Honestly Adoption: Answers to 101 Questions About Adoption and Foster Care

Are you an educator, case manager, clinical or family counselor, or pediatrician? Are you a neighbor, church friend, or family member? Or perhaps you are or are considering foster care or adoption? Whomever you are, Honestly ADOPTION is written for you!Mike and Kristin Berry answer real questions which are asked by real people. In the last section, the voices of real foster and adopted children are spoken.These questions are hard. No slow pitches here. The answers are often equally as hard. But foster and adopted children deserve for those of us entrusted with their care to be well informed and armed with the knowledge of the realities of their lives.Or in Mike and Kristin Berry’s own words, “When we honor the hard parts of this journey, we can also celebrate the deep beauty that lies in the perseverance of our children because they are what this is all about.” p. 10 Honestly ADOPTIONHonestly ADOPTION by Mike and Kristin Berry is for everyone because foster and adopted children deserve nothing lest than our very best! They deserve honest answers to the hard questions we all have always wanted to ask.

I keep learning, thanks to these folks. This was a great one for my husband and I to flip through and find the 'questions' that most applied to our situation. Thanks!

Lots of great answers to adoption questions. Love this book!

Wonderful book with a lot of good info. Well organized and easy to read. I'm very impressed with the work of this author.

I read this book as a continuing education resource as a CASA (court appointed special advocate) for children in foster care. I was thrilled to find something written by parents of foster and adopted children and also with a Christian worldview. This book was chalk-full of advice on all manner of subjects that pertain to parenting in general, as well as specific to parenting children with trauma. In some instances, they gave very specific examples, other items had no examples or the example didn't finish to give an indication of how the issue was fully resolved, but that was my only complaint. I suppose if they would have given examples for everything, the book would have been ridiculously long! Regardless, I would strongly recommend this book to any parents who are struggling with a difficult child as well as specifically to parents who are fostering or have adopted. A great deal of practical advice in parenting well, being consistent in your plans, staying calm, advocating for your child and preventing the shame that often comes with the consequences of trauma. An excellent resource!Special thanks to NetGalley for an advanced ecopy of this book. I was not obligated to write a review and all of the thoughts contained herein are my own.

My husband and I have three biological children and two girls we adopted through foster care. I would have LOVED to have this book eight years ago when we started this journey! I've read dozens of books and this is the most accurate, most helpful one I have read on this topic. I highly recommend this book. I mailed a letter to the Regional Manager of DCF last week suggesting that it be included in foster/adoptive parent training or at least recommended as a resource. I also emailed our foster agency and every adoptive/foster parent I know, recommending this book. The Trauma section was very hard for me to read. Initially, we didn't realize certain of our kids' behaviors were related to trauma. We received little to no training about it in our foster/adoption class. We would have done a lot of things differently over the years if we had had this book then. If you have a child from a hard place, this is the book for you.I received a complimentary advance copy of this book, but that has not influenced my review. I love all of the Berry books.

I have eight kids, five of them adopted. Adoption is a truly amazing thing, but it's SO COMPLEX. I've cried harder and more often in the last 8 years than I have in my entire life: happy tears, sad tears, angry tears, desperate tears. Honestly, adoption is the best and worst thing I've ever experienced.Does that mean I wouldn't have adopted had I known the intensity of it all? No, but adoption has changed me forever. And this book, HONESTLY ADOPTION, is my new favorite tool for our adoption journey!I've never met the authors, Mike and Kristin Berry, but I'm telling you, it's like they've been living in my home this whole time! The wisdom and experiences they share from their daily lives (with eight adopted children and a total of 23 foster children over the years) have radically changed some of my perspectives and understanding of what it means to be the dad that each one of my kiddos needs me to be. The questions and answers in this book are the real deal; I can hardly put the book down!If you are THINKING of adopting or fostering kids, this should be required reading. If you HAVE adopted or fostered kids, this should be your new favorite parenting tool (it's mine!). If you KNOW ANYONE who has adopted or fostered, this book will give you the inside track on how you can be a more active part in their journey. Shoot, if you know how to READ, this book should be in your library!