Transracial adoption questions

penguincrazy

Can those of you with more experience than me please recommend books, websites, blogs, whatever that you found particularly helpful in understanding and bonding with your transracial child(ren)?  We are pursuing adoption from Africa, and I want to be as prepared as possible.  TIA

MayDayGirl

I loved the book "I'm chocolate, you're vanilla".  it was very very insightful.

MayDayGirl

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CaptainSerious

I didn't read things specifically geared towards bonding with transracial children, but I did read a lot about how much they are losing not just culturally, but in sights, sounds, smells, everything familiar.  "With Eyes Wide Open" was particularly good at bringing this message home, and it works with most older child adoptions, I think, and not just international adoptions (https://www.adoptionlearningpartners.org/catalog/courses/with-eyes-wide-open.cfm).  We also learned all we could about their native culture, and try to incorporate that into our regular lives.

That being said, I do have I'm Chocolate, Your Vanilla, and have read a variety of other stuff on the Internet addressing this issue. 

stine_white

Our agency suggested Dim Sum, Bagles, and Grits.  I enjoyed it, but as we have not adopted yet, cannot tell you how useful it might be.  I also read it from the perspective that my husband would be the same ethnicity as the child since we are planning on adopting a child from his country.