[Devora]

Because most people who are waiting to bring children home are facing longer processes than they expected, a lot of the children may be older (toddlers vs. infants) than you had originally prepared for. So I thought it might be helpful to share resources to help prepare for the transition. Any child at any age can have a smooth or difficult transition so there are never guarantees as to how it will go. But there are things you can do to prepare yourself, to protect your child and prevent problems from arising, and to help your child should they (not matter what you do) have a significant period of grieving or other difficulties in their transition into your family.

The book that I got the most out of was Toddler Adoption: The Weaver's Craft by Mary Hopkins-Best. It's a fabulous book -- easy to understand, gives you a basic understanding of attachment and bonding in adoption, helps you understand the transition from a toddler's point of view, and is full of practical suggestions for how you can help your child. I actually think a lot of the ideas are good for any age -- you can adopt them to babies, toddlers, and older children.

There's also a website that I really like that has some fabulous articles on international adoption. It's called Informed Adoption Advocates (Google it for the address). If you click on "Articles" you'll see there's a whole section for transitions and attachments. They have articles that give you a basic understanding of transitions and attachments, stories from adoptive parents of what they experienced and how they handled it, and resources that are specifically designed for sharing with family and friends so they can understand why you might need to parent a bit differently during the transition.

What other resources do people have to share?