Thesis Structure

It's been a while since the last time I posted but it doesn't mean I haven't been working on my thesis. In the past couple of months, I've been working with my one on one directed studies advisor. He is great and had kept me focus and well organized. Here are some graphs of what I've accomplished upon working with my advisor. 

Book

When I started my research, looking for a book about older child adoption was not easy. At that time the most recent one that I found was published seven years ago. I did another search today and found another one that was published in 2009. Other than those two, most books were about adoption in general and adopting child with special needs which only a small section talks about older children. I think bridging this gap can help those who are going through the process of adopting an older child and open up other people’s mind about adopting an older child.

Another issue that I had was most of the books contained either negative information about all the problems these kids could have or assurances that all the normal adjustments and issues would go away.

I’m sure I am not the only one who came across these issues and I think addressing these by having a book that is up to date and contains accurate information can help those who are thinking about adopting, going through the process and have adopted an older child.

I'm still not sure how to do this. The full contents? How to break it down? Should it be a series of books? Originally I thought of creating 3 books; Pre-adoption, Post-adoption and a resource book. But the more I think about it, it seems like it will make more sense if the resource list will be at the end of these books. Maybe there will only be one book that is mainly divided in three sections and then a second book that is more geared towards the family members or friends of adoptive parent/s.



BOOK CONTENT (draft v1)
Part I
I. Making the decision

  a. Why do I want to adopt?

  b. Who is making the decision with me?

  c. Why an older child?

      i. What ages am I open to adopt?

      ii. How many children do I want to adopt?

  d. Does race or ethnicity matter?

  e. How ready am I?

      i. What are my expectations?

      ii. What I should expect instead?

Part II

II. The Process 

  a. Who should I go to? (adoption agencies and government organizations) 

  b. How long is the process? 

  c. What is the average cost of adopting an older child? 

  d. The Referral 

      i. Learning about a child’s past and present 

          1. Background 

          2. Health 

          3. Personality and behavior 

      ii. Does it feel right? (Is it okay to turn a referral down?) 

  e. Being matched with YOUR child 

      i. Finalizing the adoption 

      ii. Getting to know your child 

          1. First encounter 

          2. More than documents and records 

      iii. Waiting 

          1. What can I do while waiting? 

               a. Preparations 

                    i. Family, relatives and friends 

                    ii. Your home 

Name and Graphic Mark

THE NAME DOCK

When I presented my thesis topic to the midpoint committee it was called, Finding Home: The Truth About Older Child Adoption. At first I did not have any problems with it because it was straight-forward, I thought it worked pretty well. Later I realized that it was bland, perhaps too straight-forward and it is not memorable. I also received a comment that the subtitle, “The Truth About Older Child Adoption” sounded more like “The Truth About Used Cars”.

I had to think of a new name. I did not want any negative connotations on my thesis’ name. I wanted it to be creative and memorable. I hoped to find a word that I can give a new important meaning, something that will not be lost in the clutter.

I started with the obvious, I listed words that are related to adoption, foster care, family, home, love, search, etc. and then the word dock came out of my list and caught my attention. Dock? Sailing, boats, water, harbor? It is not a word that is usually linked to adoption, family and not even children. Dock is commonly defined as a pier landing or a platform used by vehicles for loading and unloading. As a verb it is defined as a place to join or to connect. To me it all made sense. To me, dock is the end of a journey and start of a new one.

(to be continued…)

GRAPHIC MARK

Initial Sketches

Architecture

Final