RECOMMENDED
READS
Cathryn Vogeley
Author of the memoir
"I Need To Tell You"
RECOMMENDED READS
Cathryn Vogeley - Author of the memoir - "I Need To Tell You"
When women had no choice, their babies were given to strangers.
It’s 1968 and Cathryn Vogeley is eighteen, unmarried and pregnant. With a wedding no longer an option, she decides to put her baby girl up for adoption and never think about it again. Her decision shapes the rest of her life.
For decades Cathryn allows this choice to define her value as a woman, a wife, and a mother. In every relationship, in every hobby, she searches for something or someone to soothe the constant ache in her chest created by the loss of her infant daughter. Cathryn’s search for healing reveals that her grief is not only for the child she gave up, but the childhood she lost.
This beautifully-written memoir tells the haunting story of a woman who spends almost fifty years overcoming the consequences of one decision in order to find forgiveness, understanding, and peace.
BIO
Cathryn Vogeley lives with her husband and rescue terriers in Oregon, near Portland. She raised two daughters and is Nana to five lively grandchildren. Cathryn holds bachelor’s and master’s degrees in nursing as a clinical nurse specialist in wound care. She retired after forty-five years and discovered a passion for writing. Her book, I Need to Tell You, was published in May 2022 by WiDo Publishing and is available wherever books are sold including Amazon UK
Learn more about Cathryn at:
'This is Me' trilogy
for adult adoptees
'This is Me' - trilogy for adult adoptees by Fiona Myles
'The Flamingo Family'
book series for children
by Sarah McGeough
'The Flamingo Family' book series for children by Sarah McGeough
Sarah with her two books. Click here to buy or download her short stories.
or email me at: [email protected]
Adoption and Fostering Stories by Holly Marlow
Holly Marlow is a parent to biological and adopted children. Holly strives for a gentle/therapeutic parenting style and this has led her to create stories to help children to understand some of the emotional and practical complexities of foster care, kinship care and adoption. In addition to creating her own stories to help children, Holly has helped many adoptees to navigate the publishing process to share their stories, providing coaching, editing services and cover design for no payment, royalty or requirement to be credited in the book. Holly also provides talks to primary schools, to help children to learn about foster care, kinship care and adoption. Read more about Holly’s school visits at hollymarlow.com/events .
Holly enjoys spending time with her family, travelling (especially searching for chameleons, geckos and snakes in the wild parts of Africa) and learning foreign languages. Holly has fibromyalgia and has spent a lot of time trying to raise awareness of the chronic pain condition, giving presentations in schools and universities. Holly also enjoys baking and gardening, although she is terrible at both. For more please visit: https://hollymarlow.com
‘Delly Duck: Why a Little Chick Couldn’t Stay with his Birth Mother’ is Holly’s first book, usually used to explain why some children can’t stay with their birth families. A sibling group version is now available. “Delly Duck” came to life while Holly was having discussions with her daughter about adopting a younger sibling. Holly’s daughter asked a lot of questions about all aspects of the process, but the thing she really struggled with was the separation of a child from his or her mother. She rightly identified that this must be a difficult and distressing aspect of adoption, and couldn’t understand why a mother and child would or should ever be separated. Holly wanted to support this empathy towards the birth mother, while gently showing that the decision to remove a child from their mother would not have been taken lightly. Above all, Holly wanted to portray that all adults involved wanted the best for Little Chick, and that he is so very loved.
‘Room in the Nest’ is an inclusive foster care story to explain fostering, reunification, kinship care, adoption, long term foster care and the family court system. Holly wrote this story to help her son understand why some of the other children in his foster family were reunified with their families, and others ended up in kinship placements or long term foster care, whereas he was adopted. It also explains the role of the judge and social worker.
‘Adopting a Little Brother or Sister’ is a big sister’s guide to adoption for a child becoming a big sibling through adoption of a younger child or baby. This story talks about social worker visits and the introductions process with the foster family, as well as highlighting some of the frustrations a child may have with the process, (such as how slow it feels) and the things a young child may find fun about adopting (such as the child being already old enough to play, unlike a newborn).
‘So You’ve Adopted a Sibling’ is a story for after a new sibling has joined the family by adoption, and is often used when elder siblings (adoptive or biological, who were already in the family pre-placement,) are struggling with the emotions and changes to routine that children may experience in the early months as a big brother or sister.
‘Cousins by Adoption’ was created in response to requests for a cousin version of ‘Adopting a Little Brother or Sister,’ and is for prospective adopters to help explain the adoption process to nieces and nephews in a child-friendly way.