November is National Adoption Month - A message from the Northwest Adoption Exchange

Special guest post written by: Jessica Tholmer, Program Manager of Northwest Adoption Exchange


Since 1976, Northwest Adoption Exchange has connected youth in foster care with their potential adoptive families. We bring a fierce optimism and a strength-based approach to adoption recruitment while providing the opportunity to empower, engage, and involve these kids in helping find their adoptive families. We maintain high standards and believe in the importance of respecting the safety, privacy, and dignity of youth in foster care. Northwest Adoption Exchange is a program of Northwest Resource Associates.
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It’s National Adoption Month, a time that should be as reflective as it is celebratory. Adoption is a nuanced topic, one in which both joy and sorrow merge in those whose lives have been shaped by adoption.
In recent years, the conversation around adoption has shifted much more toward the voices that matter the most — adoptees.

Here are a few books that open the door for further insight and understanding of family, identity, loss, and grief from the perspective of adoptees:

All You Can Ever Know: A Memoir Cover ImageAll You Can Ever Know by Nicole Chung
Genre: Biography
Price: $16.95

Nicole Chung’s deeply moving memoir details her own experience as a Korean American transracial adoptee, daughter, sister, and mother.

 

 

 

 


Surviving the White Gaze: A Memoir Cover ImageSurviving the White Gaze by Rebecca Carroll
Genre: Biography
Price: $26.00

Rebecca Carroll’s memoir details her experiences tied to identity as a Black biracial woman growing up with a white family, including the complexity of her relationship with her biological mother.

 

 

 

 


Bitterroot: A Salish Memoir of Transracial Adoption (American Indian Lives ) Cover ImageBitterroot: A Salish Memoir of Transracial Adoption by Susan Devan Harness
Genre: Indigenous Peoples' Studies
Price: $21.95

Susan Devan Harness’s white adoptive parents claimed her biological parents had died in an accident, which turned out to be untrue. Harness’s memoir highlights the complexities of being an American Indian child taken from her family and raised by white parents.

 

 

 



What White Parents Should Know about Transracial Adoption: An Adoptee's Perspective on Its History, Nuances, and Practices Cover ImageWhat White Parents Should Know about Transracial Adoption: An Adoptee's Perspective on Its History, Nuances, and Practices by Melissa Guida-Richards
Genre: Parenting
Price: $18.95

And of course, Melissa Guida-Richards’s latest is a must for folks contemplating adoption, especially white parents. There’s great information about the history of transracial adoption and the insight into Guida-Richards’s own experience that makes this worth everyone’s time, even if you’re not currently  considering adoption.

 

 

 


On Tuesday November 23 at 6pm, Third Place Books welcomes author Melissa Guida-Richards, creator of the Adoptee Thoughts podcast, for a presentation on her new book, What White Parents Should Know about Transracial Adoption: An Adoptee's Perspective on Its History, Nuances, and Practices.
Melissa will be joined in conversation by our very own Kalani Kapahua, General Manager at Third Place Books Ravenna.

CLICK BELOW TO REGISTER!

This event is co-sponsored by the Northwest Adoption Exchange. Since 1976, Northwest Adoption Exchange has connected youth in foster care with their potential adoptive families. Learn more at https://www.nwae.org/.