Patty Cogen

Hi, I'm Patty Cogen, the author of Parenting Your Internationally Adopted Child--from your first moments together through the teen years.

I grew up in Los Angeles and by the time I was 30 years old I had lived on the West, East and Gulf coasts. I ultimately moved back to the west coast where I met my husband, Larry. We started our family with Robin, a son. When he was four years old, Robin asked me to adopted a sister for him and eventually, we did adopted Sun-Jia, from China. Because of a series of adoption "miscarriages", our children are nine years apart. I often say I have two "only" children. We all live in Seattle, Washington.

Having one birthed and one adopted child has given me a unique perspective on mothering and child-rearing.

There was so much I wanted to put into my book, but the publisher said, "that's enough!" So more of my thoughts can be found on my website: www.pattycogenparenting.info

I know most people who pick up my book are going to be new or first time parents with young children, but I encourage you to read the book even if your children are older. I spent a lot of time developing the information about pre-teens and teens to help with those two challenging periods of parenting.

Teens have so much on their plates to begin with; and being adopted makes a life even more complicated. My daughter joined an Asian leadership group and was the only adopted teen, the only teen with white parents. Where does an internationally adopted teen really fit in? On the other hand, Sun-Jia was delighted to find other kids who didn't use napkins (not popular in China) and who loved noodles as much as she did.

I hope you find my book useful. I wrote it as if I were talking to you while we shared a pot of tea in your living room (or in my den). People who have read the book say the book sounds just like me, which is wonderful to hear.

If you have questions or topics you like more information on, e-mail me. I might just write a short essay and post it on my website as an answer.

Warm regards,

Patty