Based on the research and clinical experience of four doctors, Ira J. Chasnoff; MD; Linda D. Schwartz; PhD; Cheryl L. Pratt; PhD; Gwendolyn J. Neuberger; MD who have each worked with internationally adopted children, Risk and Promise: a Handbook for Parents Adopting a Child from Overseas hopes to help prospective adoptive parents make well-informed decisions with the little information they are given in adoption referrals.
In my opinion Risk and Promise: a Handbook for Parents Adopting a Child from Overseas is not just a great resource for internationally adoptive parents but to all prospective adoptive parents.
Part I and II of Risk and Promise
The first and second sections of Risk and Promise: a Handbook for Parents Adopting a Child from Overseas provides deeper understanding of the information that usually comes to adoptive parents during the adoption process. The book explains how to interpret the scraps of information given in the adoption referrals. Part I and II are then broken down into smaller, more specific sections. Part I includes sections on maternal history, newborn growth, and maternal alcohol and drug use to name a few. Part II focuses on the child with sections such as age at time of adoption, growth patterns, child development, and problems with attachment and emotional development. These sections are short, easy to read blurbs on the different issues that may affect the children that adoptive parents are considering adding to their families. Risk and Promise: a Handbook for Parents Adopting a Child from Overseas explains what issues are a risk to the child, what information the adoptive parents need to explore more fully, and what information they can ignore. I find this alone extremely helpful as sometimes the adoption process seems like a study in information overload.Part III of Risk and Promise
Part III is a section filled with helpful work sheets for observing the child overseas. Of course, I believe that many of these could be adapted to a domestic or foster care adoption. This section includes growth charts, parent observations sheets to be used during visits with the child, questions for orphanage staff, and checklists on development. This section is very well organized and easy to understand. It's important to remember, however, that the growth charts are based on the "normal" growth and development of U.S. children. Comparing a foreign born child or a child who has been raised in an orphanage to a typical U.S. baby is not a fair comparison due to many issues such as poverty and lack of adequate health care available overseas. The authors review this point as well.Reviewer's Thoughts
Risk and Promise: a Handbook for Parents Adopting a Child from Overseas is not about scaring off prospective adoptive parents, but about empowering them to act on the behalf of the children. The information gained through the work sheets and the research provided gives each family a chance to fully assess the needs of the child and to decide whether they as a family can meet that child's needs. The information may also help families who choose to adopt, get resources together quicker so the family can begin meeting the child's needs as soon as he arrives home. I found Risk and Promise: a Handbook for Parents Adopting a Child from Overseas to be a great resource to me as an adoptive and foster parent, and I did not adopt internationally. I could see my adopted children's behavior in the different sections discussed as well as my current foster child. I even took some of the information with me to a case plan to discuss with the social workers. I found that the information helped me to better understand my children and I adopted in 2002. So, I don't think that Risk and Promise: a Handbook for Parents Adopting a Child from Overseas is just pertinent to those interested in adopting internationally. Some issues remain the same no matter where a child is born.Recommendation and More Information
Risk and Promise: a Handbook for Parents Adopting a Child from Overseas is a resource that would be valuable to not only prospective adoptive parents who are seeking to adopt internationally, but to those who are looking into domestic adoption as well.
(Published by NTI Publications, Chicago, 2006
ISBN 097077625X)
