A Practical Guide to Transracial Adoption: Practical Guide to Transracial Adoption

by Isaac Etter, Identity Learning

Transracial adoption is a complex & difficult journey for parents, adopted children, and their siblings. Parents are confused about the specific steps they need to take to help their child grow up in their identity. They’re not sure what conversations to have with their children about race, culture, and adoption. In A Practical Guide to Transracial Adoption , you’ll What actions and conversations to have with your child at each stage to help them thrive! This book will be your foundation as you live out this exciting, scary, life-changing journey of building a thriving transracial family. Here’s how to make the most of You don’t have to go it alone anymore. You can parent your child with confidence, knowing you're doing it right. You've got this!

50 pages, Paperback

Published November 13, 2022

Reviews

[Heather]

I loved how no-nonsense and easy to follow this was. The quiz at the beginning with questions that parents can ask themselves before adopting is great for conversation starters- I know it was helpful for Bran and me! This was also the first adoption resource I've read that really laid out more about prejudice and educated readers more about implicit/explicit bias.

Hearing Isaac's story, along with reading what his adoptive parents did right for him as well as what they could have done better was well-balanced. The encouragement at the end and his mother sharing thoughts were powerful too. The raw conversation of "When will you get it? You will never push us away, no matter what you do..." had me very emotional. How vulnerable it is to acknowledge that many adoptees will stop at nothing to get their parents to prove that they will abandon them too, when they really just want to be able to trust that they'll always be in their corner. While unconditional love doesn't magically fix everything, it is the path to healing.

I particularly loved how Issac broke down the question of "what are the best things you can do for a transracial child at every age?" I haven't come across a list like that in any of the other transracial adoption books I've read, so that was much appreciated.

Overall, this is certainly more of a long pamphlet than a full-length resource book. I would have loved a little more elaboration - especially with the practical tips for parents. But I recognize that the shorter nature makes this more approachable for many parents, and that's awesome!

P.S. I bookmarked page 47 with the ways parents can frame conversations with their kids. Ex.: "Some people may make judgments or make comments to you because of your skin color. We don't believe that's right. But when that happens, you can tell me about it."