“How Our Family Approached Our Birth Parent Search”

Three families describe their relationships with their children's birth parents — deciding to keep in touch, searching for birth parents, and managing an already open adoption.

new mother talking to her father about open adoption as the new grandparents admire newborn baby

Helping Family Understand Open Adoption

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.

Finding Role Models of Your Child’s Race

Answers to your parenting questions.

I fit easily into motherhood, in the end.

“Missing My Mom as I Became a Mother”

After I lost my mother, parenting seemed too difficult to face. But her faith in me gave me the strength to push through.

“I Can’t Give My Daughter China. I Can Only Give Her Chinatown.”

Jin Yu is seven now, and lately she's been telling me she wants to go and visit her nannies, the women who cared for her at the orphanage in China. Not so much for herself, she says, but for them. Because she is sure they must miss her and wonder how she's doing. I promise we will try to go. "They are going to be so surprised!" she tells me.

Racial stereotypes are everywhere — but they can be overcome

Dealing with Stereotypes

When our children get hit with negative — or positive — labels, it robs them of who they really are.

Open adoption can create rewarding relationships for all parties

Open Adoption Over the Years

Parents involved in open adoptions speak honestly about working through challenges and keeping the relationship going through life changes.

Cover of Adopting: Sound Choices, Strong Families

[Book Review] Adopting: Sound Choices, Strong Families

In Adopting: Sound Choices, Strong Families, Patricia Irwin Johnston tackles the tough questions prospective parents must ask before deciding whether adoption is right for them. Read the full review, here.

group of adopted children of various races

Building Identity: “Who Can I Be?”

From workshops and playshops to heritage travel and adoptee camps — there are tons of way to teach your kid about their culture!

helping children explain open adoption to their peers

“I Have a Birth Mom, Too” – How Children Can Explain Open Adoption to Friends

Answers to your parenting questions.

Well-maintained hair is important for the racial identity of an African American child

“Braiding Barbara’s Hair”

As the white mother of an African American daughter, I learned more than I ever could've imagined about hair.

“Honoring My Ethiopian Daughters’ Heritage”

My daughters have caramel brown skin, dark brown eyes, and tightly curled black hair. They are African by birth, American by citizenship, but have always self-identified as Habesha (the Amharic word for Ethiopian).

Reflections on Raising Transracial Adoptees by Rhona Roorda

[Book Review] In Their Parents’ Voices: Reflections on Raising Transracial Adoptees

In this sequel to In Their Own Voices, by Rita J. Simon and Rhonda Roorda, we meet the parents of transracial adoptees, and hear firsthand what it was like raising children across racial and cultural lines.