“Micky Duxbury has written an interesting, up-to-date book
on the beauty and the complexity of families built through open adoption. She
has integrated the knowledge provided by other experts in the field with the
poignant stories of real families who have been living their open adoptions
over several years. This is a book well worth reading and owning; I highly
recommend it.”
— Sharon Roszia, co-author of The Open Adoption Experience and Program Manager, Special Needs Adoptions
for Kinship Center of Southern California.
“Open adoption is not a trend—it is the wave of the future.
Making Room in Our Hearts helps us prepare for that future by providing an
ethical and child-centered perspective as it puts a human face on open
adoption. You will meet real people revealing, as well as struggling with, the
ups and downs of these complex relationships. This book fills an important need
by providing adoption professionals, birth and adoptive families and their
extended familial networks with a wealth of practical and personal
information.”
— Brenda Romanchik, MSW, Open Adoption
educator, adoption educator and advocate, and Director of Insight: Open
Adoption Resources and Support
“Having been born under the closed adoption system some
forty-something years ago, it was a profoundly moving experience for me to read
about families—birth and adoptive families—who have come to embrace openness
for their children. I believe that the adoption community is moving in a brave
and important new direction, and that Micky Duxbury’s book will provide a vital
map for families and professionals alike. I am grateful for this work and only
wish that it had been the standard of practice while I was growing up.”
— Susan Ito, adult adoptee and co-editor of A Ghost At Heart’s Edge: Stories & Poems of
Adoption
“I have been anxiously awaiting the release of Making Room in Our Hearts, by Micky
Duxbury so that I could recommend it to every adopting family I have the
fortune of consulting with. Never has there been a volume so compassionate,
inspiring and informative about why child-centered, open adoption is the
correct paradigm for today’s adoptions. Ms. Duxbury understands that openness
in adoption is not a quantifiable obligation, but a quality that can be
cultivated to reside in the heart of family members touched by adoption.”
— Leslie Foge, MA, MFT, Adoption
Psychotherapist and Co-author of The
Third Choice: A Woman’s Guide for Placing a Child for Adoption.
“Making Room in Our Hearts is an authentic, inside account
of the open adoption experience. It offers an opportunity to listen in as the
participants of adoption describe the delights and challenges of their
journeys. Openness never shines brighter than when it is expressed in the
actual words of those who live it day in and day out.”
— James Gritter, author of The Spirit of Open Adoption, and The Lifegivers: Framing the Birth Parent
Experience in Adoption
“This is a wonderful book… and the author seems to have
complete control of this often-confusing area of relationships. The topic is
covered in a thorough as well as realistic fashion. Duxbury is a skilled writer
and has a very friendly writing style that should appeal to the reader….As
families become more and more “non-traditional” the notion of openness cannot
be stressed enough.”
–Jon Carlson, Psy.D., Ed.D., ABPP,
Distinguished Professor, Governors State University
“Micky Duxbury acknowledges fears about open adoption in her
newly released book, Making Room in Our Hearts.
For skeptical birth parents and adoptive parents, as well as for adoption
professionals, the book is a guide into uncharted waters. Duxbury relies on
over one hundred interviews, providing the experiences of veterans of open
adoption. Most freeing is the validation that there is no one right way to do
open adoption; each differs in degree of contact, intimacy and sharing between
the families. An open adoption that takes place without a roadmap may leave
everyone perplexed. Thankfully, Duxbury has written a roadmap at a time when
those on the open adoption journey need this valuable tool.”
— Mary Martin Mason in American Adoption
Congress’s Decree; Spring 2007
“Adoptive parent and therapist Micky Duxbury has produced a
“must-read” for anyone considering open adoption. Over 150 adoptees, birth and
adoptive parents, as well as grandparents who are participants in open adoption
– offer their personal stories, along with family photographs, in this readable
and well-researched book. Their voices are a genuine testimony to adoption that
focuses on the needs of children. “Making Room in Our Hearts” is an appropriate
title for a book that speaks with a loving spirit.”
— Judy Norris for PACER, summer 2007