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adoption conversation

The Continuing Adoption Conversation

Around age six or seven, children start to wonder, "Who am I?" This is when our children can truly understand that joining your family through adoption means they left another.

Adoption Experts answer your questions.

Ask AF: Sharing Negative Information

My nine-year-old daughter was adopted as an infant. She's been asking me about her birth parents, so I searched. I was devastated by the information I found, and have no idea when and how to reveal the details. Her birth mother died from complications due to alcoholism; her birth father has done time in prison and is now AWOL.

Deciding Where to Adopt From

“Choosing Which Country to Adopt From (Twice)”

Growing up in a mostly white, Midwestern town in the late 1970s and early 80s, watching reruns of The Donna Reed Show and Leave It to Beaver, I figured I would finish school, find a girl to marry, buy a little house with a white picket fence, and have a couple of kids who looked like me. This was the middle-class American dream, and at the time it never occurred to me that life would turn out any other way.

behavioral expectations

Setting Appropriate Behavioral Expectations

When younger children misbehave, they may not really know that they are misbehaving, and can be easily distracted or physically moved. But by age three to five, a child should be more aware of inappropriate behavior.

accuracy for adoptees act

Ensuring Accuracy for International Adoptees

In early 2014, President Obama signed into law the Accuracy for Adoptees act, which will help remove bureaucracy and red tape for individuals who were given inaccurate birth dates in their birth countries, and their adoptive families.

Chinese Heritage School

A Family Commitment”

In this personal essay, one adoptive mother describes how her family learns about her daughter's Chinese heritage at a school with other families.

A wedding cake split in half showing adoption and divorce

Adoption and Divorce

My husband and I are contemplating a divorce. Will our daughter's adoption status figure into the legal proceedings?

Adopting a child with anemia

Ask the Doctor: Anemia

Our medical expert explains symptoms, causes, and treatments that parents need to know when adopting a child with anemia.

A doctor with an adoption referral

Assessing a Referral

We've heard from our agency that we'll be receiving an adoption referral soon. What medical information will it contain, and how should we assess it?

Parents share how their families celebrate adoption day

Parent-To-Parent: Happy Adoption Day

Did you celebrate the day you met your child or his adoption finalization? Do you continue to mark that day every year? What do you call it? Members of our Facebook page shared their stories.

Adoption stories

Parent-to-Parent: Was It Fate?

On our Facebook page we asked readers: Adoption stories often involve serendipity. Please share any amazing coincidences that arose on your journey to family. Here are some of your responses

Sharing Your Decision to Adopt

Parent-To-Parent: Sharing Our News

On our Facebook page we asked readers: After you decided to adopt, who was the first person you told? What did he or she say? Here are some of your responses.

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