Bringing Joshua Home - American Adoptions of Russian Children PDF Download

Author:
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category : Documentary-style films
Languages : en
Pages :

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Book Description
In late December, 2012, Russian President Vladimir Putin signed a bill banning all American adoptions of Russian children. Americans have adopted hundreds of children from Russia each year, providing hope and love to those languishing in Russia's overstressed orphanage system. Protests against this new law have erupted in both the United States and Russia. How this controversy will be resolved remains to be seen. What can be seen is the power of life-giving love exhibited by those who have successfully adopted in the past.. Bringing Joshua Home tells the personal story of one family who successfully adopted a Russian child. Arthur and Hanna Rasco share the challenges, joys, and drama of adopting their baby boy from Moscow and introducing him into their family. If you've ever wondered what it is like to adopt internationally, this film gives an inside, real-life look into the process from start to finish.

Author: Andrea K. Neighbors
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category : Adoption
Languages : en
Pages : 196

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Book Description
"This thesis describes and analyzes the Russian-American adoption relationship between the early 1990s and 2007. In the early 1990s, an Non-Governmental Organization report depicting Russian orphanages provided Americans with pitiful images of Russian orphaned children. The report became iconic and shaped the way Americans perceived Russian orphans and orphanages. For the rest of the 1990s, Russian children became one of the most popular adoption choices for American parents; these children had the 'right' race and could be 'saved'. In 2005, news started to surface that adopted Russian children had been murdered in the U.S. by American adoptive parents. The Russian government responded to this news by placing a moratorium on all foreign adoptions. American adoption practices have, in many ways, hurt the pride of Russians. The perceptions Americans have of Russia as a 'third world' country, and the perceptions Russians have of Americans as 'greedy Westerners', influenced the dynamics of this intercountry adoption relationship over the course of fifteen years. In 2007 the ban was lifted, but the relationship had changed significantly due to the shifting priorities of American adoptive parents and the dynamics of U.S.-Russian international relations"--Leaf iii.

Author: Robert Klose
Publisher: Univ. Press of Mississippi
ISBN: 9781617033421
Category : Family & Relationships
Languages : en
Pages : 178

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Book Description
Although single women have long been permitted to adopt children, adoption by unmarried men remains an uncommon experience in Western culture. However, Robert Klose, who is single, wanted a son so badly that he faced down the opposition and overcame seemingly insurmountable barriers to realize his goal. The story of his quest for a son is detailed in this intimate personal account. The frustrating truth he reports is that most adoption agencies seem unsure of how to respond to a single man's application. During the three years that it took for him to proceed through the adoption maze, Klose met resistance and dead ends at every attempt. Happenstance finally led him to Russia, where he found the child of his dreams in a Moscow orphanage, a Russian boy named Alyosha. This is the first book to be written by a single man adopting from abroad. The narrative of his quest serves as an instructional firsthand manual for single men wishing to adopt. It details the prospective father's heightening sense of anticipation as he untangles bureaucratic snarls and addresses cultural differences involved in adopting a foreign child. When he arrives in Russia, he supposes the adoption will be a matter of following cut-and-dried procedures. Instead, his difficulties are only beginning. Although he meets kind and generous Russians, his encounter with the child welfare system in Moscow turns out to be both chaotic and bizarre. However, his dogged ordeal pays off more bountifully than he ever could have hoped. In the end he comes face to face with a little boy who changes his life forever.

Author: Adrienne Ehlert Bashista
Publisher: Drt Press
ISBN: 9781933084008
Category : Intercountry adoption
Languages : en
Pages : 0

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Book Description
A mother describes her daughter's life before and after she was adopted from Russia.

Author: Barbara MELOSH
Publisher: Harvard University Press
ISBN: 0674040910
Category : Family & Relationships
Languages : en
Pages : 337

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Book Description
Strangers and Kin is the history of adoption. An adoptive mother herself, Barbara Melosh tells the story of how married couples without children sought to care for and nurture other people's children as their own. Taking this history into the early twenty-first century, Melosh offers unflinching insight to the contemporary debates that swirl around adoption: the challenges to adoption secrecy; the ethics and geopolitics of international adoption; and the conflicts over transracial adoption.

Author: Alan Philps
Publisher: Macmillan + ORM
ISBN: 1429958103
Category : Biography & Autobiography
Languages : en
Pages : 306

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Book Description
In 1990, a young boy afflicted with cerebral palsy was born, prematurely, in Russia. His name was Vanya. His mother abandoned him to the state childcare system and he was sent to a bleak orphanage called Baby House 10. Once there, he entered a nightmare world he was not to leave for more than eight years. Housed in a ward with a group of other children, he was clothed in rags, ignored by most of the staff and given little, if any, medical treatment. He was finally, and cruelly, confined for a time to a mental asylum where he lived, almost caged, lying in a pool of his own waste on a locked ward surrounded by psychotic adults. But, that didn't stop Vanya. Even in these harsh conditions, he grew into a smart and persistent young boy who reached out to everyone around him. Two of those he reached out to—Sarah Philps, the wife of a British journalist, and Vika, a young Russian woman—realized that Vanya was no ordinary child and they began a campaign to find him a home. After many twists and turns, Vanya came to the attention of a single woman living in the United States named Paula Lahutsky. After a lot of red tape and more than one miracle, Paula adopted Vanya and brought him to the U.S. where he is now known as John Lahutsky, an honors student at Freedom High School in Bethlehem, Pennsylvania and a member of the Boy Scouts of America Order of the Arrow. In The Boy From Baby House 10, Sarah's hus band, Alan Philps, helps John Lahutsky bring this inspiring true-life story of a small boy with a big heart and an unquenchable will to readers everywhere.

Author: Jeff Abbott
Publisher: Grand Central Publishing
ISBN: 1538733145
Category : Fiction
Languages : en
Pages : 368

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Book Description
Each of us has a question we dread. When the simple community of Lakehaven is shaken by a violent crime, doubts begin to arise among the locals about whom they can trust. In a quiet neighborhood in the wealthy Austin suburb of Lakehaven, the body of Danielle Roberts is discovered on a park bench. Danielle was a beloved member of the community, an adoption consultant who delivered the joy of parenthood to a number of local families. Her murder shocks Lakehaven. Perhaps no other family is as crushed as the Pollitts, who lived two houses down from Danielle and thought of her almost like family. Her death becomes the catalyst for a maelstrom of suspicion and intrigue. You have been told a huge lie, an anonymous email charges the son, Grant. No one can learn the truth now, thinks the father, Kyle. Never ask me what I'd do to protect my family, resolves the wife, Iris. I'll do whatever it takes to save him, vows the daughter, Julia, of Danielle's grieving teenage son. The Pollitts always thought they'd always be there for each other. When each begins to suspect the others of the unimaginable, the strength of their bonds will be tested in extraordinary new ways. The latest from New York Times bestselling author Jeff Abbott ishis most suspenseful thriller yet: a riveting tale of the dangerous secrets one family has concealed -- and what happens when the question each Pollitt hoped they'd never be asked threatens to expose their darkest truths.

Author: Dawn Peterson
Publisher:
ISBN: 9780674737556
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 346

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During his invasion of Creek Indian territory in 1813, future U.S. president Andrew Jackson discovered a Creek infant orphaned by his troops. Moved by an âeoeunusual sympathy,âe Jackson sent the child to be adopted into his Tennessee plantation household. Through the stories of nearly a dozen white adopters, adopted Indian children, and their biological parents, Dawn Peterson opens a window onto the forgotten history of adoption in early nineteenth-century America. Indians in the Family shows the important role that adoption played in efforts to subdue Native peoples in the name of nation-building. As the United States aggressively expanded into Indian territories between 1790 and 1830, government officials stressed the importance of assimilating Native peoples into what they styled the United Statesâe(tm) âeoenational family.âe White households who adopted Indiansâe"especially slaveholding southern planters influenced by leaders such as Jacksonâe"saw themselves as part of this expansionist project. They hoped to inculcate in their young charges American attitudes toward private property, patriarchal family, and the value of slave labor. White Americans were not the only ones driving this process. Choctaw, Creek, and Chickasaw families sought to place their sons in white households, to be educated in the ways of American governance and political economy. But there were unintended consequences for all concerned. As adults, these adopted Indians used their educations to thwart U.S. federal claims to their homelands, setting the stage for the political struggles that would culminate in the Indian Removal Act of 1830.

Author: Jane Katch
Publisher: University of Chicago Press
ISBN: 0226425789
Category : Education
Languages : en
Pages : 173

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Over the past three decades, more than a quarter of a million children have become citizens of the United States through international adoption. Kindergarten teacher Jane Katch recently found herself with three such children in her class: Katya, born in Russia, Jasper, from Cambodia, and Caleb, from Romania. Each child had spent early years in an orphanage, and each had unique educational and emotional needs. How Katch came to recognize and respond to those needs makes up the journey of discovery in this moving and insightful book. Interspersing vignettes from the classroom and conversations with the children’s parents, Far Away from the Tigers first explores Katch’s misunderstandings and mistakes as she struggles to help the children adjust to school. As Katch learns more about each child’s preadoption past, she gradually realizes that they were deprived of some basic learning experiences and she needs to find ways to fill those gaps. Before Caleb can learn to read or write, he must improve his verbal skills by learning nursery rhymes, stories, and songs. Katya, who came from an overcrowded orphanage, now needs to be the center of attention; before learning how to form real friendships, she first must gain control over more basic functions such as eating and sleeping. And the youngest, Jasper, needs steady encouragement to play with classmates instead of sitting alone practicing his handwriting. Slowly, through trial and error and by drawing on the deep understanding and intense commitment of the children’s parents, Katch discovers the importance—and joy—of allowing each child time to develop in his or her own way. Beautifully told, wise, and candid, Far Away from the Tigers is a gift for parents, teachers, and anyone who cares for children growing up in a new home.

Author: Gabrielle Glaser
Publisher: Penguin
ISBN: 0735224692
Category : Family & Relationships
Languages : en
Pages : 354

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A New York Times Notable Book The shocking truth about postwar adoption in America, told through the bittersweet story of one teenager, the son she was forced to relinquish, and their search to find each other. “[T]his book about the past might foreshadow a coming shift in the future… ‘I don’t think any legislators in those states who are anti-abortion are actually thinking, “Oh, great, these single women are gonna raise more children.” No, their hope is that those children will be placed for adoption. But is that the reality? I doubt it.’”[says Glaser]” -Mother Jones During the Baby Boom in 1960s America, women were encouraged to stay home and raise large families, but sex and childbirth were taboo subjects. Premarital sex was common, but birth control was hard to get and abortion was illegal. In 1961, sixteen-year-old Margaret Erle fell in love and became pregnant. Her enraged family sent her to a maternity home, where social workers threatened her with jail until she signed away her parental rights. Her son vanished, his whereabouts and new identity known only to an adoption agency that would never share the slightest detail about his fate. The adoption business was founded on secrecy and lies. American Baby lays out how a lucrative and exploitative industry removed children from their birth mothers and placed them with hopeful families, fabricating stories about infants' origins and destinations, then closing the door firmly between the parties forever. Adoption agencies and other organizations that purported to help pregnant women struck unethical deals with doctors and researchers for pseudoscientific "assessments," and shamed millions of women into surrendering their children. The identities of many who were adopted or who surrendered a child in the postwar decades are still locked in sealed files. Gabrielle Glaser dramatically illustrates in Margaret and David’s tale--one they share with millions of Americans—a story of loss, love, and the search for identity.