Catholic Resources on Extreme Parenting (Special Needs, Adoption, Fostering, and More!)

My request for Catholic online and print resources on extreme parenting circumstances got an amazing response, so I'd like to share it with you. There's more on adoption than I thought, including an excellent new resource scheduled to be released by Pauline Books in 2015 (huge shout-out to author Jaymie Stuart Wolfe and the sisters at Pauline). But there's much less on fostering and step-parenting than I was hoping to find.

Please, please, please if you have more to add to the list, respond in the comments or by email to santoskaree@gmail.com. It's so important to support parents taking on this holy but often incredibly arduous work.

Adoption

• Adoption: Room for One More?, by Jaymie Stuart Wolfe (forthcoming from Pauline Books in 2015)

• Adoption: Choosing It, Living It, Loving It, by Dr. Ray Guarendi (St. Anthony Messenger, 2009)

• Longing to Love: A Memoir of Desire, Relationships, and Spiritual Transformation, by Tim Muldoon (Loyola Press, 2010)

• While We Wait: Spiritual and Practical Advice for Those Trying to Adopt, by Heidi Schlumpf (ACTA Publications, 2009)

• Little Lucy's Family: A Story About Adoption, by Eleanor Gormally (ACTA Publications, 2008) (for children)

Special Needs

• Faith, Family, and Children with Special Needs: How Catholic Parents and Their Kids with Special Needs Can Develop a Richer Spiritual Life, by David Rizzo (Loyola Press, 2012)

• A Special Mother is Born, by Leticia Velasquez (WestBow Press, 2011)

• Ha Nacido Una Madre Especial, by Leticia Velasquez (Ediciones Rialp, 2013)

• Be Not Afraid: peer-based support to parents experiencing a prenatal diagnosis and carrying to term, www.benotafraid.net

• National Catholic Partnership on Disability, www.ncpd.org (includes resources on sacramental preparation for special-needs children)

• www.specialkids4specialdads.com by David Leis, father and grandfather to special needs kids

Big Families

• Big Hearted: Inspiring Stories from Everyday Families, ed. by Theresa Thomas & Patti Armstrong, eds. (Scepter Publishers, 2013)

• Table for Eight: Raising a large family in a small-family world, by Meagan Francis (Penguin Group, 2007)

Fostering

• Helpful Sites for Families with Struggling Kids at A Mother on the Road Less Traveled, by Heidi Hess Saxton, https://heidihesssaxton.wordpress.com/the-emn-blogroll-other-helpful-sites/ (also includes other extreme parenting resources)

Step-Parenting

• Resources for Catholic Step Parents and Blended Families at CatholicMom.com:  http://catholicmom.com/family/step-parents-and-blended-families/