When Lucia first started her adoption process, she didn't expect it to take 10 years. She stopped and started several times - when birth mothers changed their minds, and when she and her husband divorced. But her dream finally came true when she brought her adopted daughter home from Mexico.

"For [Lucia], having her daughter, particularly after so many failed adoption attempts, has made her all that much more appreciative of the gift she says she has been given... 'All the steps and everything I went through gave me a greater appreciation for the little girl I have now. Now that she's finally here, she's just the greatest treasure.'"

Lucia hopes her story will inspire those who are considering adoption, and will encourage those who have begun the process, but are still waiting for adoptions to be completed. Source: Richmond News

Labels: birth_story

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Authors Susan TeBos and Carissa Woodwyk have released a book titled Before You Were Mine: Discovering Your Adopted Child's Lifestory. The book is intended to help adoptive parents piece together their child's story from birth to present.

"The authors... define it as a 'book of memories about a child's life prior to adoption... a story book that acknowledges, celebrates, explains, and honors the life of an adoptee prior to adoption. It gathers the bits and pieces of our adopted children's lives before they joined our families and gracefully organizes it all - words, pictures, documents, and photos - in the form of a story.'"

TeBos and Woodwyk hope the book will help adoptive parents honor their adopted children's stories and give them creative ways to discover and share their stories. Read more at AdoptionBlogs.Typepad.com.

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Labels: stories, birth_story, memories

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