On my post, Negotiating Contact with Birthfamily after Adoption, John posted the following comment:

In older child adoption you get some family tree info buried in the record. If you want contact with the birthfamily you can use the phone to try a 411 call to that name in that city. A thought for families doing infant adoption where it will be closed or almost closed. Ask the birthmother for family tree information, this will give the child... more

As we continue this series on open adoption, we will focus on the varying levels of openness and the pros and cons for each member of the adoption triad. We will start with closed adoption and work our way through the continuum.

In a closed adoption, there is no contact whatsoever between the birthmother and adoptive family. Closed adoptions were the norm for a very long time, so the general public tends to expect adoptions to be closed.

I want to add my disclaimer again – This list is assuming... more

I found an interesting page that lays out the pros/cons of closed, semi-open, and open adoptions. Here's the link to the pros. Here's the link to the cons.

For all intents and purposes the vast majority of international adoptions are closed. Ours is, at least for now. We're debating whether or not to make birthparent contact (it's a debate because Little J was removed from custody and not vountarily relinquished). I think we'll end up contacting her, but we're... more