Joan McNamara

Joan McNamara, M.S., has been immersed in adoption for almost four decades as an adoptive parent, advocate and activist, and professional. Her research, training, and publications have been recognized and used widely in the US, Canada, the UK, and elsewhere around the world. But she says that it has been personal experiences with children in her own family and other families that have provided her with unique insights into some of the issues and thoughts of children coming from orphanages and foster care. Eleven of the thirteen children she and her husband Bernie have parented (now all adults) came into their family through adoption and foster care, many internationally.

Joan is now Education Coordinator for Carolina Adoption Services, Greensboro, N.C., and also founded and is Coordinator for the Home Again program at Carolina Adoption Services, currently the only organized program to assist children and families in crisis facing possible disruption of an international adoption. In addition, she is a member of the Education Committee of the Joint Council for International Children’s Services.

Although there has been much written about international adoption for adults, there is far less from the perspectives of the children themselves, and no widely available materials for children related to Eastern European adoptions. Joan McNamara saw a need that desperately needed to be filled, and Borya and the Burps is her joyful and innovative contribution to the field, a loving gift to children from Eastern Europe and their new families

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