Ray was born in 1952 and spent the first five years of his life in an orphanage. He remembers those years well, especially the adoption process - which was so different then.

"Back then, the Colorado State Home for Dependent and Neglected Children allowed prospective parents to 'check you out like a library book,'.... to see how a child would fit in with their family."

After several of those disappointing experiences, the orphanage matron awakened Ray from his bed one night and carried him to a counter. A couple was waiting, with a stocking cap for Ray's head and a stuffed dog for his arm. They swept him off the counter, took him home and have been "mom" and "dad" ever since.

Ray still has the stocking cap and the toy dog. Source: National Public Radio

Labels: adoptees, stories

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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.

High school boarding schools, like Oakley School in Utah, offer a combination of accredited academics, counseling and therapy, and experiential education.

Labels: stories, birth_story, memories

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