In this open adoption video, teen and young adult adoptees who grew up knowing their birth parents share their thoughts and experiences.
Questions About Birth Siblings
Don’t be surprised if your child wants to know about his birth brothers and sisters. Such questions are healthy — and normal.
Ask AF: Different Levels of Contact
Our six-year-old son has contact with his birth family. our four-year-old daughter was abandoned at the hospital at birth. After a recent meeting with our son’s birth family, our daughter asked when she can meet her birth family. Should we stop taking her with us on these visits? Is it just confusing her?
Ask AF: Acting Out After Birth Mother Visits
Answers to your parenting questions.
Ask AF: When Contact Seems Risky
Answers to your parenting questions.
Ask AF: Writing to an Unknown Birth Mother
Answers to your parenting questions.
Ask AF: Talking About and Getting to Know Birth Siblings
My 11-year-old has two younger birth siblings who were adopted by another family. That family recently moved into our community. My son often asks if he has siblings. I have not told him yes or no yet, and now it’s so late.
Summer Reading 2015
Everyone touched by adoption should check out these powerful memoirs, by a birth mother and an adoptee.
“Many Kinds of Love”
Being adopted, I have found, means being familiar with many different kinds of love, many varieties of connection. It’s a roller-coaster of sorts. There’s an immense amount of gratitude; yet an overarching sense of loss persists, and permeates every interaction, every decision, and every relationship.
Keeping an Adoption Open Despite Challenges
Five moms candidly reveal how they’re honoring their commitment to openness when their child’s birth parent struggles with substance abuse, mental illness, or is experiencing crisis.
“Music in His Genes”
My son craves the comfort of music the way other kids his age rely on their blankets.
“The Meetings of the Moms”
The day my mother met my birth mother.
“We Always Called You Jason”
Fantasizing about my birth parents, I never dreamed my strongest link to the past would be through a flinty grandmother.
“Our Relationship with Our Child’s Birth Mother”
Getting to know our daughter’s birth mother was a tremendous blessing.
“Open Minds, Open Hearts”
Five years ago, my husband Pat and I knew nothing about open adoption. Today, we are staunch advocates of it and the very proud parents of two beautiful children who came home to us through open adoption. The journey to our children and to lovingly accept open adoption, however, was not an easy one. We learned that having an open mind was the key to having an open heart.
Ask AF: Should We Try for the Same Level of Openness?
Answers to your parenting questions.
Ask AF: Information in a Closed Adoption
Answers to your parenting questions.
Ask AF: How Do I Set Boundaries With My Child’s Birth Family?
Answers to your parenting questions.
Ask AF: When a Teen Wants to Know Both Birth Parents
Q: My 14-year-old knows her birth mother, but her birth father never wanted to be a part of her life, and is currently incarcerated. She wrote him a letter several months ago and didn’t get a response, and has been struggling with this. Her older brother has good relationships with both of his birth parents, which I believe makes it harder for her.
“I Have Four Moms”
For many parents who adopted children internationally, a birth mother relationship is uncharted territory.