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Suggested Reading Resources

Our staff would like to share with you the following books and resources. We have reviewed each of these and believe they would be helpful. However, not all of these are written from a Christian perspective so some opinions of the authors may not reflect the position of Lifeline Children’s Services.

Parenting:

  • Adoption Parenting by Jean MacLeod & Sheena Macrae (Eds)
  • Parenting the Hurt Child: Helping Adoptive Families Heal and Grow by Gregory Keck & Regina Kupecky
  • The Whole-Brain Child: 12 Revolutionary Strategies to Nurture Your Child’s Developing Mind by Daniel J. Siegel and Tina Payne Bryson
  • No-Drama Discipline: The Whole-Brain Way to Calm the Chaos and Nurture Your Child’s Developing Mind by Daniel J Siegel and Tina Payne Bryson
  • The Out-of-Sync Child Has Fun, Revised Edition: Activities for Kids with Sensory Processing Disorder by Carol Kranowitz
  • LifeBooks: Creating a Treasure for the Adopted Child by Beth O’Malley
  • Come Rain or Come Shine by Rachel Garlinghouse
  • After They Are Yours: The Grace and Grit of Adoption by Dan Cruver and Brian Borgman
  • Ready or Not: 30 Day Discovery for Battle-Weary Parents by Pam Parrish

Videos:
Healing Families DVD’s (produced by the TCU Institute of Child Development)

  • Playful Interaction
  • Trust Based Parenting (2 disc set)
  • A Sensory World
  • Healthy Touch
  • Children From Hard Places and the Brain
  • Attachment: Why it Matters
  • TBRI for Teens

Adoption Preparation:

  • The Connected Child by Karyn B. Purvis, David R. Cross, & Wendy Lyons Sunshine
  • Adopted for Life by Russell D. Moore
  • Nurturing Adoptions by Deborah D. Gray
  • Attaching in Adoption by Deborah D. Gray
  • Seven Desires: Looking Past What Separates Us to Learn What Connects Us by Mark Laaser and Debra Laaser (2013)
  • The Out-of-Sync Child by Carol Kranowitz & Lucy Jane Miller Ph.D OTR
  • The Boy Who Was Raised as a Dog by Bruce D. Perry, MD, PhD & Maia Szalavitz
  • Trails for Ticos by Missy Grant
  • Adopt Without Debt: Creative Ways to Cover the Cost of Adoption by Julie Leanne Gumm
  • Wounded Children, Healing Homes: How Traumatized Children Impact Adoptive and Foster Families by Jayne E. Schooler, Betsy Keefer Smalley, & Timothy J. Callahan
  • Ready or Not by Pam Parrish
  • In On It: What Adoptive Parents Would Like You to Know About Adoption by Elizabeth O’Toole
  • Adoption Is A Family Affair: What Relatives and Friends Must Know by Patricia Irwin Johnston

Orphan Care Ministry:

  • Know Orphans: Mobilizing the Church for Global Orphanology by Rick Morton and Tony Merida
  • Orphanology: Awakening to Gospel-Centered Adoption and Orphan Care by Tony Merida and Rick Morton
  • When Helping Hurts by Steve Corbett & Brian Fikkert
  • Ministering Cross-Culturally: An Incarnational Model for Personal Relationships by Sherwood G. Lingenfelter and Marvin K. Mayers
  • Radical: Taking Back Your Faith from the American Dream by David Platt
  • Counter Culture by David Platt
  • A Guide to Adoption and Orphan Care by Russell D. Moore
  • The Grace Effect: How the Power of One Life Can Reverse the Corruption of Unbelief by Larry Alex Taunton

Resources For Foster Families:

  • Maybe Days: A Book for Children in Foster Care by Jennifer Wilgocki
  • In My Heart by Molly Bang (for children)
  • The Connected Child  by Dr. Karyn Purvis, Dr. David Cross
  • The Whole Brain Child by Daniel J. Siegel and Tina Payne Bryson
  • The Foster Parenting Toolbox by Phagan-Hansel

Other Great Reads:

  • Fields of the Fatherless by Tom Davis
  • Inside Out by Larry Crabb
  • Foreign to Familiar by Sarah A. Lanier
  • Castaway Kid: One Man’s Search for Hope and Home by R. B. Mitchell