Wednesday, November 19, 2003
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Wednesday, November 19, 2003 |
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Local author’s novel helps prospective adoptive parents By MICHAEL BOYLAN When Ines Arnsberger Hatch and her husband, Robert, decided to begin the process to adopt a child, Ines began an extended period of research. The more she read, the same things kept popping up over and over again and as her adoption process started, she found there was nothing in these books to prepare her for the emotional roller-coaster she and her husband were enduring. She decided to write a book to fill that need and now, “The Adoption Eclipse: Choices County,” is now available to readers and is getting a good response. “The Adoption Eclipse: Choices Count” is written in novel form, but there is a lot of reference material in the book for both adoptive parents and biological parents to consider. The story is based on Hatch’s actual experiences and deal with not only the physical process of adoption but also the psychological challenges that both the adoptive parents and the birth mother faced. “There were no books out there about the personal aspect of adoption,” said Hatch, who wanted to detail the emotions involved on both sides of the issue. As she looked deeper and deeper into adoption, more questions arose. She found answers for herself, but wanted to give others that were going through the same process a chance to ask themselves the same questions. For instance, one of the first questions that needs to be answered is which type of adoption would be best. The three most common types of adoption are closed, in which the adoptive parents and the birth parents have no contact or knowledge of each other, semi-open, in which first names and medical history may be exchanged, but after the birth contact is very limited, or open, in which the birth parents still have contact with the child. After the book ends, there are more questions as well as appendixes and resources for adoptive parents to look into. The Hatches have adopted two children and the process to adopt the children were both extremely different. The first adoption only took three months, which is extremely rare, while the second adoption took closer to 13 months. They hired an adoption attorney, which is an option that more and more adoptive parents are choosing these days. An adoption attorney walks adoptive parents though the process and helps them avoid legal problems, which can vary state to state. “Adoption is a very specialized field,” said Hatch. “We felt it was important to have someone who knew the process and could dot the i’s and cross the t’s.” Another important reason to have an adoption attorney, especially if one is not going through an agency, is that all monies must go through the attorney. This is to avoid baby selling, or rather, adoptive parents offering money to the birth mother to guarantee the adoption. “The Adoption Eclipse: Choices Count” was a way for Hatch to share what she had learned during the adoption process, which she admits can be very overwhelming. Since the book has been published, she has found so many connections to both people who have been adopted or have adopted children. Writing the book has also inspired Hatch to write another book, a prequel of sorts, called “Marsha’s Song,” which is due out sometime next year. “I learned something new every day during the writing process and got better each day,” said Hatch, who hopes that readers will also learn something with this book and that their adoption process will go smoother because of it. “The Adoption Eclipse: Choices Count” is available at Berea Christian Bookstore, Omega Books, Amazon.com, Tapestrybooks.com and www.penmanpub.com.
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