome their new baby home, introducing him to the place where he will grow up.

Examine the pros and cons of nontraditional adoption! Welcome Home! An International and Nontraditional Adoption Reader is an essential guide to the process, pros, and cons of adopting children from outside the United States, with special needs, and/or from a different racial/cultural background. The book documents every aspect of the adoption procedure—from working with “facilitators,” adoption agencies, and attorneys to mixed reactions over a child’s possible loss of heritage as the result of a transracial or multicultural adoption. Parents and adoptees offer unique, firsthand perspectives on the cautions and benefits of nontraditional adoption. Americans adopted more than 20,000 children from other countries in 2001, a number that reflects humanitarian motives, the desire to adopt a child from a specific country, and/or frustration with the domestic adoption system. Including a foreword by United States Representative Ted Strickland, Welcome Home! is a practical resource for anyone thinking of establishing a family or adding to their own. The book provides insight into the adoption process, open adoption, biracial adoption, adopting a special needs child, cultural attitudes, and how to handle an adopted child’s questions in later years. It also addresses specific adoption issues, including: how to verify an agency’s credentials; how an agency negotiates with the birth mother; state and country laws and practices; tax benefits; and expenses, including legal and medical costs; and includes research findings on the Northeast-Northwest Collaborative Adoption Projects (N2CAP) Welcome Home! tells the stories of: Naomi and Fred, an intermarried couple (she’s Jewish, he’s not) who adopted a Greek baby in 1962 “Tina” and “Lee,” a lesbian couple, who adopted a baby from China Marianne, a professor of child and adolescent psychiatry at the University of Lund in Sweden, who adopted babies from Iran and Thailand—several years after her divorce Pamela, a divorced mother of four biological children who has adopted babies from Viet Nam and China All of her biological children Mildred—Pamela’s mother and the children’s grandmother Karen, adoptive mother and national chairperson for Families for Russian and Ukrainian adoption (FRUA) William, adoptive father of miracle sisters from Romania and many more! Welcome Home! is an invaluable source of unusual insight for psychologists, psychiatrists, marriage and family therapists, adoption agencies, counselors, social workers, attorneys, physicians, academics, and, of course, anyone considering adoption.

Here are the compelling stories of eleven "reverts", Catholics who fell away from the Church and eventually came back home. Some of the people are very well-known, like Fr. John Corapi, Rick Strom and Jesse Romero, and others are known only in their smaller circles. But each person's story of why he left the Catholic Church and why he returned is a unique and moving tale of God's mercy, love and grace. There is one common denominator, though, among the writers of Welcome Home! To parapharse Archbishop Fulton Sheen, few hate the Catholic Chruch for what she teaches, but millions hate it for what they think she teaches. The defining moment of illuminating grace almost always came when our storytellers began to examine Catholic teaching for themselves.

A mother welcomes her newborn infant, and tells her what life will be like as the child grows older.

Most of us have met a survivor of abuse at some point in our lives. Whether they were a stranger, neighbor, co-worker, or even someone we love, we are everywhere. We hide our fading bruises from the world, and often times even defend our attackers' actions. It's not that we are weak and the question "why don't they just leave" can only be answered by the individual victim. The answers are usually very complicated and personal. My secret world of abuse was harsh, lonely and humiliating. I was afraid of the ramifications connected to "telling all." Would I be believed? Will it even matter to anyone if they knew? I would have been severely punished by the abuser I exposed. That was my greatest fear. Six months after the sudden death of my mother I broke the silence of my past. In the late hours of another sleepless night the dynamics of abuse in the 1950's and 1960's is recalled and chronicled. With pen in hand, coffee cup at my side, memories and tears poured on to paper. By dawn the door was opened. Few were allowed to enter my childhood home. We wanted no witnesses. I was a good liar, and could hide the truth from everyone. Not anymore. I believe the courage to tell these stories came from a love that resonates even after death. With that love and a desire to offer a glimpse into the life of a survivor, I am opening the door to my childhood and inviting you to come into my secret world and be my witness.

There are some things which even the closest friendship cannot survive . . . Welcome Home is an enthralling and moving drama from bestselling author Margaret Dickinson, set during the Second World War. Neighbours Edie Kelsey and Lil Horton have been friends for over twenty years, sharing the joys and sorrows of a tough life as the wives of fishermen in Grimsby. So it was no surprise that their children were close and that Edie's son, Frank, and Lil's daughter, Irene, would fall in love and marry at a young age. But the declaration of war in 1939 changed everything. Frank went off to fight, and Irene and baby, Tommy, along with Edie's youngest son are sent to the countryside for safety. With Edie's husband, Archie, fishing the dangerous waters in the North Sea and daughter Beth in London doing 'important war work', Edie's family is torn apart. Friendship sustains Edie and Lil, but tragedy follows and there's also concern that Beth seems to have disappeared. But it is Irene's return, during the VE day celebrations, that sends shock waves through the family and threatens to tear Edie and Lil's friendship apart forever.