| Jayne Lilley
Published as part of the Our Story series, this is the true story of Jayne, Dan, their son Charlie, and their adoption of Jessie, a baby girl. Told by Jayne, this memoir follows the joyful highs and heartbreaking lows of the journey that led them to their new adopted daughter.
| Ruby Clay
Published as part of the Our Story series, this is the heart-warming story of Ruby and Gail and their belief in their potential to adopt. The story charts their journey to becoming parents to their three daughters and offers a glimpse of their family life over these extraordinary years, as their family grows together.
| Pablo Fernández
Published as part of the Our Story series, this is the story of Pablo and Mike, and their journey to becoming adopters. Set against a contemporary background of diverse perceptions - both encouraging as well as hostile - as to whether gay men should adopt, Pablo’s diarised narrative tracks this journey, from early challenges through to the positive affirmations they receive.
| Gordon and Jeannie Mackenzie
When Jeannie adopted Gordon, their new family would not be without its problems. Gordon was 10 years old, and had been living in a psychiatric hospital for three years, with undiagnosed mental health issues. Jeannie was adopting as a single parent, with all the challenges this can bring. In this moving account, published as part of the Our Story series, mother and son look back on how the adoption came to be, and how both their lives were changed for the better.
| Mike Butcher
What happens when IVF goes wrong? Published as part of the Our Story series, in Frozen Mike Butcher recounts his, and his wife Lesley’s, experience of undergoing IVF treatment. But when Lesley suffers a near-fatal reaction to the treatment, the couple’s lives and plans for a family are thrown into turmoil. After an escalating series of setbacks and heartache, Mike and Lesley are almost resigned to giving up their dreams of parenthood – until they pick up a flyer from a local adoption agency.
| Jules Belle
Published as part of the Our Story series, this is the story of how Daisy and her parents adopted Tom. Although written by her mother, it is really six-year-old Daisy’s adoption story - reflecting her feelings about the family's decision to adopt Tom, bringing them vividly to life.
| Helen Jayne
Published as part of the Our Story series, this is the story of Helen, a foster carer, and her family, and what happened when Dale joined their family as a foster child. But what was planned as a short-term foster placement soon became longer than expected, and inevitably the family grew attached to Dale, and he to them.
| Lorna Miles
This compelling story, published as part of the Our Story series, tracks Wayne’s journey from first being fostered by Lorna at the age of nine, in a therapeutic fostering placement, through nearly four years of family life. Wayne is traumatised by his early experiences of neglect and domestic abuse. Even when surrounded by a team of experienced foster carers, counsellors and therapists, helping him grow and heal will be a long and difficult process. But Lorna and her family are determined not to give up hope…
| Laurel Ashton
When Laurel and David decide the time is right to expand their family, things don’t go according to plan. Published as part of the Our Story series, this honest and heartfelt memoir narrates their struggle to become parents – coping with the discovery of their infertility, the emotional and physical demands of IVF, their experiments with alternative therapies, and their decision to adopt.
| Ruth and Ed Royce
Published as part of the Our Story series, this is the story of Ruth and Ed Royce’s journey from childlessness to celebrating as a family. From a dual perspective, each with their own anxieties, expectations and vulnerabilities, they look back on their decision to adopt, to the fear that their family was falling apart, to their experience of music and art therapy, and then on to their decision to adopt a second time.
