(Some of My) Favorite Adoption Resources

I'm preparing for my final conference of the season, and my second presentation this spring. Last week (after an inspiring weekend in NYC with the Adoption Initiative at St. John's University) I had the honor of offering a presentation titled "Against the Grain: Critical Discourse and Grassroots Organizing in Adoption" at Portland State University's Community Social Work Conference. Next week, it's on to Postpartum Support International's annual conference to reconnect with this wonderful, kind, and insightful community of perinatal mental health providers; and this year adoption is on the agenda:  my colleague Beth Bassett and I will present "The Impact of Adoption on Motherhood for Adoptees, Birth Mothers, and Adoptive Mothers."  For post-conference learning purposes, I've been honing my list of adoption-related resources. I struggle to keep resource lists because there's so much out there, so, my disclaimer is: this list is not exhaustive. If you have additional suggestions, I'd love to hear them. These are many of my favorite progressive, thoughtful, and nuanced adoption-specific resources.

FAVORITE ADOPTEE BLOGS
·      A Birth Project
·      Ethnically Incorrect Daughter
·      Harlow’s Monkey
·      The Adopted Life
·      John Raible Online
·      May I Have a Word?
·      Sunshine Girl on a Rainy Day 
·      The Declassified Adoptee  
·      Lost Daughters 
·      Coloring Out 

FAVORITE BIRTH/FIRST PARENT BLOGS
·      First Mother Forum
·      Amstel Life
·      Birth Mom Buds  
·      A Birth Mother Voice   
·      Musings of the Lame  

OTHER FAVORITE BLOGS
·      Anti-Racist Parent  
·      Paradigm Shift
·      Racialicious  
·      Foreigner in Buckeye Nation

FAVORITE MAGAZINES
·      Gazillion Voices (online) Magazine  
·      The Adoption Constellation (print) Magazine

FAVORITE FILMS
·      Closure
·      Somewhere Between
·      Resilience
·      Approved for Adoption
·      Struggle for Identity: Issues in Transracial Adoption & A Conversation 10 Years Later

FAVORITE BOOKS
·      The Girls Who Went Away by Ann Fessler
·      The Adoption Constellation by Michael Phillip Grand
·      Birthright by Jean Strauss
·      Outsiders Within: Writing on Transracial Adoption edited by Oparah, Shin, Trenka
·      The Child Catchers: Rescue, Trafficking, and the New Gospel of Adoption by Kathryn Joyce
·      The Language of Blood by Jane Jeong Trenka
·      Parenting As Adoptees edited by Chau and Vollmers
·      Inside Transracial Adoption by Beth Hall and Gail Steinberg

ORGANIZATIONS
·      Adoption Initiative, St. John’s University [adoptioninitiative.org]
·      Adoption History Project, U of Oregon [pages.uoregon.edu/adoption/]
·      Adoption Mosaic [adoptionmosaic.org]
·      Adoption Policy and Reform Collaborative [adoptionpolicyandreform.com]
·      American Adoption Congress [americanadoptioncongress.org]
·      Child Welfare Information Gateway [childwelfare.gov]
·      Concerned United Birthparents, Inc [cubirthparents.org]
·      Donaldson Institute [adoptioninstitute.org]
·      Global Overseas Adoptees’ Link [goal.or.kr/]
·      Insight: Open Adoption Resources and Support [openadoptioninsight.org]
·      Ko’Root [koroot.org]
·      Land of Gazillion Adoptees [landofgazillionadoptees.com]
·      North American Council on Adoptable Children [nacac.org]
·      Training in Adoption Competence, C.A.S.E. [adoptionsupport.org]
·      Pact [pactadopt.org]
·      Pavao Consulting [pavaoconsulting.com]

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