About the Book In this touching memoir, Louise DeStefano explores how difficult it was to grow up without a stable home. She was shifted from one foster home to another while enduring abuse along the way. She always longed for the love of her mother. She wishes to share how the foster system failed her and her sister. Louise DeStefano also wants others who have been raised by loving parents to see how blessed they are by God. About the Author Louise DeStefano was born in 1946 in Bayshore, New York, and she currently resides in Aquebogue, New York. She wanted to be a secretary ever since the age of four, which she did accomplish. She is currently retired and enjoys making crafts and designing pictures, both of which are displayed on Etsy. Her family is the most important thing in her life. She has seven children, twenty-two grandchildren, and five great-grandchildren, all of which are her reason for living. She is involved in the Community Baptist Church not too far from her home that she attends twice a week.

This scrapbook is especially designed for children to help them to remember their unique and sometimes complicated journeys through life. Scrapbooking provides an outlet of expression that may not be available in any other form. Families get involved and show their children how much they love them by helping them fill in the pages of this book. Author Karen Jean Matsko Hood has written My Holiday Memory Scrapbook for Foster Kids to keep those special memories, reflections, and thoughts in a safe place for your child. Help them fill it with photographs, memoirs, stickers, and awards to complete the book of memories that will be treasured for life. As they grow and add more to their scrapbook, you, along with the rest of the family, will spend hours browsing through the scrapbook and remembering all of those special times together.

In three previous books, through a selection of prose poems, the author shared bits and pieces of a life, one comprised of complete abandonment by a mother and the disconnected roles played by extended family members, a life that eventually led to being placed in foster care. Now, for the first time, with In the Care of Strangers, he tells the entire story of what such a life was actually like. In this five-part memoir, dependent on the seven deadly sins, the author tries to reconstruct a painful journey of coming of age under the literal care of strangers and the individuals that made up the foster homes and hospitals that would help to shape a young man’s life, certainly a difficult life, riddled with abuse from the start (Malice) and ending with greed and envy in a fourth and final home. He finds and develops pride in himself while recuperating from a paralysis. How this young man attempts to survive the experiences of foster care while also having to contend with a disability, and still managing to try to simply achieve graduation from high school, with a goal toward college, is a testament to a human spirit beyond measure. This riveting story, told through an innocent, almost childlike voice of a boy shocked into care, then as an older man who has come to terms with his situation (The Unclaimed), and finally through the poetry, should be taken as an inspiration for many.

This scrapbook is especially designed for foster children to help them to remember their unique and sometimes complicated journeys through life. Scrapbooking provides an outlet of expression that may not be available in any other form. Families get involved and show their foster children how much they love them by helping them fill in the pages of this book. Author Karen Jean Matsko Hood has written My Special Care Scrapbook for Foster Children to keep those special memories, reflections, and thoughts in a safe place for your foster child. Help them fill it with photographs, memoirs, stickers, and awards to complete the book of memories that will be treasured for life. You can even add any information to this scrapbook that you may obtain prior to your child’s adoption so that they know more of the special people who cared for them while they are in foster care. The author has first hand experience raising foster children and she knows how

Adoption and foster care is a new and burgeoning area of historical and interdisciplinary research. Too often, however, birth parents, adoptive parents, foster parents, social workers, and the children themselves have either been ignored or demonized. This comprehensive introductory resource provides an authoritative, yet accessible, examination of adoption and foster care as it has been practiced in the United States. Within the pages of this volume, the reader will find a complete view of the many individuals and groups involved, as well as a thorough understanding of the various social and economic forces that have contributed to the perceptions of what children are in need of care. Also discussed is the role of orphanages, once the primary institution for children without parents as well as a stopgap measure for poor children needing temporary care. Divided into three major sections, original essays review the practice of adoption, orphanage placement and foster care from the colonial period to the present day. Selected primary documents, including materials by children, as well as an in-depth bibliographic section, provide crucial information and insight for high school and college students. Social workers, journalists, and others will also find much value in this historical overview and guide. Contributors include Elizabeth Bartholet, Marilyn Irvin Holt, Martha Satz, and Claudia Nelson. Adoption and foster care is a new and burgeoning area of historical and interdisciplinary research. Too often, however, birth parents, adoptive parents and foster parents, social workers, and the children themselves have been either ignored or demonized. This authoritative and accessible work is the first comprehensive introductory resource that gives a fuller portrait of the many individuals and groups that have contributed to the perceptions of what children are in need of care. Also discussed is the role of orphanages, the primary institution for children without parents as well as a stopgap measure for poor children needing temporary care. Divided into three sections, original essays review the practice of adoption, orphanage placement, and foster care from the colonial period to the present day. Selected primary documents, including materials by children, as well as an in-depth bibliography section, provide crucial information and insight for high school and college students. Social workers, journalists, and others will also find much value in this historical overview and guide. Star contributors include Elizabeth Bartholet, Marilyn Irvin Holt, Martha Satz, and Claudia Nelson.

"A child never perceives the thought of life without parents, and when it does happen, it can shatter the child's heart and tear down any sense of security. Children in this situation are forced to either die in the tragedy or find a way to live and survive it. I set out to survive..." "Pieces of the Pearl: Memoirs of a Foster Child's Triumphant Transformation" tells the true-life story of Teresa Ann Winton, who invites you to journey into the depths of her soul where a vulnerable and profoundly sad little girl once lived. Teresa's unstable home left her exposed to abuse, poverty, and neglect. Foster care, a system meant to help the helpless, brought even more trauma and loss. But in spite of it all, Teresa forged ahead, refusing to succumb to despair. In this poignant story, the author interlaces poetry and narrative, sharing her joys and sorrows, her triumphs and tears. "Pieces of the Pearl: Memoirs of a Foster Child's Triumphant Transformation" is a search for wholeness and reconciliation, one whose spiritual message of undying faith, hope, and love will leave readers inspired. A story like "Pieces of the Pearl" must be told. The teeming masses of humanity must be exposed to a true story of 'can do.' People must see real faith at worka "a faith that is not ignorant of the ugliness of man, but does not blame that ugliness on God. In the fires of tragedy, people of bitterness or heroism are born, and I am proud to say that I know this hero, Teresa Winton. a "Phil Arnold, Louisville, Kentucky"