My son’s story started before I met him. His pre-adoption prologue is one I may never know. But of this I am sure: Mateo was born to be my son.
Ask AF: Who is My Daddy?
Answers to your parenting questions.
Video: Open Adoptee Experiences
In this open adoption video, teen and young adult adoptees who grew up knowing their birth parents share their thoughts and experiences.
“What Will This Baby Be Like?”
A mother shares the “new, unexpected, and amazing” attributes of her adopted son, of which no one talked about at the start of their adoption journey.
Positive Adoption Language
By using positive adoption language, we can educate others and help combat stereotypes about adoption.
For Adoptive Parents: Helping Adopted Teenagers Stand on Their Own
In the middle-school years, parents must step back and help their child learn to stand up for herself, in school and in the larger world.
Ask AF: Judgmental Questions About Adoption
Answers to your parenting questions.
Ask AF: Explaining Adoption and Divorce
Answers to your parenting questions.
Ask AF: Preschooler Grieving After a Failed Match
Answers to your parenting questions.
Nosy Questions, Little Ears
Ever since our children were babies, we’ve heard them, ignored them, and answered them. But how do we handle them in the preschool years?
“What Is Family?”
Being an adoptive parent begs the question, “what makes a family?” How I helped others to understand that my son by adoption is simply my son.
Ask AF: Assuming Friends Were Adopted
Answers to your parenting questions.
Ask AF: How Do We Tell Our Teen Tough Information?
Our daughter’s birth mother committed suicide several years ago. We’ve never told our daughter, who’s now 13 and in a rebellious phase. I just read something that said you should tell your children whatever you know about their adoptions before the teen years, but we can’t go back in time to do so. Should we tell her now, or wait until she’s older?
Ask AF: Validating a Child’s Past
Answers to your parenting questions.
“Talking About Adoption at Bedtime”
My daughter brings stuff up at bedtime. Most five-year-olds do; they don’t want to be left alone to sleep. She likes when I tell her stories in the dark and rub her back. Who wouldn’t like all that? Aside: bedtime can—if I let it—take forever.
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.
“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.
Documentaries About Adoption
These nonfiction films are sure to open up dialogues about the subjects’ experiences and your family’s story long after the last frame.
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.
“Journey to Calcutta”
Despite my parents’ urging, I had always rejected my Indian identity. At 21, I learned to embrace it.