Answers to your parenting questions.
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.
“The Meetings of the Moms”
The day my mother met my birth mother.
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.
“A Love We Never Expected”
When we first considered adoption, my husband and I discussed how much contact we were willing to have with the birth mother. We didn’t realize how close we’d become to the whole birth family.
“Paying My Respects to My Son’s Birth Mother”
Our son came to us from foster care, in a closed adoption. So how did I find myself walking through the doors of a dark funeral home, preparing to introduce myself to his other family?
“Falling in Love with Adoption”
Although my family’s story is a journey still in progress, I’ve discovered a way to feel complete.
Explaining Different Levels of Birth Mother Contact to Kids
We know very little about our nine-year-old’s birth mom, but her younger brother talks to his. How can we help her?
“When My Birth Mom Was an Astronaut”
I looked for my birth mother everywhere. For a little while, I found her on the Space Shuttle.
“Unexpected Contact with Our Child’s Birth Mother”
We hadn’t planned on an open adoption. But when my daughter’s birth mother requested a letter, how could I say no?
Double The Love — Anaïs & Sam
A set of identical twins who were separated at birth and adopted by different families — not to be reunited until age 27.
“Our Canadian-Colombian Family Reunion”
After returning from a trip to my son’s birth country, my heart — and journal — was overflowing.
“Getting to Meet Her Birth Mother”
A daughter — and her mother — look forward to a very special family reunion.
“Families Without Borders”
To honor their son Tristan’s birth family, a Canadian family initiated a long-distance relationship. Now, they’re taking him to Colombia to meet them.
Ask AF: Building a Relationship With Birth Siblings
Answers to your parenting questions.
“A Complicated Privilege”
Was hiring someone to search for our daughter’s Guatemalan birth mother the right thing to do? We decided we had no choice but to try to meet her.
“Our Kids Are All Right”: Birth Siblings in Open Adoption
Was moving from a semi-open adoption to a fully open one, with visits, the right decision for my birth son and for the daughter I was raising?
“Blood Doesn’t Mean Family”
After reuniting with my birth family and studying in my birth country, I felt closer to my adoptive family than ever.