How Do Birth Mothers Feel Seeing Pictures and Receiving Updates of Their Child How Do Birth Mothers Feel NOT Seeing Pictures and Receiving Updates of Their Child (next week) Open adoption has so many components to it, and if we are being honest, IT’S SCARY. While I can only imagine the fears and worries adoptive…
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I can’t tell you how many times someone has said to me “so you gave up your baby for adoption.” I really try to give most people the benefit of the doubt because, unfortunately, there is a huge lack of adoption education in the world. But this is probably one of the phrases that evokes…
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I was talking with someone about my adoption journey recently and I was stopped in my tracks by the question “do you think you have fully healed from your experience?” It was a question I had never been asked and quite frankly something I had never really thought about. It made me start to think…
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When we are making the decision to place our child for adoption, and quite frankly for years after, we are sometimes consumed with wondering what our child will think about us. Will they hate us for what we did? Will they recognize the difficulty of the decision we made? Will they be proud of us?…
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This seemingly simple question can actually be very complicated. Is there counseling available? Sure. No problem. Will it automatically be made available to you post-placement? Not necessarily. It all depends on three factors. First, who is handling your adoption? Is it your private family attorney? An agency? Someone else? One major thing an agency has…
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What if every year, at every celebration, there was something missing? What if no one knew you felt that way? What if what was missing was knowing where and how your child was? Children are not the only ones to think about birth parents. Birth parents also think about their children. Holidays and other celebrations…
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Adoptees have two sets of parents. This can be confusing to a young adoptee. An adoptive parent shares how her adopted son reacts to seeing pictures of his birth parents. At an early age, I introduced both of my kids to pictures of their birth parents. I talked about adoption at birth, but I held…
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You’ve just had a baby. You were expecting to look and feel like the celebrity moms that grace the covers of supermarket magazines—completely put together and blissfully serene. However, in reality, you feel that you are neither of these things. You don’t feel like yourself and you are having some feelings of moodiness or sadness.…
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After your baby arrives your body changes as it returns to your pre-pregnancy state. The bigger the baby, the tougher the recovery. Postpartum is from delivery to 6 weeks following delivery. But take heart—recovery after delivery won’t last forever! Physical Changes Bleeding and vaginal discharge (lochia) – Your body will continue to cleanse the uterus and…
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If you have made a private adoption plan prior to giving birth, the adoptive parents typically take the baby home directly from the hospital. In fact, as long as you agree, and your attorney or placing agency has made the arrangements, most hospitals will allow the adopting parents to visit with the baby as soon as the…
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When deciding to place a child with an adoptive family, there may be a lot of unanswered questions about what will it be like after the adoption. Here are some basic facts to give you an idea of what to expect. The biggest mystery of the adoption process for a birth mother may be what…
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Adoption is a complex topic, but it shouldn’t be overwhelming if you arm yourself with knowledge about the process and how to adopt, and the right adoption professional. Growing your family with adoption is a big undertaking. This is a chance to experience parenthood in a unique way, and start a family, maybe for the…
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At times, origin stories and adoption intertwine. My placed son, Cricket, has become very interested in origin stories. He shares with me a love of caped crusaders. His interest is particularly in how superheroes and villains came to be. Many include origin stories and adoption. He told me about some of the stories he has…
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Sometimes I feel like there is this underlying force in the adoption community. I hate that it is there. I do all I can to fight it. I do all I can to stay as far away from it as possible…but sometimes, it’s just there. I don’t know when, why, or how competition snuck it’s ugly…
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Five years ago, I was struggling to find my footing as a new, adoptive mother. My husband and I had just adopted our first child, and I was desperate to find support beyond just the adoption books and blogs I had been reading. I craved face-to-face interaction with women who understood what it is like…
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