Reimagining Adoption: What Adoptees Seek from Families and Faith

Have you ever wondered what adoptees and their families need from family and faith? This book blends personal experience, expert insights, adoptee interviews, trauma research, and scriptural interpretation so The Church and the Christian community can re-envision adoption to better serve adoptees and their families. Quotations from adoptees and birth mothers enliven the book and build a deep empathy for those touched by adoption. Reimagining Adoption builds compassion for adoptees and first families. In that compassionate space lies the healing and belonging for which adoptees profoundly yearn. Reimagining Adoption examines beliefs, practices, and Scripture to attune to the needs of vulnerable children and their families and align with Christian values. It examines the historical adoption practices, reviews current practices and proposes revisions. More importantly, it lifts up the words and lived experience of adult adoptees--the true experts on adoption--and braids them with the insights of adoptive families to craft a new adoption paradigm. Readers will learn: How to become better Christian parents and more supportive faith communities How to answer tough questions and to anticipate who will pose them and why How to clarify Christian adoption beliefs and practices How to process the pain of birth parent loss How to validate adoptee grief and loss How to support family preservation How the radical love of Christ must reshape the way we approach adoption How first-hand adoptee/adoptive family accounts can teach us about faith and adoption How to serve vulnerable children and their families with faith, love, and understanding How to reflect the lesson of Gethsemane and bear compassionate witness to adoption complexity, grief, and loss How to use adoption attunement (AQ) strategies to help you and your faith family be a source of safety and connection for adoptees and their families