With about 70,000 domestic and international adoptions each year in the United States and Canada, adoption remains a major means of building families in both countries. Its continued success can be inferred not only from the yearly statistics, but from a report issued in 2003 by the U.S. Census Bureau announcing the existence of 1.6 million adopted children in the United States under the age of 18. Written by a former social worker who has placed hundreds of children in foster and adoptive homes and a clinical psychologist who has counseled adopted children and parents, this book offers a comprehensive look at the adoption process. This guide provides prospective adoptive parents with the insider information that they need to navigate the process, and it provides students with the expert insight they need to grasp classroom theory. Highlights include: an insider's look at the home study process; advice on single-parent adoptions; advice on gay parent adoptions; advice on parenting adopted children; a look at adoption procedures in both the United States and Canada; information about international adoptions; and a directory of adoption agencies in the United States and Canada.