Extended Family in Adoption

Please find some of our best articles, essays and reviews on this topic.

For more topics and articles, check out our full listing on our Resource Library.

Grandparents, aunts, uncles, and friends are all impacted when a child is adopted into their extended family or placed by one of their family members. Triad members often spend a lot of time educating themselves about issues of adoption, but what about those other members of the child’s family and community who may not understand the issues as well? Articles include suggestions for talking with extended family about adoption and race, decision-making about adopted children’s personal history and who to tell what, as well as kinship adoption and sibling issues.

If you prefer, you can use our Library Search Tool to search by title or author. All the material in this section is copyrighted by Pact; for permission to reproduce or re-post it, please contact us at education@pactadopt.org.

• A Birth Grandparents Perspective Gone Too Soon
  by Mary Stephenson (1993 | 338 KB | )
  
• Adopted Person Profile - Race And My Family
  by Liza Steinberg (1997 | 96 KB | )
  
• Adoption and Generations
  by Linda Yellin (1998 | 81 KB | )
  
• Adoption and My Life
  by Gail Steinberg (1997 | 91 KB | )
  
• Adoption Candle Ceremony
  adapted from FAIR (2009 | 70 KB | )
  
• Adoption Milestones
  by Susan Soon-keum Cox (2000 | 69 KB | )
  
• All of Nathan’s Family
  by Pamela, Barbara, Suzanne & John (1997 | 91 KB | )
  
• An Entrustment Journey
  by Fran Cooper Materra (1995 | 312 KB | )
  
• Ask Pact: Our Family Doesn’t Want Us To Adopt
  by Pact (2004 | 114 KB | )
  
• Ask Pact: Talking About Birth Parents
  by Martha Rynberg (2008 | 156 KB | )
  
• Book Review: Brothers and Sisters in Adoption
  by Arleta James (2009 | 473 KB | )
  
• Book Review: In Their Siblings’ Voices
  by Rita Simon and Rhonda Roorda (2009 | 89 KB | )
  
• Book Review: Lucky Girl
  by Mei-Ling Hopgood (2010 | 183 KB | )
  
• Book Review: The English American
  by Alison Larkin (2008 | 304 KB | )
  
• Book Review: The Third Choice
  by Leslie Foge and Gail Mosconi (2004 | 933 KB | )
  
• Building Racial Identity - When Family Members Do Not Support A Child’s Racial Identity
  by Gail Steinberg (1996 | 125 KB | )
  
• Choosing Adoption for One Child and Not Another
  by Brenda Romanchik (1995 | 334 KB | )
  
• Deciding About Decisions
  by Becca Martinson  (1994 | 96 KB | )
  
• Different Birth Families of Adopted Siblings
  by Pam Hutsell (1994 | 110 KB | )
  
• Director’s Corner: The Balancing Act Talking with Extended Family and Friends
  by Beth Hall (2007 | 150 KB | )
  
• Executive Parenting Strategies that Work
  by Jim Manhoney (1995 | 341 KB | )
  
• Family Stories: Zora’s and Ezra’s Families Connected by Blood ... and Love
  by Pact (2010 | 162 KB | )
  
• Film Review: Foster Parents Speak: Crossing Bridges and Fostering Change
  by Photosythesis Productions (2009 | 469 KB | )
  
• Grief
  by Beth Hall (1997 | 108 KB | )
  
• How Adoption Has Shaped My Life
  by Joyce Maguire Pavao (1994 | 335 KB | )
  
• How Did You Get So Close?
  by Holly van Gulden (1998 | 331 KB | )
  
• Is it Private or Is it Secret? Sorting Out What to Tell Whom
  by Pat Irwin Johnston, MS (2011 | 125 KB | )
  
• Issues in Kinship Care
  by Pact (2010 | 48 KB | )
  
• Keeping In Touch
  by Carmen Rodriguez (1995 | 103 KB | )
  
• Living An Open Adoption
  by Jennifer Ferrara (1997 | 120 KB | )
  
• Looking At Kinship Adoption - Hammering Out Bits And Pieces Of The Elephant: An Interview with Sharon Kaplan Roszia
  Interviewed by Gail Steinberg (1993 | 340 KB | )
  
• My Crooked Family Tree
  by Lynn Calza (2007 | 105 KB | )
  
• Parenting the Next Time
  by Brenda Romanchik (1997 | 325 KB | )
  
• Promoting Understanding of Adoption Issues
  by Patricia Irwin Johnston (1993 | 337 KB | )
  
• Promoting Understanding of Adoption Issues
  by Patricia Irwin Johnston (1993 | 337 KB | )
  
• Rejoice in What Unites Us - Creating Kinship Systems
  by Beth Hall and Gail Steinberg (1994 | 110 KB | )
  
• Rethinking Fit in the Context of Transracial Adoption
  by Julia Sudbury Oparah (1998 | 60 KB | )
  
• Sibling Attachment
  by Patricia Irwin Johnston (1996 | 336 KB | )
  
• Sibling Issues in Adoption
  by Mary Martin Mason (1993 | 328 KB | )
  
• Stepping Out of the Shadows: Birth Fathers Speak Out
  by Mary Martin Mason (1995 | 330 KB | )
  
• Teen Corner: A Letter From My Heart
  by Melissa Cunningham (2010 | 327 KB | )
  
• The Godparents Council
  by Michael-David Sasson and Kirsten Cross (2010 | 122 KB | )
  
• The Real Daughter
  by Colleen Houlihan  (1994 | 106 KB | )
  
• The Tapestry of My Life
  by Holly van Gulden (1994 | 323 KB | )
  
• Union and Transitions: A Ceremony of Entrustment
  by Rebecca Weller (1997 | 346 KB | )
  
• What Kind of Name is That?
  by T. Chedgszey Smith (1996 | 100 KB | )
  
• When Racism is Part of the Story
  by Beth Hall & Gail Steinberg (1998 | 128 KB | )
  
• White Parents Identity
  by Deborah Haynor & Lori Miller (2006 | 121 KB | )
  
• Who Are The Real Parents - Revisiting Extended Family as a Support System for Children in Need of Adoption or Foster Care
  by O. Virginia Phillips (1995 | 111 KB | )
  
• Who Are The Real Parents of American’s Children
  by O. Virginia Phillips (1995 | 109 KB | )
  

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