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Adoption is a topic that captures peoples´ interest, curiosity, imagination and empathy. Adoptees and birth parents are key people in the adoption arena yet. So too, are the adoptive mothers, as the primary carers who often remain hidden and busy doing the work of raising the adopted children. This book provides access to detailed, unique stories from adoptive mothers as they walk a different yet familiar road to mothering. Significant times across the adoption life cycle are discussed including waiting impatiently to adopt, mothering in the exhausting early years, coping strategies along the way, and facing change in the teenage years and beyond when issues of information about and contact with birth relatives are emerging. This book will be of great interest to adoptive families, potential adopting couples,policy makers and it will be especially useful for professionals working in the area of adoption.

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Susan Gair, PhD, teaches in social work at James Cook University, Queensland, Australia. After becoming a mother herself, she become fascinated with all aspects of mothering, including how adoptive mothers experienced the mothering role. A senior lecturer, her interests include adoption processes and working across cultures.

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