Your family — especially older relatives — may not get why you are choosing an open adoption. Adoption expert Kathleen Silber gives advice on what to say.
Open Adoption Over the Years
Parents involved in open adoptions speak honestly about working through challenges and keeping the relationship going through life changes.
“I Have a Birth Mom, Too” – How Children Can Explain Open Adoption to Friends
Answers to your parenting questions.
Ask AF: Bringing Birth Fathers Into the Adoption Conversation
Answers to your parenting questions.
Breaking Bad News: “I Have Something to Tell You”
How do you break bad news about job loss, illness, or divorce to the birth parents in an open adoption relationship?
Not Open Adoption, Just Adoption
Practices once confined to open adoption are quickly becoming the norm. When will the language catch up?
“Our Son’s Birth Mother Is Having a Baby!”
Our youngest son’s birth mother is having a baby. How will all of our kids relate to this new birth sibling?
“Finding Her Birth Mother, A World Apart”
Opening our daughter’s international adoption has allowed her to ask questions and receive answers, brought her birth mother a sense of peace from knowing that her child is alive, well, and happy, and given us the unforgettable privilege of personally thanking our child’s birth mother.
Ask AF: Considering Open Adoption
Answers to your parenting questions.
“Visiting My Daughter’s Birth Mother”
Taking my daughter to visit her birth mother, I found that, while shared genes make them alike in some ways, it’s shared experiences that make us family.
“Open Adoption Works for Us”
From a rocky start, we’ve built a relationship with our children’s birth families that has enriched their lives, and ours.
When Your Child Has Birth Siblings
Parents who know that one child was placed for adoption while a sibling was not may wonder how to explain it in a way their child can understand.
When a Birth Parent Moves On
It’s not that she doesn’t care, it’s that life takes twists and turns.
The Open Adoption Family Dynamic
As more of us live with open adoption, we’re seeing how it plays out in daily life — and bumping into some unanticipated wrinkles.
Dear Birth Mother
You’ve agreed to provide updates to your baby’s birth mother. But now that your baby is home, what information do you share?
Ask AF: Contacting a Birth Mother
A parent asks whether contacting her child’s birth mother while the child is still a preteen is a good idea. Read Ronny Diamond’s response.
Ask AF: Writing to a Birth Father
Answers to your parenting questions.
Ask AF: Uncomfortable Level of Contact with Birth Family
Answers to your parenting questions.
Ask AF: Ending the Comparison
An adoptive parent asks about a birth mother continuously pointing out physical resemblances, and wonders how to smooth out an open adoption arrangement. Read Joyce Maguire Pavao, Ed.D.’s response.
Ask AF: Children Separated by a Fost/Adopt
A mother wonders how much contact is best for her son and his biological siblings. Jayne Schooler weighs in.