Raising Other People's Children helps you navigate the complicated world of foster and step-parenting with better awareness and greater empathy, providing real-life solutions for forging strong relationships in extraordinary circumstances.
Drawing on Debbie Ausburn’s decades of experience with every facet of the foster care system,
Raising Other People's Children provides expert guidance viewed through the lens of real human interactions.
The responsibility and complexity involved in raising someone else’s child can seem overwhelming. Regardless of whether you’re a stepparent, foster parent or adoptive parent, it is on you to take on the challenge of caring for them, helping them to move forward while also meeting their unique emotional needs.
Easy-to-follow handbook for foster parents and stepparents to guide them through their new responsibilities and unique parental challenges.
Based on the experiences of a foster parent, stepparent, and attorney who advises youth-serving organizations, Raising Other People's Children highlights the unique issues one faces when taking care of non-biological children. Part parenting guide, part self-help, Raising Other People's Children navigates the complicated world of foster and step-parenting with great empathy, provides real-life solutions for forging strong relationships in extraordinary circumstances, and showcases how overcoming this incredible challenge can lead to incredible joy.
“
Raising Other People’s Children gives a practical perspective on the truth that beautiful relationships can be developed even when we’re not the people who are supposed to be there—because we are the people who
choose to be there.”
—Irene Clements, Executive Director, National Foster Parent Association
"As a Juvenile Court Judge, I often spoke to foster parents and stepparents about caring for other people’s children, yet I could not speak from experience. Debbie Ausburn speaks not only from experience but also from her heart as she provides wisdom and guidance on the challenges and the joys of
Raising Other People’s Children. This is a must-read for foster parents and parents of blended families.”
—Judge Juanita Stedman, Executive Director, Together Georgia
“This book is a compelling and candid look at the heroic challenges that foster parents accept, including the difficult job of supplementing, not replacing, biological parents. It is an eloquent account of how to provide love, support, and guidance to traumatized children, along with respecting and supporting their need to stay connected to their biological family.”
—Emily Acker, CEO, Hillside, Inc.
“It’s not an overstatement to say that
Raising Other People’s Children will save marriages and strengthen blended families. Debbie Ausburn’s stories bring a smile and her hard-won wisdom from her years as a social worker, probation officer, foster mother and stepmother will help anyone who’s trying to parent a child they didn’t bring into this world.”
—Rhonda Sciortino, author of
30 Days to Happiness 
