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The Choice of a Lifetime is a comprehensive guide for adoptive and foster parents that applies Dr. Weir’s expertise as a marriage and family therapist and director of the Whole Family Theraplay project in California. Dr. Weir provides a brief, insightful history on how adoption has changed in the last quarter century, with commentary on the dramatic rise of open, transracial, older-age, and special-needs adoptions. He explains how the Adoption and Safe Families Act of 1997 has allowed for concurrent and permanency planning and provided financial incentives for parents adopting from 400,000 children currently in U.S. public care. Most important, Dr. Weir takes a first-of-its-kind look at seven critical predictors for an adopted child’s long-term development: age of placement, placement history, medical and special needs, parental care history, demographic variables, and developmental issues. By explaining how these circumstances affect a child’s ability to attach to caregivers, behave appropriately, and formulate an enduring self-identity, The Choice of a Lifetime offers adoptive parents a useful strategy for meeting the specific needs of the child.