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The Adoptee's Journey
paperback
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- Length: 240 pages
- Dimensions: 5.5 × 8.5 in
- Published: June 04, 2024
- Item Code: A0704
- ISBN: 978-1-5140-0704-4
- Other Retailers:
Amazon*
*affiliate partner
Every adoption is rooted in loss.
Adoption is often framed by happy narratives, but the reality is that many adoptees struggle with unaddressed trauma and issues of identity and belonging. Adoptees often spend the majority of their youth without the language to explore the grief related to adoption or the permission to legitimize their conflicting emotions.
Adoptee and counselor Cameron Lee Small names the realities of the adoptee's journey, narrating his own and other adoptees' stories in all their complexity. He unpacks the history of how adoption has worked and names how the church influenced adoption practices with unintended negative impacts on adoptees' faith. Small's own tumultuous search for and reunion with his mother in Korea inspired him to help other adoptees navigate what it means to carry multiple stories. His adoptee-centered advocacy helps adoptees regain their agency and identity on a journey of integration and healing, with meaningful relationships in all their family systems.
"The subtitle says all you need to know—'from loss and trauma to healing and empowerment.' What an incredible resource for adoptees and other members of the constellation to understand the complex emotions many adoptees endure over time. We're all on a journey together, and thanks to Cameron Lee Small for being such a powerful voice in this space."
"This is a deeply reflective and honest book that plunges you into the realities and research around adoptee experiences. Factoring in complex social dynamics in a deeply personal manner, Cameron Lee Small invites you to journey through a tapestry of experiences beautifully woven together that illuminates adoptee experiences."
"A heartfelt and refreshing examination of what adoptees truly experience because of adoption. Adopted people have complex origin stories, and Cameron Small diligently walks us through with compassionate lenses to see the intimate inner workings of the adoptee experience. The church has worked hard to sugarcoat the adoption experience, and normally we only get the adoptive parents' lens; this book is the nurturing table-overturning we need from an adoptee."
CONTENTS
1. Missing Family
2. Facing Our History
3. Loss and Grief
4. Trauma and Recovery
5. Processing Emotions
6. Telling Our Stories
7. Identity Development
8. Navigating Relationships
9. Birth Search and Reunion
10. Finding Our Callings
Acknowledgments
Notes
