There are many adoption choices you will be asked to make during your pregnancy. Once you start your adoption plan, you will need to choose an adoptive family, decide how much contact you want with them during your pregnancy and if you want to maintain contact after you place your child into his/her new home. Unless a court has…
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In most domestic adoption situations, if you want, you can choose the adoptive parent(s). This may be done through reviewing adoptive parent(s) profiles at an adoption agency or with an attorney (where allowed), looking for an adoptive family on the Internet or by asking everyone you know (“word of mouth”) if they know anyone who wants to adopt. Through…
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A common question among prospective adoptive parents revolves around a name change. Should the adopted child’s name be changed? Modified? Or should it remain the same with the exception of the last name? Factors to consider when making a name change in adoption: 1. Safety There are many factors to consider when making a naming decision.…
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Does placing my baby for adoption make me a bad person? When I was making the decision whether or not to place my baby for adoption, I struggled with this same question. Unfortunately, there is a lot of shame placed on women experiencing an unplanned pregnancy. Birth moms are oftentimes thought of as irresponsible and…
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Adoption In One Word (hint… it’s love) Whether you are considering adoption for your baby, thinking about building your family through adoption, have already placed your child for adoption or have adopted one or more children, you are familiar with all the words. You know all of these emotions, and may have even felt them…
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The relationship between adoptive parents and birth parents can be very difficult to navigate. Although both sets of parents are going through this journey together, they come from different perspectives. Finding common ground can help break down barriers and provide a better understanding of each other’s experiences. We spoke with mothers who placed with Adoption…
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“There is nothing more powerful or radical or stunningly beautiful than a woman who chooses to rebuild her life day after day. No matter how many pieces there are to pick up or how many mistakes she must spin into gold.” – Carol Alwill Leyba Placing a child is life changing in a number of…
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We held up our end of the deal, but you aren’t holding up yours. Maybe you are busy, maybe you forgot about us, or maybe it isn’t a priority. But we haven’t forgotten. We don’t want to bother you so we don’t ask. Or we have asked so many times without getting anything that we…
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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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