Yes, You Can Adopt!: A Comprehensive Guide to Adoption - Softcover

Mintzer, Richard

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0786710357 ISBN 13: 9780786710355

Publisher: Da Capo Lifelong Books, 2002

Synopsis

As co-president of the New York City chapter of the nation's largest adoption support group, co-editor for an adoption newsletter, and former host of a weekly adoption-related radio program, Richard Mintzer is an expert in the process of adoption. This comprehensive and reassuring book combines Mintzer's own expertise with anecdotal advice from adoptive parents to help anyone who is considering adoption to make well-informed decisions. It also discusses how to best evaluate adoption agencies and attorneys, and goes through the home study process and the finances needed to make adoption work. Mintzer provides essential information and takes readers through the questions potential parents face when choosing to adopt, including: choosing between a domestic or international adoption, choosing a newborn or an older child, and working with an agency or adopting through independent placement. Many key questions are answered: For which families is open adoption the right choice? Where can a child be adopted by gay parents? What costs and fees are associated with adoption? How can adoption fraud be avoided? How will adoption affect a family's finances? These questions and many others are answered with the credible information every potential parent needs when approaching this challenging process.

About this title

About the Author

Richard Mintzer is a prolific author with twenty-four nonfiction books to his credit, and bylines in American Baby and Parent-Age. For nine years, he was co-editor of Adoptalk. He has spoken on adoption at seminars and hosted New York City's only weekly adoption-related radio program. He lives in New York City with his wife Carol and their two children.

Reviews

Mintzer, a journalist and writer of nonfiction books for all ages (Everything Kids' Baseball Book) is also the parent of an adopted daughter and is the co-president, with his wife, of the New York City Chapter of the Adoptive Parents Committee. In this very useful compendium, he combines research with anecdotes from adoptive parents to present a highly detailed guide to all types of adoption. One of the strengths of this guide is the author's objectivity and non-judgmental attitude. He believes that "there is no one-size-fits-all approach" and covers many kinds of adoptions including domestic, international, single-parent, gay and lesbian and adoption out of foster-care and adoption by relatives. The current trend in adoption literature is to favor open adoptions, where the adoptive parents and the adoptee maintain communication with one or both of the birth parents over closed adoptions, where there is no contact. Mintzer presents the arguments for both sides, but maintains that both open and closed adoptions have worked well for families and believes that the decision should be based on what is right for all the individuals involved. Anyone interested in adopting a child will find in this valuable resource a wealth of practical information, such as legalities, costs, useful Web sites, adoption fraud and home study interviews.
Copyright 2002 Reed Business Information, Inc.

Edition details

• Publisher: Da Capo Lifelong Books
• Publication date: 2002
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 0786710357
• ISBN 13: 9780786710355
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 320