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Grief and loss are part of the life of young adoptees and children and youth in foster care. Professionals and parents offer insight, suggestions, and support to parents seeking ways to identify these issues, and talk to their children about them.

Continue reading Grief & Loss

Hello -
I am the adoptive mother of a beautiful son that I raised from birth he is now 24 years old. He wanted to meet his birthmother when the time was right. She died on Saturday of a massive heart attack and he never had a chance to meet her. He and I are both heart broken. Can you please suggest a book or article about how to deal with this type of grief.
Thank you.
Kathleen...son is Miles.

Kathleen, I'm so sorry to hear of your son's loss and yours too. Unfortunately, there really isn't a lot of resources out there on this specific topic. What I did find though were the following and hope it helps in some small way.

You might try Betty Jean Lifton's book on Journey of the Adopted Self, and another book called "Finding Your Way After Your Parent Dies", which has a small chapter on adoptees dealing with their parents dying. Not sure of the author of this one.

There is also an online Yahoo group that is a support group for this very situation, where people have searched for a member of their birth family only to find that they have passed on. This group can be found at http://health.groups.yahoo.com/grou...andLostSupport/ Because they have personal experience with it, they might be a huge source of support and also know of other books/articles to suggest.

Again, I'm sorry for your family's loss.