Before we launch into the various facets of open adoption, let’s start by talking about what one is. Imagine that you have a continuum of adoption openness. On the far left, you have a completely closed adoption. The adoptive parents have absolutely no information about the birthfamily. It is like the child appeared at the adoption agency, bringing along no history whatsoever. On the far right of the continuum, you have a completely open adoption where the birthfamily is actively involved in the... more

As you can see from the past couple of blogs, open adoptions are forging new frontiers that the English language has not yet adequately labeled. As open adoptions become more common, we will need to develop terminology that respectfully captures these new types of relationships.

For those of you who are hoping to adopt, some of these discussions might sound a bit confusing. I had never even heard of an open adoption when I started the adoption process. All that I knew about adoption came from watching TV... more

Storkmom, a member of the adoption.com forums, generously gave me permission to repost something she wrote a couple of weeks ago about her family's semi-open adoption experience. Part 1 of her story is here.

I think it's important to show all perspectives of adoption. What "open" means to one family is not the same as what "open" means to another. In this family's case, the adoption is semi-open, chosen by Storkmom's son's birthmother. I find it interesting that... more

Storkmom, a member of the adoption.com forums, generously gave me permission to repost something she wrote a couple of weeks ago about her family's semi-open adoption experience.

I think it's important to show all perspectives of adoption. What "open" means to one family is not the same as what "open" means to another. In this family's case, the adoption is semi-open, chosen by Storkmom's son's birthmother. Here's her story:

>We were married about 10 years before we were able to finally pursue adoption. All our friends/family who have... 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