August Adoption Reading List (so far!)

Lots more interesting information!

Finished: Becoming a Family: Promoting Healthy Attachments with Your Adopted Child by Lark Eshleman - it was okay. I (Amy) had Mike read the middle chapters which talked about bringing children home and ways to foster attachment.

Finished: Love in the Driest Season: a Family Memoir by Neely Tucker. I actually listened to this on CD and finished it the day after a comment was posted about it on my July reading blog entry! It is a story about an America couple, living in Zimbabwe, who go through an incredible journey to adopt a baby in Zimbabwe. Amazing! And even on our worst adoption waiting day, I never had to crawl around on my hands and knees in an office looking for our lost file!!

Still Reading:Parenting Your Adopted Child by Andrew Adesman with Christine Adams. This has been GREAT! Lots of "common sense" information which helps me to not feel a bit more confident (yes, I do kind of know how to be a parent!). The book is divided into 4 parts: Basics of Common Sense Adoptive Parenting, As They Grow, Talking About Adoption, and Special Issues. I'm about half way through and wouldn't mind having a copy of this to keep in my library.

Still Reading: Parenting Your Adopted Older Child by Brenda McCreight. I'm actually reading chapters of this book aloud with Mike (I know, how cute!). This book covers all types of adoption, so we are just reading the ones that apply to international adoption. We like this book because the chapters end with several detailed ideas.

Now, lest you think that all I am reading is adoption books:
When I walk, I have been listening to:
3 Nights in August by Buzz Bissinger with Tony LaRussa (ultimately tells the story of a 3 game series between the Cubbies and Cardinals in August of 2003 - the year we were five outs away from he world series! Really gives you insight into the mind of baseball) but have but that aside to listen to, for the second time, Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince by J.K. Rowling, read by Jim Dale. I couldn't remember if some events happened in book six and were just left out of the movie or if they happened in book seven - so far they've left a bunch of stuff out of the movie!

I'm also reading:
God Is in the Small Stuff : and It All Matters by Bruce & Stan - Encouraging, quick read that I would also like to add to my library and A Time for Freedom : What Happened When in America by Lynne Cheney - I love history and am loving this book! It is organized by dates, with a few paragraphs after each date, focusing on political happenings in the US. Having taught fifth grade for seven years in which social studies curriculum is all US History, I am familiar with everything I have read so far. But we only teach up to the Civil War in fifth grade, so I know I'll be learning some new things soon!